“Don’t fuck up the culture.” - I love this article on Medium by Brian Chesky - CEO Airbnb.This makes sense and I hope every entrepreneur out there will do everything to uphold the core values of their company - that is the foundation!
He replied, “Don’t fuck up the culture.” “This wasn’t what we were expecting from someone who just gave us $150M. I asked him to elaborate on this. He said one of the reasons he invested in us was our culture. But he had a somewhat cynical view that it was practically inevitable once a company gets to a certain size to “fuck it up.” Hmm… How depressing I thought.” Don’t Fuck Up the Culture | by Brian Chesky | Medium
At Travelstart, one of our core values is ‘Less is More’. It’s all about simplicity, which is evident on our websites and apps.
What I love most about Travelstart is that I wear casual clothes and wear flip flops to the office everyday except for days I’m having a business meeting, which is quite amazing… and the staff all fit the culture… so imagine if things gets fucked up and I’m told to start wearing suit and boogie shoes…? Funny huh?
“The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing. People can be independent and autonomous.”
To uphold your company culture, I think you should hire people who fit your culture… People who will realize how important it is to work as a team and not as individuals…
What are your thoughts? Do you think the culture of a company should change as it grows bigger?
That is no definite source for building an appropriate culture quite alright. Engagement within a Startup is a process of trust and communication. Hence; a transparent culture.
As companies grow bigger, I think they should strive in making their cultures more unique and communicate it. They can continue to win loyalty and engagement with their workers through a feedback via an in-house survey.
So you don’t f*ck up the culture, rather, you improve the culture to yield better productivity.
That’s actually quite routine for engineering- and technology-focused companies (in the US). In my 12 years working as a software engineer everywhere from VIACOM to MLB, I’ve never been required to wear a suit or a tie—except for the time I spent working for [redacted] in Lagos! I was mostly amused; it strikes me as antiquated to insist that persons who will not interact with your customers dress to present themselves formally.
But that’s not culture. Even as we wore jeans, t-shirts and sneakers, some of the places I worked featured vicious backstabbing and internecine politics. Culture is what actually encourages your people to collaborate and create value, what empowers them to make decisions and grow the business in ways that you as an entrepreneur couldn’t necessarily anticipate. Culture is minimal hierarchy, open doors, open communication.
Be careful: this is how some companies end up very homogenous: because other candidates “weren’t a good culture fit.” A strong culture can bring in diverse personalities, backgrounds and perspectives and absorb their positives while sharing its own.