Developing Company Culture

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about business and life is that people

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are the X Factor they constantly

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surprise us both in amazing ways and not

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so much we're Ben Andia and welcome to n

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on this business bites podcast this show

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is all about real life things we all

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deal with every day how they relate to

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business and how to make some sense out

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of our daily chaos welcome to the

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[Music]

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show

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and welcome back to another episode of

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non this business bites I'm Ben and this

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is CA and this week I want to talk

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about how to develop organizational

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culture

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culture no two cultures are the

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same no two companies are the same

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trying to be just like Google doesn't

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work

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work trying to be just like Netflix or

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Amazon or even the company down the

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street even if you do the exact same

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thing is not going to work because my

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people who work for my my company are

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going to be different from the people

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that work from your company my customers

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are going to be slightly different from

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your customers my my people are going to

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want need fear and have

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desires different from some other

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company

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we all need to look at culture as

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something that we build individually

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within our organization and it's going

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to evolve over time you're not going to

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build it

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overnight it's not an absolute and it's

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just like a website if you're not

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continually looking at it if you're not

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continually picking at it if you're not

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continually building upon it it's going

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to fall apart and we need to take a look

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at culture that way is that it's

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something that's continually evolving

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something that we're constantly having

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to look at and sit there and say is this

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still relevant does this still work for

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us is this still who we

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are and then be able to do the hard work

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to change things if the answer is no so

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seea let's know on this oh I love this I

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love this topic because it's it applies

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to both small and large organizations so

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I I worked for big companies I worked

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for Disney I worked for hilet

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Packard you can safely say those are

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large organizations but I've also worked

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for a mid- tier you know SMB size

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company I worked for sonic wall which

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had like less than: 3500

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at the time when I was there I work for

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my own company which is less than five

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people right so I think I feel like I've

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got this I've got this topic down

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because I feel it so case in point um

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you reminded me of uh my boyfriend

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worked at this company so I'm going to

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give a shout out to ignite Technologies

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got bought up by sonic wall back in 25

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years ago um it was 25 years ago how

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crazy is that well you were 15 at the

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time so yeah exactly I was 15 so uh the

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thing about their company was uh so

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Sonic well bought them they're reseller

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Partners but they did manage uh security

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and so they wanted that expertise of all

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these Engineers who actually knew how to

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be the Outsource right uh you know

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management

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for security and one thing I loved about

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this group it was only 25 people in that

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company small company but they managed

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some really huge accounts um their

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corporate culture their company culture

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started at the Top If you will it was

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started out by a group of friends and a

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parent investor uh that were

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extraordinary competent people and as

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they

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grew they brought in people that they

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all knew they were all referrals so

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again small company for 25 people it's

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it's you know you should assume at some

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point but they had some out PE out

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Outsiders come in as well and what they

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learned and what I observed was they

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were a bunch of folks who probably

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didn't know HR stuff that you can and

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can't say but that they were learning it

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together and they had the ability to

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give each other Grace to learn and that

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is part of their culture because they

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were also Engineers solving big problems

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they did it together and I think by

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virtue of that job that they were doing

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it just created this like um camaraderie

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uh commiseration together when they're

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like oh no something went down like they

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all jumped in and pitched in to help

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with their expertise uh that as they

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grew even the outside hires kind of

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caught on very quickly this company

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isn't like alone wolf hero situation

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this was all hands on deck when all

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hands on deck needed to be made and I

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loved and I always have loved that uh

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camaraderie that they built up to the

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point where now 25 years later we still

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go meet up we still meet up everyone

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spread out internationally but we will

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meet up in Vegas like you know once a

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year to just to be together again to me

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that is a company culture that you want

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to emulate over and over again and it's

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sometimes difficult to scale that and I

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think it's very difficult to scale that

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and and how do you do that I thought I

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thought hulet Packard actually as they

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grew they really had a great company

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corporate culture for a long time for as

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long as it could sustain itself with the

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economic conditions of Technology it did

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evolve let's be honest it obviously has

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and will always but there was when I

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first joined in: 2009

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n we'll just say some time ago there um

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I felt the familial side of it like I

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actually felt like the different

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divisions there was a lot of desire to

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be there and then I won't say whatever

