Six Ways to Create and Build a Successful Company Culture Creating and building the right Company Culture gives the clients/prospective and current employees, stakeholders, suppliers a blue print to the Company
By Amishi Mehta
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What do we mean by Company Culture? It's building the characteristics of a Company. Culture, is important for clients as much as it is for prospective employees or stakeholders. Creating and building the right Company Culture gives the clients / prospective and current employees, stakeholders, suppliers a blue print to the Company.
Company culture is very much like raising a child. After giving birth or starting a Company, as parents or founders when you have to decide what core values, beliefs, behavior would you want the child to have akin to values, beliefs, behavior of the Company. Do you want the child to follow his/her dreams or have you taken a decision of what the child should grow up to be, similar to having a traditionalistic or a modernist culture.
1.Traditionalist or Modernist culture:
Conventionally, a Company culture starts top-down which is known as a Traditionalistic Culture. The values and morals of the Founders are translated into a Company Culture. Here the hierarchies are clearly defined. A classic example of a successful traditionalistic culture is Walmart.
Whereas in a Modernistic culture: one could have a flat structure, which encourages a lot of transparency. An example of a flat Company structure would be Nike.
Innovative culture: is where the habit of thinking out of the box is cultivated. Examples of an innovative Company culture are Google, Apple where they constantly strive for innovation.
A progressive Company culture: is where there is a constant change to stay abreast the ever-changing dynamics of the industrial evolution. An example of a progressive Company culture is Linkedin.
2.Mission:
Define a mission for your Company. Why do you exist? What are the goals of the Company?
Some great examples: -
Google "Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"
The walt Disney "The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world."
Linkedin "To connect the world's professionals and make them more productive and successful."
3. Vision:
Where do you see yourself in 5 years or 100 years from now? Provide a concise statement for everyone to understand your vision be it stakeholders, employees and your potential clients. A good example:
Amazon "To be Earth's most customer-centric Company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices."
4. Values:
What sort of values would the Company uphold? It could be anything from dependability, honesty, efficient, eco-friendly, progressive etc. A good example:
Starbucks
With our partners, our coffee and our customers at our core, we live these values:
- Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome.
- Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results.
We are performance driven, through the lens of humanity,
5. What's your story?
What made you want to start the Company? How did you get here? An opportunity to create a story that a potential client, employee, stakeholder could associate with. Example:
Lego "Guided by the Company spirit: "Only the best is good enough', the Company is committed to the development of children and aims to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through creative play and learning."
6. Company norms:
What set of rules and regulations would the Company have? What is mandatory? What can be flexible? List the absolutes and the conditional norms. Example: The Company will be open 7 days a week (Absolute). In case of a sick leave, it will be accepted, only if a medical certificate is produced. (Conditional)
Once you are done deciding the preliminaries, think of it as taking your child to school for the first ever interview akin to parent who can't wait to flaunt how their child who has learnt capitals of the world much before starting school. Your Company can now be brought to the fore, for the world to experience.
