Our culture

Much of what shaped the company at its founding in 1969 remains deep in our DNA today: customer focus, community involvement and integrity. 

Our vision for how we work is built on four pillars:

Think: customers first – we consider the needs and value the diversity of thought, experience and perspectives among our customers.

Inspire: creativity – we open ourselves to new ideas, tapping into our diversity of perspectives.

Do: what’s right – we treat every customer, supplier and employee with respect.

Deliver: results – we strive to create an inclusive environment where employees thrive and generate top performance.

These cultural cornerstones are the filter for our decisions and behaviors. And we sum it all up in three words: “Wear your passion.”

Wear Your Passion is the cultural foundation that links all of our brands, divisions and functions. It encompasses our goal of fostering a culture that retains the essence of what makes us special and focuses on how we need to evolve to succeed.

Recent Employee Opinion Survey results showed 88 percent of our 100,000-plus respondents agreed with the statement, “I understand and believe in our Wear Your Passion cultural values.”

Checking in, all over the world

Our employees bring our culture to life – so each of the last five years, we have reached out to nearly all of them and asked them to share their thoughts via our anonymous Employee Opinion Survey. The survey is translated into seven languages, and it’s clearly reaching far and wide. In 2009 and 2010, participation rates were 87 and 83 percent, respectively.  

The 2010 survey results demonstrated the impact of employees’ belief in our company and their engagement. Scores indicate that employees firmly believe in Gap Inc.’s vision and values.

Culture without borders

Our culture was front and center as we celebrated a historic moment and amazing milestone in 2010: the opening of our first stores in China. Located in Shanghai and Beijing, the stores are company-owned and operated, which allowed us to share our culture and heritage with our China employees and customers. All recruiting materials included Wear Your Passion, the content for the country’s all-employee meeting was structured around the four pillars of our culture, and employees received T-shirts and bracelets with Wear Your Passion translated in English and Chinese.

Honoring our principles

As part of a continued effort to recognize the importance of our culture, we created the Fisher Awards in 2010 to highlight the four core principles founders Doris and Don Fisher built our company around: innovation, integrity, community and store excellence. The Fisher Award honors employees worldwide who carry on those traditions and truly wear their passion for our values and our company.