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reason but let's just say it it stopped

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becoming that it it stopped being that

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because we had to be

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competitive and so let me ask you this

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question now that I'm thinking about

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this and I'm walking through the

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process at what point does company

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culture that you cultivate make your

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company complacent and not

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Innovative you know that that's an

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interesting thing and before I get there

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the question comes down to how are you

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you growing are you growing organically

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or are you going through

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acquisition because when you grow

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through acquisition you become a

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Frankenstein company if you're not

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careful it's very difficult to grow

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through acquisition and not become a

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Frankenstein company it's it's our

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culture versus their culture because

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very few companies on board the new

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employees from the from the

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acquisition effectively because they the

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they'll sit there and they'll give you

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your badge and they'll give you your

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business cards and they'll give you your

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desk and your phone and maybe a

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territory but they don't onboard the

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culture they don't spend the two weeks

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needed to a month depending on where it

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is actually getting people involved with

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the culture and building a buddy system

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between people that have been in the

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culture for a while and people that are

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new to the culture and bu helping them

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build that bridge so that's that is I

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find is a big Challenge and the bigger

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the company gets the harder it gets and

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that can lead to what you were saying

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about companies you know losing their

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Innovation because they you're dealing

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with a variety of different cultures

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that might have been in you know some of

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them might have been Innovative some of

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them might have been more conservative

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some of them think this way some of them

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think that way and therefore the culture

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tends to evolve based upon the people

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that are part of it and and quite

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honestly the leadership if you have if

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you have Innovative leadership if you

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have risk you know risk tolerant

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leaderships that have an ability to sit

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there and say look we're going to change

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we're going to evolve this is the beehag

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we're going after this is the the big

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hairy audacious goal these are the

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things that we're aspiring to this is

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why and this is what's we're going to

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get to when we get

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there then you can build doesn't matter

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how big you are

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the ab you have the ability to be able

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to grow and be able to grow through

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Innovation however most large companies

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the bigger they get the more

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conservative they get because they have

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shareholders they have stakeholders they

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have you know uh stock prices that

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they're they're you know that they have

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to justify every every 60 to 90 days you

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know you have all those different

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factors so as companies get

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larger they lose their risk tolerance

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and therefore they become more

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conservative and therefore their culture

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becomes more conservative you know they

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also have layers upon layers upon layers

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of

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management yeah and therefore the

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bureaucracy builds and as the

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bureaucracy builds you either have a

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small group of people that say Hey

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listen better to ask for forgiveness

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than

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permission and those people are either

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tolerated they're spun out or they're

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given their walk

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papers yeah okay so let's think about

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this I I wonder and you made a big Point

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here if we had the ability to cross

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train like meaning all new hires as part

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of their orientation is to work with a

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different division different group and

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learn their ways U maybe it's not a new

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hire maybe it's like a six months into

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the job thing like you got to learn your

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job first right so maybe it might be

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maybe it might be for the folks that

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have been there a year they get an

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opportunity to cross train you know what

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I've never thought about this before

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because I actually did this when I was

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at Disney we got to cross train um with

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the characters because uh when we first

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uh worked with the Goofy's Kitchen

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concept yes I was one of the OG Pilots

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woohoo anyway yeah I done date myself

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yet again uh but the character

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department they were just like dudes you

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can't be like pulling on me all the time

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to get to your table and your restaurant

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you know like we we have a process we

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have to flow through you can't just be

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yanking us all over the place because it

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screws up the flow it screws up the the

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organization of it right because all the

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characters have to like sped their time

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out right absolutely and uh I appreciate

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that cross trading because I got to see

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I got to live in their

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shoe why do you think we don't see that

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often enough okay that's my ultimate

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questions why do you think we don't see

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is it because we don't got time it's not

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important enough what do you think I

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think we don't make the time and we and

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it's not just Justified and seen as

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expens important enough people sit there

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and say this cost money here's a perfect

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example there's a company just

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preco that I was working with and what

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we were going to do is they had just

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acquired they were 50,000 employee

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company and they were just about to

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acquire an 8,000 person company and they

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were basically acquiring them for their

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technology they they make no bones about

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it they were they're buying them because

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their technology

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I said what's it going to cost you guys

