One of the most important and difficult aspects of business is hiring. No one relishes the process of sifting through multitudes of applications to weed out the unqualified and unrelated. And the real work begins once we find candidates who meet the defined standards. Yet there is a step preceding the interview process far more slippery to define. Does this person “get” our culture?
Culture is something every business has. Good or bad, fun, inventive, laid-back, entrepreneurial, stoic, it can be anything. Culture comes from the people involved in the business. Many small businesses begin their lives as a tiny, like-minded group with the same goals and ideas. Quite often as a business grows, these views and beliefs are not as easily scaled. In general, the larger the business, the less defined the culture.
I’m not implying a large company can’t maintain a culture. It’s just a lot harder. And it is something that once was just part of the understood way, but now must become instilled in an expanding group.
Apple has created a culture of exceptional quality. Zappos has created a culture based on staggering customer service. Netflix has taken a business model that shifted from mailed DVD’s to streaming movies yet maintained a culture of service and innovation. All these companies and countless more use their culture to reinforce their brand and provide a sense of unity and strength for their employees, and at the same time, for their customers.
