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Cool Companies posted on October 29, 2007

Valuing employees and giving them big-time perks is a common thread of some of San Diego County’s coolest companies

Cool, excellent, bad to the bone, the bomb. Whatever term you want to use, these companies have it. But it’s not necessarily what you think. We’re not here to highlight dot-com playhouses with Nerf gun wars, daily War Craft tournaments and Top 40 tunes blasting. And we’re not giving mad props to companies that let their employees run amok in flip-flops, T-shirts and cut-off jean shorts. Instead, we’re recognizing the achievements of six companies that are cool because they’ve created interesting work environments, stellar benefits packages, hot products and services, and creative ways to thank and recognize employees. And these companies know that when employees’ noses are to the grind, they have to mix a little fun into the equation.

Story by | Jon Hindman
Photography by | Max Dolberg

According to Mindy Bortness, a local business coach who helps companies grow and profit and hire right, having a mix of the above qualities in a company makes perfect sense, especially when it comes to attraction and retention. Bortness, president and CEO of her own company, Communication Works, says, “The more you can be in touch with employees’ personal values, the better your chances of retention.”

It’s also important that companies pay attention to the types of environments in which their employees would like to work. As Bortness adds, “It’s been my experience that candidates ask for what motivates them.” These include financial security, health care and benefits, giving back to society, and a fun environment.

Most companies these days are putting together a mix of cool offerings, but obviously, what makes a law firm cool differs greatly from what makes an advertising firm cool. And, yes, believe it or not, a law firm did make the cut.

MoFo=MoFun
Morrison Foerster
www.mofo.com
No. 1 Cool Factor: Its nickname, MoFo, of course
Industry: Legal
Employees: 164 (in San Diego office)
Best Perk: On-site wellness room and fitness center

Just call Morrison Foerster the Samuel L. Jackson of law firms: With a nickname like MoFo, it can’t help being among the coolest companies in San Diego. Yet it’s about as anti–dot-com as it comes. After all, it is still a law firm, and most clients probably wouldn’t respond too well walking into an office where a top litigator is standing on a desk playing air guitar to a cranked up Guns & Roses song.

Still, the international firm, headquartered in San Francisco, believes that having fun and going out of the way for employees is of utmost importance. The firm has been recognized as Vault survey’s number one law firm for diversity, it won a Catalyst Award—presented to corporations and professional firms that demonstrate a commitment to the leadership development of female employees—and last year was the third time the firm made Fortune’s Best Companies To Work For list.

On a local level, MoFo’s commitment to being a cool company is astounding. The firm’s San Diego office is continually trying to propagate its cool factor, which it has done by building a wellness room and private fitness center that offer yoga and self-defense classes; bringing in a chair masseuse and providing breakfast on Fridays; free health care benefits; video conference meetings to reduce travel demands; and celebrations galore, including monthly birthday parties, complete with games and prizes.

When asked why MoFo is so employee-centric, Mark Zebrowski, managing partner of MoFo’s San Diego office, answers, “Our entire business is serving humans with hu-mans, so we need to keep our humans as happy and productive and dedicated as they can possibly be.” Plus, he adds, “It helps people get engaged in their work.”

That’s why the firm has a dedicated committee called MoFun, which not only organizes all the internal perks but also comes up with new ideas to keep the work environment fresh and interesting.

MoFo’s culture was created from the get-go when the firm’s local office opened more than seven years ago, and it might just be the coolest MoFo office in the world. Brian Behan, records supervisor for the local MoFo office, says that’s in large part related to “the San Diego culture that surrounds us. That allows us to have a relaxed atmosphere.”

But there are plenty of companies throughout the county that don’t take advantage of the surf and the sun, and Zebrowski admits that it has given the local office an edge up in attraction and retention. Since MoFo established a presence here, the office has grown to 70 attorneys and a total staff of 164, and turnover has been low. Clearly it pays to be as cool as a MoFo.

Lunch Is On Us
Gafcon Inc.
www.gafcon.com
No. 1 Cool Factor: Dedication to employees’ health and wellness
Industry: Construction services
Employees: 140
HQ: Downtown San Diego
Best Perk: Lunch and yoga provided daily

Pam Gaffen is cooler than Cyndi Lauper in the ’80s, and it’s not just because she wants to have fun. Her philosophy is a common one: Working hard is a must, but make sure there’s plenty of time to play hard, too. She extends that same work-hard, play-hard mentality to her employees, because she’s also a firm believer that employees need to feel valued and respected. Just call it women’s intuition.

“I think that women tend to be more nurturing, and it’s kind of my nature to take care of people around me,” says Gaffen, president of Gafcon Inc. in downtown San Diego.

And what she does for employees may make many local professionals wish that women were more prevalent in top executive positions. Gaffen founded Gafcon, a construction consulting firm, with her husband, Yehudi, in 1987. From very early in the life of the business, her nurturing ways were evident. “I recognized that people often worked through lunch to meet deadlines, so I decided the least I could do is buy lunch,” she says. “That’s how the lunch program started.” Not lunch on occasion, but lunch every day. Providing food is getting to be a bigger and bigger ordeal now, too. Gaffen estimates that she has about 140 employees between the Los Angeles, Orange County and local offices, but she has no plans to retract the longstanding tradition.

