A recent issue of the Wall Street Journal has a wonderful article comparing to two different corporate cultures being nurtured by two different Internet companies - Facebook and Zappos. Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his company is nurturing a culture designed to attract entrepreneurs, even though he knows that many of these creative people will leave the firm later. Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh says his firm wants a culture of committed, engaged employees - people who buy into Zappos' mission and plan to stay.

Facebook's vision of itself is that of a technology company, while Zappos thinks of itself more in terms of ultra-good customer service.

Success for either firm, of course, could mean entirely different things. But there are a lot of recent books and studies on the impact of corporate culture on an organization's success, and one thing they all agree on is that when a firm's employees share a strongly held set of values and beliefs, long-term success is more likely. You don't have to read any further than Built to Last, or Firms of Endea