Unique, Powerful Cultures Fueling Success
Often literature on Corporate culture is one note, and companies are advised to follow the traditional playbook—have a mission and purpose, have values, and so on. Yet, some companies of late are being featured for the unique cultures they build that support their business models and that become critical drivers of success. Their cultures become critical to delivering on their corporate strategies and how they win.
To this point, in this year’s MIT Sloan’s Culture 500 rating, the organization writes: “No two [2020 Culture] Champions are alike—some demonstrate cultural success through bold innovation, others by empowering employees or fostering high-respect environments.” They do point out there are also a few similarities: 1) strong financial performance, 2) female leadership, and 3) psychologically safe environments.
Consider these companies that are shaping their cultures uniquely to them with a lot of success:
Netflix, which is on MIT’s 2020 Culture Champion list, has been sometimes critically viewed and perhaps misunderstood when its culture document became public. But I would suggest not passing judgment until you listen to founder Reed Hastings talk about how the culture was deliberately crafted to support how the company needs to successfully run. Is the culture a bad one? I bet a lot of people inside the company would say no and actually find it empowering. Netflix’s ability to scale, be agile, and deliver business results would suggest something is working.
Listen to this interview, “What if Your Company Had No Rules?,” from the Freakonomics podcast
Check out the company’s culture document here
Check out Reed Hastings book on the topic, “No Rules Rules”
Read this article from The Economist
Basecamp is a prime example of a company that writes its own playbook and then writes blogs and books to share how the founders uniquely and successfully run this remote workforce company. What I love about their story is how they really buck the norms and figure out what makes sense to them and what works for them. They have been on the forefront of remote work cultures, which became highly relevant this year when the pandemic hit. Basecamp has a lot of lessons to share, but one also has to be careful not to assume their playbook will work in all situations. Again, they’ve crafted it to fit their business model and align with their values. Inspiring, yes. But not a cookie cutter approach.
Get a quick rundown and overview in this article
Checkout their employee handbook here
Read their book, “It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work”
Patagonia has long been heralded for its unique culture, which founder Yvon Chouinard documented in, “Let My People Go Surfing.” Frankly, Chouinard’s intent in shaping his business was to go beyond his own company and influence business culture overall. If only more companies would champion multiple stakeholders and employee quality of life, as they do, including offering practical benefits such as onsite daycare, of which Patagonia has been a leader (offering it for 40 years!, for which you can thank Chouinard’s wife). And again taking it beyond the company itself, this year ex-CEO Rose Marcario sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi advocating funding for accessible childcare and encouraging Congress to to enact the Child Care for Working Families Act introduced in 2019. Read more about Patagonia’s culture here.
Other notable companies to check out: Hubspot and Zoom with some of the happiest employees in 2020 (despite the crazy year Zoom must have had, in particular).
With this as inspiration, how might you craft your company culture to create an environment people want to work in and that supports your business model and company success?
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