If your company was a country ...

• Author: Griffin, Elle

I've been reading Reed Hastings' book No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. (It's for our book club--join us at utahbusiness.com/live!) Though it peddles the sort of perks that have since become commonplace--flexible work schedules, unlimited vacation days, trusting your employees--it got me thinking about the role of the company.

Though a company might start out selling a product, what they end up doing is creating their own economy. Once the money starts rolling in, corporations become small countries, plastering the walls with their constitutions and electing how to best provide for their constituents--whether that's by providing free healthcare, subsidized transportation, or tiny cereal boxes for breakfast every morning.

If we look at the company this way, we might see Google--who offers subsidized healthcare and childcare, paid maternity and paternity leave, cash gifts to new parents, and free meals--as something of a socialist organization. They give every employee an equal opportunity to succeed and then it's up to the employee to choose their path.

Amazon, on the other hand, might be seen as something of an autocracy, where peons provide cheap labor, profits reward the king, and...