Phil Long/AP
Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert made his fortune with his mortgage company Quicken Loans, and he runs all of his companies under Rock Ventures.
- Dan Gilbert is the billionaire owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team and the founder of Quicken Loans, the largest mortgage lender in the United States.
- Around 20 years ago, he wrote the first version of the "ISMs" corporate culture guide. It is now given to every employee in his Rock Ventures family of more than 100 companies.
- The principles emphasize independent thinking and action, moving quickly, and innovation.
Dan Gilbert runs an empire.
He makes many of his public appearances as the billionaire owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team, but he's also the chairman and founder of Rock Ventures, his holding company for over 100 businesses, including the Cavs, the real estate company Bedrock that's transforming downtown Detroit, and the company that first brought him major success, mortgage lender Quicken Loans.
Around 20 years ago, Gilbert decided to write down a set of principles that would define Quicken Loans' corporate culture, resulting ins the book of "Isms," as in "-isms" - that is, "cutesy" sayings, as Gilbert calls them, representing bigger management ideas.
"It doesn't matter, really, what we do because that could change, or additional things could be added," Gilbert told Business Insider for an episode of our podcast "Success! How I Did It." "But it's who we are, which guides decision-making, your actions, your behaviors."
Gilbert started with a few Isms and added more as the years went by. He said that they're not unique, but tap into what he considers to be universal truths about running a successful business. "Einstein didn't make up relativity, he discovered it. I sort of view it the same way," he said.
Today, every employee of a Rock Ventures company gets a 144-page Isms guide of 19 principles. But rather than reading like a dry business book, it's filled with colorful images and 1950s-style cartoons. There's a note at the beginning that says the entire guide was written by Gilbert, and that to keep it "authentic," they don't worry too much about proper grammar. The principles may not have the same grammatical structure, but they're consistent with what you'd find in a straightforward, and often quirky, email from Gilbert himself.
The Isms are as follows:
1. 'Always raising our level of awareness.'
Truly listening to a client is an active, not passive, skill.
2. 'The inches we need are everywhere around us.'
A company cannot be great by being exceptional in only one way; it requires outdoing the competition down to the smallest details, what Gilbert calls "inches."
3. 'Responding with a sense of urgency is the ante to play.'
All employees need to respond to phone calls and emails, whether from clients or colleagues, in the same day they were received.
4. 'Every client. Every time. No exceptions. No excuses.'
"Clients don't care how much you know until they know how much you care," Gilbert wrote.
5. 'Obsessed with finding a better way.'
Gilbert wrote he wants employees to feel empowered to speak up if they think there's a better way of doing something, and for management to avoid a bureaucracy that would stifle these ideas.
6. 'Yes before no.'
"This does not mean that every single idea, question, suggestion or recommendation will ultimately be met with a big thumbs-up," Gilbert wrote, but that no one should immediately shoot down any of those.
7. 'Ignore the noise.'
With all of the influence Gilbert wields, whether it's overseeing an NBA team or reinventing Detroit's downtown, he can be a controversial figure. He said that if there's a problem, he'll fix it, but without focusing on "naysayers." He wants his employees to do the same.
8. 'It's not about WHO is right, it's about WHAT is right.'
"There is no place at our company for typical corporate arrogance," Gilbert wrote, referring to hierarchy determining all actions.
9. 'We are the 'they.''
Siloing of teams within a company, where colleagues become others, is toxic, Gilbert wrote. All team members must be aware that as part of the same company they are working toward the same goals.
10. 'You have to take the roast out of the oven.'
Being a perfectionist can lead to missed opportunities and is a waste of time and energy.
11. 'You'll see it when you believe it.'
In the book of Isms, Gilbert shared a company-wide email he sent in 1998 in which he declares, making liberal use of exclamation points and capital letters, that for Rock Financial (Quicken Loans' original name) to succeed in the future, it needs to become a leader in providing mortgages online. It was this long-term vision, Gilbert argued, that led to Quicken Loans become the largest mortgage lender in the US.
12. 'We'll figure it out.'
This is a follow-up to the bit about the roast in the oven - the focus on moving forward with projects before everything is perfect should be viewed as a competitive advantage, not a source of fear.
13. 'Every second counts.'
"Time, not money, is the most valuable commodity of all," Gilbert wrote. "Time can never be replaced. Never trade significant amounts of time for small sums of money."
14. 'Numbers and money follow; they do not lead.'
Whether it's approaching your career or your company's goals, using growth as motivation rather than money will be what actually results in a higher paycheck and better deals.
15. 'A penny saved is a penny.'
Make investments with the big picture in mind, freeing you up to make big expenses in the short term. Gilbert used a small example of investing $3 million in new seats at the Quicken Loans arena, where the Cavs play, so that it added to the overall value of the team.
16. 'We eat our own dog food.'
Gilbert wants all of his Rock Ventures companies to take advantage of, as well as support each other. That means using and supporting services and products within the family of companies - and there's even a strong suggestion to cheer on the Cavs. (Why is it dog food instead of just food? We have no idea.")
17. 'Simplicity is genius.'
Complexity does not equate to quality. In fact, it's usually the opposite, Gilbert argued. Find the easiest, cleanest ways to get things done.
18. 'Innovation is rewarded. Execution is worshipped.'
Excellent ideas and planning are crucial to success but are only half the process. The execution of them requires just as much attention, or else nothing that came before it matters.
19. 'Do the right thing.'
"The high road is not a shortcut. Stick to the highest standard of integrity, without compromise," Gilbert wrote. "How can you go wrong doing the right thing?"