And, as the company has grown, so have the myriad benefits, which entail everything from health and well-being to education and philanthropy. Company perks include gym membership reimbursements, daily on-site yoga classes, community work (recently the Gafcon team helped build a home for Habitat for Humanity) and company-sponsored sporting events, picnics and parties. Also, every year the company reevaluates its health care benefits and brings in a nurse to administer flu shots.

When asked about how all these perks have helped with attraction and retention, Gaffen responds, “It was never designed that way. But I do have very little turnover here.” Also noteworthy is that the private company has experienced double-digit growth for the last few years, and in two decades has never once experienced a revenue drop. Therefore, it would go to show that there may not be such a thing as too many perks. Gaffen certainly doesn’t seem to think so. She says she’s always on the lookout for new ways to thank and reward her number-one assets.

“I often just think about what would be really nice to do that people would enjoy,” she says, adding, “I’ll just wake up one morning and say to my husband, for example, ‘I think we should offer yoga classes.’ Sometimes I think I’m a little crazy, but people appreciate the perks.”

The Animated Office
IDW Publishing
www.idwpublishing.com
No. 1 Cool Factor: Hard-core comic book fans get paid to create comics
Industry: Comic book publishing
Employees: 13
HQ: San Diego
Best Perk: Imaginations run wild

San Diego–based comic book company IDW Publishing thinks that it’s on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to being cool. After all, what could be more enjoyable than being part of the creative process behind some of the most cutting-edge comics and graphic novels and negotiating deals with major Hollywood film studios? Well, if you dressed up in a superhero costume to attend this year’s Comic-Con convention in San Diego, working for IDW would probably be a dream come true. And even if you’re not a comic book junkie, you have to admit that being in the art and publishing biz is inherently groovy.

Four entertainment executives and art-ists, including current company president Ted Adams, established IDW in 1999. At first, it was primarily a creative services company that provided artwork and graphic design to entertainment companies. One of its first major clients was Carlsbad-based Upper Deck, for which IDW designed trading card games.

While Adams boasts that the company never struggled, he and the other founders made a conscious decision not to get too swept up in creating an internet-type culture. Sure, they had fun and enjoyed their jobs, but they weren’t venture-capital funded and didn’t have what Adams calls “mad money” in the critical early years of business. “So we weren’t throwing away money on thousand-dollar chairs or anything like that,” he adds.

In 2002, the company began to morph, as it began to pub-lish comic books and graphic novels, the mainstay of what it does today. The timing was probably close to perfect. In 2001, graphic novels, alone, reached $75 million in sales according to market research firm ICV2 Publishing. ICV2 also reported that by 2005, graphic novels reached $250 million in sales, making it one of the fastest growing sectors of the publishing industry. In the past few years, IDW has published graphic novels like 30 Days of Night (made into a movie that will be released by Sony Pictures later this year) and comics based on the CBS show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the recently released Transformers movie.

IDW has grown right alongside graphic novels, and suddenly more em-ployees meant more of a dedication to company re-treats, team building and a fun and rewarding culture. But one important aspect of the culture that Adams is most proud of is that his employees have the resources to do their jobs quickly and effectively and go home to spend time with their families.

“I’ve worked for a lot of companies where the expectation is that employees will be on call at all hours, seven days a week,” says Adams. “So, when we started IDW, it was important to create a work environment where it would basically be Monday through Friday, 9 to 6."

Cruising to Success
Z57 Inc.
www.z57.com
No. 1 Cool Factor: The Google-like culture
Industry: Web marketing and design for real estate professionals
Employees: 135
HQ: San Diego
Best Perk: Yearly company cruises

Google’s Mountain View headquarters, AKA the Googleplex, has been marketed and written about for its revolutionary design and culture. It’s complete with two swimming pools, a full-size sand volleyball court and decorations that include giant rubber balls and a dinosaur skeleton. San Diego–based Z57 might not have all that, yet its culture is pretty Google-esque.

Z57 was founded by CEO Steve Weber in December of 1998 when, as he says, “maybe 10 to 20% of companies had a website.” He started out as a custom web design company and then eventually found a niche doing internet market-ing and design exclusively for real estate agents nationwide, which has worked out considerably well.

“There are over a million realtors in the United States. It’s a big market,” says Weber. “We really got into a sweet spot.” But even though a little luck was on Weber’s side, the goals he set from the first day the business opened its doors have ensured Z57’s market presence nine years later.

“When I started Z57 at age 34, one of my stated goals was to build a great company. The other was to win and succeed,” says Weber.

He’s accomplished both. Success has come in the form of steady growth. In 2003, the company reported revenue of more than $7 million, and in 2005 that number was nearly doubled when it reported just shy of $14 million in revenue. And Z57 employees have been multiplying just as quickly, from a few in the early years to about 135 now.

Weber is realistic that success would not have happened without a couple of core values. The first: Invest in people. The second: Develop a positive workplace.

