What do you get when you cross leadership, values, and Denver, Colorado? The Small Giants Community Summit 2016. From June 12 - 14, 125 values-driven leaders from around the country (and even across the pond!) descended on Denver for a conference that stands out from the crowd. What makes the Small Giants Summit so special? The conference is designed to bring the six qualities of a Small Giant to life through networking with purpose, meaningful storytelling, interactive think tanks, and much more (check out this year’s photo gallery!).

(This article originally appeared on edocservice.com. Contributed by Jim Mullaney and Shelley Russell of eDocService.) 

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At Chief Outsiders, we believe that culture is the key to our success to date and will be critical to our growth as a firm for the long term. Pete Hayes, one of the Principals at Chief Outsiders, blogged about engaging the right team in his article “News Break: Lencioni’s ‘The Ideal Team Player’ is Bigger Than Expected”. As an organization, we spend an enormous amount of human capital to attract and retain people who are aligned with and embrace our core values. It begins when a prospective CMO candidate clicks on “Become an Outsider” on our website and listens to a video that describes the opportunity for Chief Outsiders, introduces them to our culture/our philosophy of working together and directs them to assess their fit with our Core Values.

When people describe a company with great culture, many people immediately picture a laid-back and fun-loving atmosphere. This sells a good company culture far short, though.

Building a great culture is much more than just casual attire or Beer Friday—it’s more about the who, what, how, and why of your business. Your culture isn’t your perks, it’s your values. Building great culture takes some combination of time, money, and effort, but the payoff is a powerful business tool and the ultimate competitive advantage.