Alex Chuang - Chief strategy officer, Launch Academy
In times of rapid growth, culture can be easily neglected or forgotten. Here are three key ideas to create a sustainable culture:
• Don’t ever stop communicating your purpose.In his book The Purpose Economy, Aaron Hurst argues that we’re transitioning from the information economy to the “purpose” economy, which is driven by connecting people to their purposes. By communicating your company’s purpose effectively and consistently, you are reminding your employees why they do what they do.
• Hire people who can contribute to the culture. Culture is dynamic; it evolves as your company grows. Therefore, it’s important not to restrict the possibility of improving culture by hiring to narrowly for cultural fit.
• Build trust into the culture. Intuit is one of the world’s most successful financial software companies, with more than 8,000 employees, $4.2 billion in revenue and $26 billion in market capitalization. When asked how to be a great leader, Intuit CEO Brad Smith simply said, “I got out of the way.” As a leader, you must trust that your team members are independent and multi-dimensional individuals who are fully capable of solving problems, learning from mistakes and collaborating with each other. A culture with strong trust is one that will inspire more experimentation, collaboration and innovation while reducing the friction, dramas and politics that drag companies down.
Jonathan Bixby - General partner, Stanley Park Ventures
Culture is like a seedling. It needs constant care, watering and attention. This is incredibly important during periods of high growth. During this time you need to focus on three core things:
• Focus on articulating and institutionalizing your culture through leadership from the bottom up. The only way to effectively develop a culture is if every single employee understands it and lives it. The CEO and senior leadership buying in isn’t enough.
• Don’t be shy about rejecting a potential hire if the candidate isn’t a good cultural fit. Don’t hire people just because they have good resumés.
• Don’t sacrifice your long-term outlook just to keep bad customers or bad deals that don’t align with your culture. Short-term growth isn’t as important as a long-term sustainable business. Passing up short-term gain can be a very difficult thing to do but it can be critically important.
Gary Lenett - Founder, Dish and Duer
Almost everything needs to be reworked each time a young company doubles in revenue, whether it is growth from $1 million to $2 million or from $10 million to $20 million. The systems/organization that enable a company to reach its first milestone need to change in order to hit the next milestone, and throughout this process, corporate culture will inevitably be affected.
Although cultural change is unavoidable, there are ways in which the most important aspects of your culture can be maintained even during times of rapid growth. You need to identify those aspects and find ways of “systemizing” them in a more formal way.
For instance, when Dish and Duer started out there were four employees, and because I had daily interaction with each team member (working in a small open office) I was confident that everyone not only understood our vision and mission but also understood what their role was in getting us there. Not long after, our team grew and we needed to systemize what was previously done instinctively and informally, so we implemented what I call a “business system.” A large component of our business system revolves around our business review process whereby everyone in the company meets on a monthly basis to review key performance indicators, discuss areas of concern and celebrate successes. This system also gives me a chance to speak directly to everyone in the company at least once a month about what I think is important. Last but not least, we all get to eat lunch together in a way that is reminiscent of when we began and could all fit around a little table.