Therefore, not a day goes by where there are not smiles and laughter throughout the office. And why not? Employees can wear jeans to work any day of the week, music can always be heard throughout the building, and people’s achievements are recognized frequently and publicly, using maracas, bells and horns. Also, this year the entire company is headed out on its fifth annual cruise to Cabo San Lucas, and the company is paying half of everyone’s way. Weber does admit that the company is a bit more professional than in the initial years when the walls were painted black and their website had an anti-corporate feel.

“We had to change our image for the outside world,” he says.

But he’s adamant that as the company has become slightly more structured, taking some of the fun out of the equation has never been an option. Whether it’s taking a break from a busy day to play a game of in-office foosball or heading to Vegas to party like rock stars in celebration of a great achievement, Z57 is keeping it cool.

Enter the Fast Lane
San Diego Prestige
www.sandiegoprestige.com
No. 1 Cool Factor: Ferraris, Lamborghinis and high-end yachts, oh my!
Industry: Luxury transportation rentals
Employees: 5
HQ: La Jolla
Best Perk: Driving a Ferrari F430 for a day

Getting a double nod for being a Cool Company is La Jolla–based San Diego Prestige, which has been in business just more than two years. Not only did it make the bizSanDiego list for being in the fast-growing luxury transportation biz and treating its employees like gold, it also has a service that can be used as an awesome perk for other local companies.

San Diego Prestige owns, manages and rents a fleet of high-end cars and manages yachts and helicopters for business and personal use. Local businesses have used the company’s services as incentives for executives or other employees. Companies, for example, could rent a Lamborghini Gallardo for a day to recognize a top sales performer, or charter a yacht for a four-hour executive retreat.

But enough about how other companies can use San Diego Prestige’s services, because, heck, the company also extends these kinds of perks to its own employees. As one staff member says, “As a salesperson working on new business, I see one hundred percent how I make more sales calls than I originally thought possible, or close a deal quicker, because a Ferrari F430 is waiting for me at the finish line.”

For the employees at San Diego Prestige, experiencing a ride on a 58-foot yacht or spinning around town in a supercar for a day probably make the highlight real in the story of their lives. The perks don’t end there, though. In an identifiable French accent, Franck Danglard, owner and CEO of San Diego Prestige, explains that when he started the company, he wanted a rewarding environment, a place where employees would look forward to coming to work. What a concept.

“We have a great atmosphere. Our employees spend more time at work than they spend with their families, so it’s nice to create a good ambiance,” says Danglard, who, by the way, will answer to the Americanization of his first name: Frank.

However, in creating the corporate culture, Danglard maintains that he tries to keep the dress code business casual, and sometimes his employees do have to dress a little more formal.

“We need to be cool while still showing some respect,” he says. We don’t want clients to say, “They’re so cool, I guess we can trash the car.’” That definitely would not be good for business.

What has been good for business is letting employees have flex hours, treating them to sporting events (like a corporate box at a Chargers game) and throwing parties throughout the year.

“We try to accommodate everyone if possible,” says Danglard, and that philosophy has helped his company thrive in just a couple short years.

More than Bad Pizza and Cold Coffee
L7 Creative Communications
www.L7creative.com
No. 1 Cool Factor: The brains behind ad campaigns for local and national clients
Industry: Advertising
Employees: 17
HQ: Poway
Best Perk: Mental breaks like company retreats, in-office Ping-Pong and darts or stepping out midday to see a movie

In the stressful and pressure-driven field of branding and advertising, Tom Gallego, chief creative officer of L7 Creative Communications in Poway, is about as calm and collective an individual as you might ever meet. His voice is low and soothing, and he’d just as well be sitting on the beach rather than in hour 10 of an expected nightlong marathon of creativity to give a client what they want—or think they want.

In order to meet those goals, Gallego says, “We spend countless hours over bad pizza and cold coffee. It’s not unusual for us to be here—and I’m not ex-aggerating—around the clock to meet a creative challenge.” That goes for Gallego and his staff, many of whom join in the all-nighters. Because of this, Gallego recognizes that there’s a high amount of burnout in the agency biz, and he does his part to, at minimum, lessen the toll of long hours and the draining of creative juices.

In response, he offers more than a few outlets, which include sending employees to see a movie midday for a mental break; brand retreats every 100 days, during which employees let loose and bond over yoga, a treasure hunt or other fun activ-ities, while also discussing and finding solutions to company challenges. Also, Ping-Pong and darts are often played in the office to stimulate and rejuvenate employees. Employees also respond and are dedicated to the cause because of all the little things L7 does.

Creatively speaking, the environment is wide open with lots of natural light. The company believes that nothing stifles the imagination like white walls, a lack of color and dull office treatments, so every wall is painted a different color, unique furniture fills the space, and plants and a tranquil stone waterfall give further life to the office. There’s also a fun magnetic chalk wall used in many of the company’s meetings.

So why does L7 go above and beyond for its employees? Gallego answers, “There have been a lot of studies on the evolution of business, and a hundred years ago, the employee didn’t get such a great deal. As we’ve progressed culturally, we understand that employees work better when they’re treated right, treated fairly and they’re interested and engaged.”