Company Culture Part 2

Hi, Stuart here,

In our last newsletter, we introduced the topic of  company culture.  We discussed how small decisions we make can change the "feel" of your company to your employees and also to your customers.

In this issue, I want to demonstrate how company culture affects the long term success of your company and how we sometimes have to fight to keep the company culture that we have worked hard to create.

Consider these three companies (names withheld):

#1 This is a small inter-mountain west company that at one point was making around $17 Million per year.

It started out as a small "mom and pop" organization with a great idea and a great product line.  They added sales people and soon realized they needed a pretty large customer service department.  The clients they sold the big ticket items to remained faithful customers for years.

The Customer Service dept was actually a secondary sales team that helps the clients sell more products to 'their' customers.  The original clients LOVED the customer service dept.

They had a company culture that felt like a big happy family.  They would barbecue burgers on most Friday lunches and the company picked up the tab most of the time.

They had a very cool thing they did every 3rd Monday when their newest clients would come in for 3 days of training on the equipment they had just purchased.  (not positive, but I'm pretty sure company #1 paid for all the training and travel expenses except for actually getting to the city where the training occurred.)

The company purchased matching shirts that were kind of like colored lab coats.  Everyone would leave their post (except a small skeleton crew) and, wearing the matching shirts, would go across to the training facility and introduce nearly all 60 of the employees to the new clients.  What a demonstration of customer support after the sale.

"This is Sally, she will help research any new products you have requests for from your customers."   Etc.

They grew to 60 employees.  Had a great run for many years.  They served a lot of people and in turn they made a lot of money.

Then they sold the company to some investors in New York.

The story continues below.


#2  This is the consulting firm I discussed in the first issue on company culture.



#3  A Web Development Company

Now let's look where they are today:

Company #1

Company #2

Company #3

Company Culture

Welcome to the first issue of the Small Business Solutions Newsletter!

Glad to have you aboard.

I have a lot of information coming your way.

Let me give a quick bio of my small business experience.

• Owner/Officer of 3 small businesses (2 still going strong)
• Worked with very large companies for 15 years, but as a consultant (from small companies)
• As an employee or sub contractor, I have been involved with small businesses for over 30 years.
• Employer of over 14 employees
• Also doing business in our Rental Company with just me and my wife.
• Bachelor of Business Administration from Idaho State University.
• And So Much More!

The topic for this first edition of the newsletter is:

Company Culture

What are you doing from day to day that makes your company unique?.  Both to your customers and to any employees you may have?

In my career, I have been in many company across the US and Canada.  Company culture varies from one extreme to another.  Of course it will depend on the local climate, are you in a large or small city?  How many employees?

Many factors affect and offer different options in your corporate culture.  But the good news is: you can decide what your company culture is like.

Some companies have fitness contests or rewards, others have a coffee pot and junk food in every department.  Some have very flexible office hours, others are very tight and strict.

How you set up your company culture has a wide and far reaching effect on your long term success; For either good or ill.

I once worked with a consulting firm that had 25 employees/contractors while I was there.  They paid fairly well, but their company culture was hard to deal with.  For instance, the company required you to have and pay for all the following items (at your own expense).....

• Cell phone - big boxy things that had voice only.  $79/month plus several hundred for the phone.
• Pager - texting was not available at that time.  $100 for the pager and about $45/month.
• You had to take out an American Express card in your own name.  If things got tied up in accts payable or accounting in general and your month ended, YOU were stuck with the penalties.  Each month could run between $5,000 and $10,000 for travel expenses.
• You were required to attend meetings in some other state.  The company claimed to pay for travel, hotel, materials and meals, etc. but somehow I always ended up on the short end of things.
• Then you were required, (ok, STRONGLY expected) to eat out for lunch with your group even when working in the home office, on your own dime.

So they paid fairly well, but with all those expenses eating at your pay, you were back to a meager, new from college wage.

THEN I moved to a different consulting firm.  They were AMAZING.  I was a contractor this time and not an employee, so things were different.

• First of all the pay was close to 4 times as much as the prior company.
• Cell phone technology and plans had changed a lot so it was 30% cheaper with lots more features.
• No pager necessary
• They threw really great parties.  I was not an employee, so I was not eligible for some of the benefits, but they treated me so well!
• They were centered 1600 miles from my house.  If they had a meeting, anywhere, it was a flight to get there.  They said, we would love to have you come, and bring your wife if you can.  If you can't come, that's ok too.
• It was much closer to a medium-sized supportive family.

Every time we left one of their meetings, holiday parties, or what ever, my wife and I would look at each other and say, again, "How did we get hooked up with these people?"  It was wonderful.

So, there are 2 companies doing nearly the exact same work, but with completely different corporate cultures. The first company was very micromanaging and in your face.  The 2nd was more trusting, rewarding and let you be your own manager.  If you had questions or other trouble, they were there to help.

 In part 2 of our culture discussion, we will talk about 3 examples of companies, decisions they made, how their culture changed, and where they are now.


Please share any good or horror stories relating to company culture you may have experienced in the comments below.  I'd love to hear from you.