When Company Culture IS Strategy

The team at Jayne Agency quietly sat on a Zoom together one afternoon. The clock ticked as they furrowed their brows and tapped their pens. After a few minutes, "I know how to answer that question," said Chief Strategy Officer, Bradley Pierce.

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That question was: "What impact does company culture have on us at Jayne?"

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Brad's answer was pretty simple. "Our culture is our biggest benefit," he said. "Hard to argue with when it's exactly the right benefit you thrive inside of."

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A simple answer, yes, but it points to something companies tend to struggle building and maintaining: authenticity and trust, day in and day out, without question. At Jayne Agency, trust is treated as intentionally as any other discipline. So much so that it shows up in their work and is proved through external relationships.

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When Jayne surveys their own clients, "Trusted Partners" is a common response. "Authentic Conversations" hits around a 90% answer rate as to why clients hired them and re-signed. However, the word "trust" doesn't appear in the brand's presentations, proposals, or strategy sessions once. On purpose.

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Founded in 2009, Jayne Agency specializes in brand clarity, user experience and user research for businesses from startups to Fortune 50 companies. The work requires directness, accountability, and care—for their own team and for their clients. And that starts at home, with how the agency approaches their evidence-based, award-winning brand strategy.

Natalie Clark, Art Director at Jayne Agency, described what that culture looks like in practice. "We ask every single position what they think and why, in or after every meeting," she said. "We listen first, speak to seek understanding, and then converse."

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That approach creates an unusual dynamic. Everyone's input matters regardless of title or tenure. For clients, it’s the same clarity that carries over.

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"We have hard moments with our clients and their teams as we hardcore have to reposition someone's views, perception, life's work, sense of value," Brooke, Jayne's CEO said. "No one wants to walk those roads alone, or while being at odds with their team. So we hold culture as the most critical asset we have: each other. In the office, and with our partners."

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The team at Jayne, who call themselves Jayniacs, embrace the "Love who you work with, love what you do" mentality they've coined. That mindset absolutely extends to how they think about benefits. Varonnica Kirn, Clarity University® Program Facilitator and Senior Brand Strategist at Jayne Agency, experienced a difference firsthand after working for larger agencies with traditional perks.

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"I realized that the shiny benefits were NOT actually beneficial to ME, and I saw the value in the benefits in Jayne's culture," she said.

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Carly, Senior Content Strategist, perked up and agreed. “The culture at Jayne Agency is more of an infrastructure.” She said, “When it comes to a final deliverable—the kind that builds dependable, scalable, repeatable revenue for the businesses they work with—that culture really does come through.”

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Which is exactly what caught the attention of the Breakthrough Culture 100 Awards, which recently named Jayne one of America's most thriving companies to work for after reviewing over 5,000 companies and surveying over 20,000 employees.

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On that Zoom call the team eventually landed on their answers about their culture's impact. The question Brad answered simply at the start inspired the team to weigh in, and articulate the reason culture isn't one single person's responsibility. It's more of a gold-standard benefit Jayniacs build together—and the reason leaders on the brink of something keep finding their way back to them.

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Has something changed inside your business or brand? Find them at www.jayneagency.com

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