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to on board these people oh there' be

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llions it's going to be about: 2425

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millionar to onboard about $: 3500

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person to onboard these people I said

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okay if you don't onboard them properly

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what we're going to lose now we'll lose

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30% of these people you know easily

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we'll lose 30% of the people I said can

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I say that that's going to cost you you

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know somewhere in the neighborhood of 80

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to $100,000 a a person they said yeah

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that's that's about right so say say

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we're you know we're lose about 2,000

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2,000 people at somewhere in the

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neighborhood of 100,000 80 to 100,000 so

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that's that's six that's $16

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million so you know do we spend $24

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million to save to save $16 million

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that's the question what we proposed

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instead was we created an internal

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private and secure podcast that went out

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to every single employee over three

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years

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and that

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podcast was behind closed doors it was

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stream only it wasn't on its pod Spotify

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it wasn't on iHeart and it was designed

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to build the cultural relationships to

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get everybody to know each other to

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understand why people do what they do

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what do different departments do what's

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important to them how do they how does

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things get passed from one to the other

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and the

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ideology and this was going to cost them

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somewhere in the neighborhood of 10%

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of what it would have cost them to do a

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traditional on board over three years so

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instead of a oneandone it was it was a

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three-year program it was going to cost

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them

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10% and we were all set to go ahead with

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this and then Co came and other

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priorities obviously came the thing but

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the problem is companies don't

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realize what it cost them to not have

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Harmony within the company to to not

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have people understanding why people do

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what they do who the top customers are

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and why what are the what are the pain

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points of the

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customers yeah think of what happened if

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if your operations people understood who

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your top 10 clients were what their pain

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points are what these people did and who

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they

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served do you think that would change

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the way that that that the stuff got

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pick packed and shipped and and and sent

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out and and the level of care and the

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level of attention that God done I think

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it would so we need to take a look at

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say at this is is not just you know a

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singularity but how does it affect how

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does the culture and how does this

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affect the organization as a

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whole you know you just got me thinking

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on that like I'm a huge fan of internal

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podcasts um more so than external facing

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because it's they serve different

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purposes first off right Walmart

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actually has

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an it was originally started as an

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internal podcast that they started

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playing over like like now they call it

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the Walmart radio yep and it's like you

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know hey meet your Regional director and

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all that stuff but you know what you

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also remind me of is like

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that maybe competitive Spirit but there

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was a again a a camaraderie between

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departments when you do you like

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decorate your Christmas tree competition

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you know what I mean and it's like each

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department had their own little thing

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and then everyone would just parade

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around and check each other's out right

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now granted if you're a huge company you

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can still absolutely do it by just doing

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a video competition of your own said you

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know how do you celebrate the holidays

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and

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whatnot it's such a simple Act of just

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giving a moment of reprieve outside of

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your daily task to let your mind wander

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and have some fun that I think I think

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is I think is what's needed to to help

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build that culture of you know I'm not

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saying it's got to be fun times Party

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Times all the time but it's got to be a

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but there ain't nothing wrong with

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having a little fun every now and then

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either right but but a culture and and

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we we should end with this is that a

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culture doesn't always have to be

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Kumbaya no there are cultures out there

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that are hard grinding hard-hitting you

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know business business-only

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cultures and they attract people that

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that's the type of business that they

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want to be in exactly and and there's

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nothing wrong with them if if that if

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you self- select into that culture and

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you sit there and say you know what I'm

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not into this woke stuff I'm not into

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this fairy dust I you know I want to

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work for a company that's serious people

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doing serious things you know to hang

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with political correctness I you know we

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just we just work and we have a lot of

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fun together and you know and we're and

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and everybody works hard and plays hard

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that's a different type of culture 100

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you know what 100% tracks a certain

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level of people so not every culture has

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to be this Kumbaya hold hands and and

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and and go you know go uh you know uh uh

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canoeing together culture there there's

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all sorts of cultures for all sorts of

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companies and what the culture should do

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is not only self- select but self-

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deflect

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interesting I feel like we keep talking

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I know we're running way over time so so

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there we go so we we'll leave it there

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so I'm Ben and I'm seea and we'll see

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you

17:04

soon hey hey hey thanks for listening to

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