Nick Sarillo is the founder of Nick’s Pizza & Pub, the sixth busiest independent pizza company in per-store sales in the United States. It boasts margins nearly twice those of the average pizza restaurant and an impressive employee retention rate of 80 percent, in an industry where the average annual turnover is more than 150 percent. His secret? Culture.

“You can reap the benefits of a world-class culture—including more enthusiastic teams, lower attrition, more innovation, better customer service, more sustainability, and, ultimately, better financial performance—by disciplining yourself and your organization to work the company’s culture into every decision you make and every action you take,” says Sarillo.

He has written a book, just out, called A Slice of the Pie: How to Build a Big Little Business (Portfolio, 2012). If you’re looking to build a world-class company culture in your business, this is a book you want to pick up.

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