Page 204 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

Job Enrichment and Professional Growth C191

: In its 10-year history, Rackspace has averaged more than 50
percent annual growth, with half of that growth attributed
to referrals from satisfied customers. One of those customers
remarked, “If my other vendors just did 50 percent of what
Rackspace does, I’d have a lot less gray hair.” 2
: The company now hosts more than 45,000 servers for busi-
nesses of various sizes with almost 1 million e-mail addresses.
Fully 1 percent of all World Wide Web traffic goes through a
server that Rackspace hosts.

Chairman and cofounder, Graham Weston, shared with us how
Rackspace has created a culture that is a significant advantage in a
highly competitive marketplace—making sure employees (called
“Rackers”) are fanatical about doing their jobs well and taking care
of Rackspace customers. For our Q & A, he was joined by project
manager Robert Jackson, a Racker since 2000.

Q: Tell us a bit about Rackers.
Weston: Our average Racker is comparatively quite young. We
have tended to hire the Internet generation. This generation has
lots of options. They expect something a bit different in their work
experience. Loyalty, which many of them view as “working for the
man,” isn’t as important to them as it may have been to other genera-
tions. They want to work where their values and the company values
are compatible, where they can be themselves at work and at home.
Naming our associates Rackers instead of employees helps gives us a
real sense of identity.

Q: When did you realize that keeping Rackers happy and en-
gaged was a key to your business success?
Weston: After a year or so into our start-up we realized that a lot
of businesses, including ours, had what I call a “denial of service”
model. In this model the business makes it very hard for customers to
get great service, because great service seemingly costs too much to the
business. So, instead of the business offering customers the opportunity