-So what’s your company’s culture is like ?
-What do you mean by “company culture” ?
This quote is extracted as-is from a conversation between me and a top-management guy at a well established multinational. I’m not going through the details of the conversation, but it was the first time I realised that maybe it’s about time companies change their management styles. And that is due to different reasons -I will list a few below.
Maybe this article isn’t intended for the 20yo-something startuppers who think that all roses are red, and violets are blue and manage their businesses on the go, the way they see fit (which is, the best way to do things nowadays).
It’s more for old school managers who learned management the academical way; MBAs and whatnot.
Most companies don’t have a culture.
It’s the hard truth. Probably some big giants realised that and started working on it (Google, Facebook, …you see the picture), but most companies try to avoid this management aspect, for the simple reason that they don’t see a need (or, they never heard about it).
Thing is, a culture will eventually implement itself, weather you like it or not. If you’re a B2B company, a structured more rigid culture will see the day in your company (unless you work on it), because, if you avoid installing a company culture, you will be affected by your ecosystem’s culture.
What’s more fun, is if you could model your culture manually.
Talent is as abundant as water nowadays.
Question that pops up is : why should I create a company culture ? my business is already doing good.
Sure.
If you drink water, you have to make a choice:
- Tap water is `almost` abundant and ~free.
- Bottled water is expensive. Really expensive.
- There is a water source a few kilometers away near the mountains.
And so if you want to hire good talent.
You could make a bet, hire whatever comes your way, not have a culture and pay the average salary in your industry …. or, attract talent by paying high salaries (while not having a company culture), or, do the best bet : have a strong well implemented company culture which will eventually attract great talent while paying average salaries.
Think about it !
You are totally right that culture is a major component of attracting great talent- a multinationals’ brand image will get applicants to send in their resumes- but they won’t stay long. I really have no idea when you are vastly beyond the startup stage and you realize your culture isn’t what you set out for it to be- you really have to fight- every day to stay in control of your company’s culture.
@Vence : That’s exactly my point; once you go past the brand and hit the culture side of things, perspective changes. And it’s indeed hard to fight to keep the culture intact; one major (personal) inspiration for a great company culture is Zappos. If you get a chance to read “Delivering Happiness” by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, you’ll see how far the guy went to keep his company culture flowing – and thus, build a Great company. I’ll blog more about Business Culture later on ;)