I would like some resources on how to grow a business without losing
the culture or "feel" that was developed by the founder early on. The
company currently has around 5,000 employees, and is concerned that
growth with dilude the core values.

Anything from magazine articles to books (business and non-business)
would be appreciated. Thank you and feel free to contact me with any
questions.

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 13 Jun 2003 10:47 PDT

Could you say a little bit about the core values you wish to preserve?  Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by prolibertate-ga on 13 Jun 2003 11:44 PDT

The core values are mainly: Safety, Caring, Integrity, Fun, Passion 

its in an industry where there is little to no focus on customer
service or quality of service, and this company does an outstanding
job at customer both. The company is concered it will be hard to grow
and maintain the above attitudes, which lead to the deterioration of
excellent customer service and quality of service.

Here's an article that may interest you:

http://www.customer.com/ccgsite/pages/crm_soul.html

Very profound article - nice find Pink!

answerguru-ga

Here's a quiz that goes with the article I mentioned above:

http://www.customer.com/ccgsite/pages/soultest.html

<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=craigshomepage03&path=tg/detail/-/0060516402/qid%3D1055782459/sr%3D8-1">Built
to Last</A> is a great book about building visionary companies, that I
just finished, which covers exactly this topic... stimulating growth
while preserving core values of the company.  It is available
unabridged on audio book as well: <A
HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=craigshomepage03&path=tg/detail/-/0694514799/qid%3D1055782781/sr%3D8-1">Built
to Last - AudioBook</A>