Organizations are at their best, Yaeger said, when every member understands why they should be passionate about what they're doing. Conversely, he said sacrifice becomes suffering if employees are unclear about the cause they're trying to advance.

Businesses can best go about understanding their "why," Yaeger said, by going all the way downstream to their end user and learning about how he or she benefits if the company does its job well, or how he or she is harmed if the company does not.

Yaeger urged the solution providers in attendance to focus more heavily on their culture than their product set, noting that a good culture drives good employee behavior, which in turn drives good habits, which ultimately leads a business into the winner's circle.

"Great teams understand that their culture shapes who they recruit," Yaeger said.

And once all that work is done, Yaeger said the hardest thing to do is to come back to the drawing board and start all over again.

"Human nature says that when you're successful, the first thing you do is sit back and enjoy your success," he said.

Consistently successful organizations, however, don't rest on their laurels, Yaeger said, and instead redouble their efforts to create new ways to be successful.

One organization that took this message to heart was the San Francisco Giants, who hired a mental strength coach after their 2010 World Series win to help the players figure out how to handle success, Yaeger said.

The Giants have gone on to win World Series in 2012 and 2014.

Yaeger's remarks made John Convery, a vendor relations and marketing consultant for Denali Advanced Integration, want to circle back with employees and have discussions about how Denali influences and assists its customers.

"We're only as important as our employees think we are," Convery said. "We have to keep reinventing ourselves."

PUBLISHED MARCH 3, 3015