Let’s face it - the IT industry is rife with, for lack of a better term, mercenaries. Those who answer to the highest bidder. However, there also exist a few gems of companies where being part of a culture has value attached to it that outweighs the siren call of more money.

If the mindset of a company is to work hard and play just as hard, and has other perks that not only draws great employees but manages to retain them despite other, better-paying options, then I would argue that the company would continue to retain those employees even in times of strife.

So I put the cause-effect question out: If these companies are *always* the ones that have yet to go through a down cycle, why is this? Is it luck? I think not. Maybe “the secret” they have discovered is that they have managed to have a culture that manages to avoid the down turns, or at least promotes being able to work through them with the minimum of stress on the company and its employees.

If you’re winning, and you’ve always been winning, everyone is a champion. Every tool to create intrinsic or extrinsic motivation is at your disposal — and you don’t even need them.

It’s easy, and it’s cocky, to think you have found the secret recipe when you haven’t tested that recipe through a few years of hardship.

Let’s see how Google does with this team switching when they’ve gone through their first retrenchment.