By Adrian Gostick, Author, The Carrot Principle

We’ve all experienced great corporate cultures firsthand. There is a tangible feeling about spending time in an Apple store, where employees are truly enabled to meet your needs, or phoning Zappos and sharing a laugh with an energized customer service agent, or having a cup of coffee at a really hip Starbucks. It is an atmosphere that engulfs you immediately and lingers with you after you leave.

When you walk into a great corporate culture, it smacks you in the face with its concreteness—and much of that comes from employee clarity of vision and values. This was something reinforced for me in spades just last week at the company meeting of digital marketing firm ExactTarget in Indianapolis.

My introduction to the company came in the hotel elevator. I pulled my luggage on and encountered a group of friendly young Brits. They smiled, gave me an appraising glance, and asked, “Are you Orange?”

Come again?

This, I discovered, was a standard greeting as 1,100 employees from around the world attempted to identify their own. ExactTarget is one of the world’s fastest-growing private software companies—with dazzling 50% revenue increases per year—and they claim their key secret to success is not just their email, social media and mobile marketing solutions, but their “Orange Culture.”

Chief Marketing Officer Tim Kopp told me, “We love the energy and vibrancy of Orange. In just one word we capture the essence of innovation, creativity, passion and entrepreneurial spirit that is the unique culture of ExactTarget. It’s more than our corporate color. We say that our leaders need to Lead Orange and our employees need to Live Orange every day. And we send Orange vibes to our clients around the world, helping them be successful.”

This is not just marketing hyperbole; Orange defines ExactTarget’s culture. And culture is core to the company’s defining DNA. As a case in point, I was powering up my computer for an a/v check before my speech, and I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation going on in front of me between Kopp and ExactTarget cofounder Peter McCormick. They were chatting about a potential hire McCormick had interviewed in the U.K.  Kopp’s first question was not about the woman’s background or credentials; instead he asked, “Is she a culture fit?”

It was the perfect question, and one I rarely hear in corporate ranks. Obviously this woman’s CV was important, but if she didn’t live the company’s Orange Values, experience told these two executives that she would not last long and certainly wouldn’t thrive.

At this company, part of Living Orange includes a commitment to values such as “treating people well” and “pursuing goals as a team.” As such, at their conference, I picked up a great idea. Leaders gave out “Orange in Action” awards to the Sales, Services, and Marketing groups. But here’s the twist: The Sales leaders gave out employee recognition awards to the Marketing and Services employees who supported them; the Marketing leaders presented awards to the Sales and Services employees who best embraced their products; and so on.

I’ve seen a lot of cultures reward their own, and that’s great, but at ExactTarget managers were thanking other teams’ employees who made their jobs easier and those who delivered on promises. Talk about breaking down silos.

For the last 20 years, hardly a week has gone by that my coauthor Chester Elton and I haven’t excitedly called the other to talk about a fascinating corporate culture we’ve stumbled upon—just like this one in Indianapolis. And a lesson I’d like to pass along is this: Whether you manage the smallest of teams or a multicontinent organization, you are the proud owner of a culture, and it’s important to understand that the effectiveness of that culture will have a big impact on your performance. The worldwide workforce has hidden reserves of ingenuity and resolve that can be tapped; and when all the elements for building a positive culture are at play, there is no question that work becomes not only more fruitful, but a good deal more fun and satisfying.

You’ll find that if your culture works, then everything works better.

Adrian Gostick is author of the New York Times bestseller The Carrot Principle. His new book All In: How the best managers create a culture of belief and drive big results will be published by Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on April 3, 2012. Visit adriangostick.com to learn more.