Moving beyond culture, the “soul” of a growing start-up — or a more established company — is built on clear business intent, a strong connection to customers, and a stellar employee experience. ALISON BEARD: Now, you’ve studied lots of companies through this lens, what were some of the ones that you immediately looked at and thought now there’s a company with a soul, I want to investigate further? ALISON BEARD: Either when you’re defining your soul in the very beginning, when you’re in startup stages, or if you’re trying to figure out exactly what it is, if your organization has become very big and it’s unclear anymore, how much should the leaders of the organization talk to the employees when they’re defining these three pillars?