Darrell Kopke is a co-founder of Institute B, a business accelerator based in Vancouver. Previously, he was general manager of Lululemon (Nasdaq:LULU) and led the company through its IPO.
Kopke grew up in business, starting at 22 as a salesman for Future Shop. He then headed to Hong Kong, where he spent four years selling zippers.
For Kopke, company culture is everything, and he learned that lesson way back in the mid-1990s during his Future Shop sales stint. The electronics retailer was expanding into Quebec, and Kopke was one of 200 rookie salesman brought to Toronto for training.
"All of a sudden, the door bursts open, and someone's yelling: 'How's everybody doing today?'" Kopke said.
It was the start of a rowdy cheerleading session designed to make everyone feel part of the Future Shop team.
"I realized that this was no ordinary corporate culture," Kopke said.
He's since had the chance to think deeply about corporate culture and put it into practice at Lululemon.
Kopke was there at the beginning of the business. He recalls meeting with Chip Wilson and the other founders in Wilson's living room and declaring Nike to be Lululemon's competitor.
"We had no business being that audacious," he said.
He believes creating a strong and unique company culture is what enabled Lululemon to grow from one store in Kitsilano into a publicly traded company with yearly revenue of more than $1 billion.
He now advises the companies he works with to practise what he calls "ruthless compassion," where staff are encouraged to be open about their concerns about business direction or strategy.
On corporate culture
"What is culture? Is it a feeling? Is it an emotion? Culture is a series of conversations. It shapes the way companies communicate. There are often two conversations going on in a company: one conversation in the boardroom … and then another conversation is going on at the water cooler or at the bar … [I advocate] bringing the water cooler conversation into the boardroom."
