A healthy company culture is now as important to the success of an SME as your business’s tech stack or finance department. 就像这两个例子, 它影响到企业中的每件事和每个人, from how productive your team is to the perception your customers have of you – whether positive or negative.
So why is something so essential so hard to pin down and implement? Part of the reason is to do with the investment SMEs are willing to put into creating a culture.
文化必须适应
一种文化要想成功, it needs to be adopted throughout a business and understood by all functions and teams. But often the difficulty stems from the fact a company culture is a living and breathing thing that needs to adapt with change.
一个重要的例子就是Facebook. In the early days, Facebook’s motto was ‘move fast and break things’. 当马克·扎克伯格创造这个词的时候, who at that time could’ve predicted Facebook would scale to a global superpower, 拥有30亿用户.
近来, Facebook放弃了这句座右铭, 由于它的大小, influence in the world and the fact Facebook was no longer a small Silicon Valley upstart with a few servers – not to mention a number of high-profile scandals, 是什么让这句格言站不住脚.
Facebook必须适应, as many other SME companies who go from a bootstrapped startup to a Series C business with millions of pounds of turnover will have to adapt.
“为什么”陷阱
近年来, people have begun to confuse culture with a business’s ‘why’ or its purpose for being. 很多都要归功于西蒙·斯涅克, 《澳门十大正规赌博娱乐平台》畅销书作家, who is famous for proclaiming the world’s greatest businesses – e.g. Apple – are driven by a purpose other than to sell products, which forms their ‘why’.
这与早期创业者有关, it’s incredibly important for businesses to know their true ‘why’, 但这本身并不是公司文化的支柱.
It’s not about what the business does…it’s about how it does it
以我们自己为例, Praetura’s what is to back founders and help them to build the best businesses they can. 另一方面, our why – or the reason for doing this – is to make funding more readily available to underserved founders in the North of England, where there is an annual £9bn shortfall in VC compared to London.
In terms of our how – which is much more key to our culture – we pride ourselves on providing More Than Money. 你可以把它称为座右铭或咒语, these words determine most of our behaviour as a VC and our willingness to go the extra mile for founders.
Communicate your culture clearly – internally and externally
As mentioned earlier, culture requires a large investment of time and effort. 从哪里开始, 大多数企业经常绘制思维导图, detailing their company’s core values and what being at work should feel like – e.g. everyone from the COO to the sales executive should feel heard and empowered. 接下来，问问你自己，这在实践中看起来如何.g. 托管规则Q&每个人都有发言权.
当沟通有效时, 积极的文化具有不可思议的吸引力, as people who feel looked after often speak favourably about the company they work for externally. They become advocates for the business, making decisions that benefit the company they work for – e.g. 在演讲中发言或参与ESG倡议.
对你的文化进行压力测试，但也要让它活下去
If you’re a founder, it’s not enough for a culture to only make sense to you and you alone. A culture is the sum of its parts – or, in this case, the sum of your people. After communicating the culture you’re trying to create to your team and any newcomers, test it. 你可以从评估公司的eNPS得分开始, which measures whether staff would recommend your business as a good place to work.
同时, 文化不是一蹴而就的, so be forgiving if it feels like change isn’t happening quick enough. 而不是彻底改革, tweak one or two things to see if they have a positive or negative effect on company culture.
涓滴效应
None of the above guidance is relevant unless the message trickles down from the top. 企业文化的存亡取决于公司董事会的表现, its partners and its senior leaders embody the values a business has laid out for itself.
Team members who aren’t managers or part of the C-suite need to see that the talk around culture isn’t just for pitch decks and ESG reports. They need to see that the success of the business ultimately rests on everyone moving in the same direction.
正确处理企业文化的理由
If a business is making money and is profitable every year, culture may seem like less of a priority. 但不要被这种想法愚弄了. Successful companies with poor cultures are often unsustainable and more times than not prone to poor staff retention, 紧张的关系和唯利是图的文化, where loyalty may not be shown in times of low growth or difficulty, 没有哪个创始人能幸免. 毫无疑问，文化很重要.
