Get the culture right, and everything else just falls into place.
The brand is just a lagging indicator of a company's culture.
Anything too far out of tune with our attitude is lost, either in the ears themselves or somewhere beyond, but it is lost.
Turning a culture around is very difficult to do because it's based on a series of many, many decisions, and the organization is framed by those decisions.
The other thing is even the Jews in the course - even though metaphorically aligning themselves with Indians, and, you know, you have genocide aligning itself with another genocide.
The policies of the Democratic Party have always been in cultural consonance with the culture of the working class. And, somehow, they missed that.
When I interview people, I look at their values. I always say that the best chance of success is if the individual's values are aligned with the corporate values.
Values hold the team together, provide stability for the team to grow upon, measure the team's performance, give direction and guidance and attract like-minded people.
You need a team that speaks your language.
I see many founders waste too much time trying to work their networks and/or ultimately settle for mediocre but available candidates. You will definitely have to interview hard for cultural fit, but the best talent isn't cheap.
The significant mistake of the traditionalists is they require the people to start where the church is instead of the church starting where the people are. Innovators begin by asking, 'What do we need to do to reach the people where they are?'
... if it's not your style to stretch and go the extra mile to make sure our customer experience is great, you're going to have an allergic reaction to this company. You probably won't stay. If you do try and stay, but can't adapt to the culture then it will reject you like a virus from a healthy immune system.
In my experience, it is the leader - the CEO - who plays the crucial role in creating and 'owning' an organization's culture, setting the tone, and executing on that consistently.
Having a clear mission and making sure you know that mission and making sure that mission comes through the company is probably the most important thing you can do for both culture and values.
You have to be very closely linked to the beliefs of the people. This is the core issue. When there is divergence between your policy and the people's beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance.
We decided that if we get the culture right, most of the stuff, like building a brand around delivering the very best customer service, will just take care of itself.
When I arrived, I didn't understand London customers perfectly, but we've developed the right style with the right price, and step by step, I'm in harmony with London.
Our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand or empowering passionate employees and customers, will happen on its own.
You can adhere to your faith, but that faith needs to march in line with the rest of the world and needs to find a way of expressing itself in the modern world.
Usually, the first three months post acquisition are up and down. The acquirer and the acquiree are trying to figure out how to interact. The founders of the acquiree are usually tired from the deal process and adjusting to their new reality.
The fundamental keys to the culture of any organization can only be achieved when everyone is on the same page.
One of the things we often miss in succession planning is that it should be gradual and thoughtful, with lots of sharing of information and knowledge and perspective, so that it's almost a non-event when it happens.
If the person who runs a company has a belief system and everything he does stays fairly truly to that system, it will attract like-minded people who buy into it and then keeps selling itself in concentric circles.
Once you have a culture problem, it's very hard to fix.
If the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.
