TED, April 2024
Many of the jobs that keep the world running — like cleaning bathrooms, picking up trash, caring for the elderly — pay so poorly that workers can barely make ends meet. Zeynep Ton is intent on changing that, showing why everyone wins when companies pay their people livable wages and offer opportunities for growth.
Published June 2023
Named one of the Best Business Books of 2023 by the Financial Times, The Case for Good Jobs provide a practical, prescriptive, and often provocative guide for company leaders who want to–who need to–choose excellence.
Published January 2014
Zeynep Ton makes the compelling case that even in low-cost settings, leaving employees behind—with bad jobs—is a choice, not a necessity. Drawing on more than a decade of research, Ton shows how operational excellence enables companies to offer the lowest prices to customers while ensuring good jobs for their employees and superior results for their investors.
How to Be a Better Human, November 11, 2024
Zeynep Ton makes the case that fair and competitive compensation for front-line workers is a better business model, with a nearly endless list of benefits for people and society at large. Listen in to learn how higher pay leads to higher productivity, better services, and happier people everywhere.
Harvard Business Review, March 13, 2024
Few companies succeed in growing at a sustainable rate over time. The reason is that leaders give in to the temptation to grow in ways that overlook the customer or they grow more quickly than their organizational capabilities allow. But the leaders of a handful of companies, including Costco and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, never forget that businesses are complex systems whose elements are interconnected. That gives them the discipline to reject temptations to grow faster than their organizations can sustain.
Harvard Business Review, September 22, 2023
Cross-training employees on a variety of tasks can be a powerful tool for improving operations, as well as for attracting and retaining workers. This article shows how several small food companies were able to use cross-training to improve service and job quality. Any industry can learn from these approaches to improve operations, customer experience, and employee experience.
Goldman Sachs Talks, August 16, 2023
The key to building successful businesses might lie within building a successful team. Hear Ton discuss what defines successful companies in this Goldman Sachs Talks.
Pitchfork Economics, July 11, 2023
Low pay is obviously terrible for workers, but a growing body of research proves that it’s bad for businesses, too. Smaller paychecks lead to higher turnover, decreased productivity, and poor sales. Will low-wage employers in the grocery, retail, and restaurant industries ever understand that their employees are their most important asset?
MIT Sloan Management Review, Summer 2023
Companies that reduce and simplify workload on the front lines find that they can position employees to deliver a better customer experience.
Disrupt Yourself with Whitney Johnson, June 20, 2023
When sales are down and overhead costs are skyrocketing, what’s the instinct? Cut costs, maybe? Fire some folks? Trim down, get leaner? Zeynep Ton says that instinct is shortsighted. It’s outdated. More than just old, it’s a deadly cycle, because cutting costs continues to come at the expense of the foundational unit – the employee.
Harvard Business Review, May-June 2023
If good jobs can make companies more competitive, more resilient, and more humane, why don’t more companies create them? This article dismantles conventional ways of thinking and provides a lens to give business leaders the courage to choose a good-jobs approach.
Harvard Business Review, May-June 2023
In this interview Tim Simmons, the chief product officer of Sam’s Club, details how Walmart’s membership warehouse retailer set about to change virtually every major aspect of its operating model.
National Association of Convenience Stores Magazine, May 2023
Convenience stores have competitors on nearly every corner. Adding foodservice can help c-stores stand out, but the stakes are high: Foodservice operations are complex, and hard-earned customers can leave you for established quick-service alternatives. Through our partnership with NACS, we at the Good Jobs Institute have seen that high employee turnover can make adding or elevating foodservice a risky proposition. The good news? Reducing turnover and strengthening execution can give convenience stores a competitive advantage that enables an adaptable and differentiated food experience.
Harvard Business Review, August 30, 2019
America is losing its one-time healthy middle class and desperately wants it back. But how? We can’t build a large enough middle class without improving low-wage jobs. Several very successful retail chains, with different business models, have already figured out how to do it.
Harvard Business Review, December 11, 2017
Implementing the Good Jobs Strategy requires huge changes. But there is a precedent to learn from: the Toyota Production System.
Professor Roger Martin is a writer, strategy advisor and in 2017 was named the #1 management thinker in world. He is also former Dean and Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in Canada.
BJ Hess was Senior Vice President of Global Operations for Arrow Electronics, Inc. until her retirement in 2004. She participated in or directed all of Arrow’s system conversions, mergers and acquisitions. She served on the Boards of ServiceMaster, Dentsply, and Harvest Power, and currently serves on the Boards of Cott Beverages (NYSE) and Cairn University.
José Alvarez is clinical professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a visiting senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. Prior to his academic career, he spent nearly 20 years in the supermarket industry, culminating in his tenure as president and chief executive officer of Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover. He currently serves on the boards of numerous corporate, nonprofit, and educational organizations, including The TJX Companies, United Rentals, The Joyce Foundation, and Princeton University.
Chris Bierly leads Bain and Co.’s Global K-12 Music and Restaurant practices. He has more than 35 years of management consulting experience, advising leaders across the private, public and non-profit sectors on their most complex management challenges.
Jamie Bonini is president of Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), a not-for-profit corporation affiliated with Toyota Motor North America (TMNA), headquartered in Plano, Texas. In his role, Bonini provides Toyota Production System (TPS) expertise to North American organizations, including nonprofits and businesses, with the goal of building high-engagement, high-performing cultures that improve quality, productivity, and reduce lead time.
Jan W. Rivkin is a Professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. In the past, he has served as Faculty Chair of the MBA Program, Senior Associate Dean for Research, and head of the Strategy Unit. His research, course development, and teaching focus on two topics: business strategy and U.S. competitiveness.
Mary Alice Vuicic is the Chief People Officer at Thompson Reuters. She has over 20 years of experience working in senior human resources positions at leading international organizations. Previously, she served as the Chief Human Resources Officer for L Brands, a portfolio of retail brands with nearly 90,000 associates. She has also held senior roles at Loblaw Companies Ltd., Shoppers Drug Mart, Walmart Canada, and Chapters/Indigo.