PRAISE FOR UPSTANDING “Frank Calderoni provides readers with a prism to reflect on their company’s purpose and positively shape the culture of their organization. Using numerous real-world examples and original interviews with inspirational business leaders, UPSTANDING will provide you with the insights to build an organization that is resilient, driven by purpose, and committed to upstanding character.”
—Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe “In this inspiring book, Frank Calderoni explains how building an organization on a firm foundation of upstanding character can lead to improved employee engagement and loyalty, better customer service, and an improved bottom line.”
—Geoffrey Moore, Author of Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win “Times of crisis provide clarity on company culture and the integral role it plays in resiliency and long-term success. In UPSTANDING, Frank Calderoni draws on his time at IBM, Cisco, Red Hat and Anaplan, and his steadfast leadership through seismic events like the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19, to expertly illustrate how a culture built on shared values can help people and companies navigate tough times and emerge even stronger.”
—Stacey Cunningham, President, NYSE Group “We instinctively know that personal character is a key attribute for anyone in our organization. Leaders who lead with integrity, who capture the commitment of their teams, are in the best position to sustain greatness. In UPSTANDING, Frank Calderoni shows how organizations that make employee wellbeing and the company culture their strategy—putting company character at the center of all they do—are in the best position to attract and retain talented people and ultimately win in the market.”
—Eric Hutcherson, Chief People and Inclusion Officer, Universal Music Group, and former Chief Human Resources Officer, NBA

The CEO of Anaplan explains how a company’s character is a critical driver of sustained success In his career as an executive at IBM, Cisco, and now as CEO of Anaplan, Frank A. Calderoni discovered that character is just as vital for companies as it is for individuals. In Upstanding: How Company Character Catalyzes Loyalty, Agility, and Hypergrowth, the author explores the powerful link between corporate strategy, company culture, and individual character, and how activating this link is essential to realizing strong company character—and an essential ingredient for organizations to achieve hypergrowth, agility, and loyalty. This innovative resource features real-life examples of how today’s most successful companies are building upstanding character while increasing employee engagement, happiness, and performance. The book is written to help executives, company founders, managers, and other leaders develop strategies that supercharge organizational performance while building a strong and high-engagement culture—providing real-world insights from the author’s own career along with a diverse cross-section of business thought leaders and CEOs of companies both small and large, local and global. The author draws upon his experience leading a $10 billion hypergrowth software company to explain how the fusion of culture and strategy, driven by a company’s character, leads to sustained internal and external success. Designed to empower leaders to make character the cornerstone of corporate culture, this invaluable resource: Explores what “upstanding character” means for an organization, and how building a culture based on empathy, courage, authenticity, integrity, respect, and other factors drives higher performance and value creation for employees, customers, partners, and shareholders Reviews research on how culture drives performance, and operational practices for building upstanding organizational character and driving value-aligned behavior Features original interviews with Shantanu Narayen, Cy Wakeman, Eric Hutcherson, Kellie McElhaney, Geoffrey Moore, and other leaders inside and outside the tech sector Provides practical tools and approaches for increasing inclusion and belonging, improving communication, strengthening engagement, and rewarding upstanding character in employees Discusses the “Big 9” cultural values that are essential to creating upstanding company character, such as agility, collaboration, diversity, integrity, and respect With a foreword by Shantanu Narayen, Chairman and CEO of Adobe, Upstanding: How Company Character Catalyzes Loyalty, Agility, and Growth is essential reading for executives and business leaders interested in strategy, leadership, organizational culture, and management innovation, as well as leadership teams and HR professionals who are responsible for guiding their organization’s culture and developing its character.