Shirish is what you’d call a serial entrepreneur; he’s well versed in startup ventures, having co-founded Livemocha and TeamOn Systems to great success. Our conversation was a fascinating one – I highly suggest jumping over to my Success Story Podcast channel on YouTube to hear more about Shirish’s career.company culture:
Jaques argued that the different behaviors of the workers was not due to their individual personalities, but rather to the culture of the factory in which they worked. The shared set of assumptions, values and norms that guided the behavior of members within an organization became known as 'company culture'.
Without a strong company culture that binds employees together and drives them towards a common goal, your startup is at risk of becoming just another failed venture. You'll experience symptoms such as:When employees don't share a common culture, they often don't know what the company stands for or where it's going. This can lead to confusion and a lack of motivation.A toxic company culture can quickly sap employee morale, leading to decreased productivity and engagement.
Before all of this, however, Shirish was an employee at Microsoft in its early stages in 1987. He was given the responsibility of launching Microsoft’s email software at just 26 years old, and was also responsible for the acquisition and launch of Hotmail . “The reason that the culture is important is that at some point, the company is going to outgrow you, and you will not have the opportunity to work with everyone. And so you want to make sure that the culture defines the guardrails and the process by which your employees will make decisions...Shirish gave the example of Amazon as a company that prioritizes its culture well. The company has laid out 14 principles by which employees should abide.
But don't worry, you don't have to do it alone. You can involve your team in the process and get their buy-in.What is important to you and your team? What are your core values? Define them and make sure everyone is on the same page.What is your company trying to achieve? What are its goals? Again, make sure everyone is on board with this.These help to define and strengthen your culture. They can be as simple as daily stand-ups, team lunches or Friday beers.