Culture or Commodity: What kind of company do you want?

by Scott Battishill, principal, Curator?

For a business to get off the ground and make it past year one it is all about talent, hustle, and strength of product/service. To succeed beyond that it takes all those things plus culture. Without culture the brand will become a commodity – and being a commodity is a race to the bottom.

An article in Entrepreneur Magazine says, “According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,?as reported by Fundera , approximately 20 percent of small businesses fail within the first year. By the end of the second year, 30 percent of businesses will have failed. By the end of the fifth year, about half will have failed. And by the end of the decade, only 30 percent of businesses will remain — a 70 percent failure rate.”

When I started Curator nearly 15 years ago I placed culture—along with our offering, execution, and client relations—as a top priority for our brand. Prior to founding Curator I spent nearly a decade at DDB, one of the largest agencies in the world. Our CEO had a “no assholes” policy, which meant he wouldn’t hire one no matter how talented they were, and he’d fire clients that acted like one. Huge position to take in an industry that’s only product is the talent of its team members and its only life blood is its clients. The result was a truly wonderful place to work. I liked every person I worked with at DDB and still do. It was a stimulating environment that fostered creativity.

Knowing the environment I wanted to create at Curator meant doing all the culture things from day one, which is awkward when the entire company, at that time, was two people, one of whom was part-time. But I firmly believed then, which has netted out to be true all these years later, you can’t create culture in reverse. I didn’t want to wait until we had a critical mass of team members to start creating the elements that make up team culture. So, as awkward as it was we did all the things I envisioned a full team doing, as two people. Then there were three, then four, then 10, then… and it became not awkward at all, but it had meaning because it was who we were as a brand.

For a creative agency to sustain success over a number of years in addition to all the talent things that have to be present 100-percent of the time, I believe with every part of my being, the senior leadership team has to place culture as priority 1A right along with the talent intangibles. As you’re building your team’s culture take into consideration the following things I’ve learned over time:

·??Culture is more than Happy Hours: Happy Hours and birthday celebrations and things like summer hours are all tactical parts of a team’s culture. But culture has to permeate every part of your brand: the type of benefits you offer your team, the freedom you allow them to make mistakes, and the openness to their form of creativity (not just yours) to achieve results for your clients.

·??Make training your team a priority: One of my mentors is Ron Elgin who was the CEO and then Chairman of DDB in Seattle. We were talking one day about training programs for team members and a member of the senior leadership team said, “what if we spend all this money on them and they leave?” Ron said, “what if we don’t and they stay?” One of things I’m really proud of at Curator is where our team members go after they leave us. To a person they have gone on to work for amazing brands and take on significant positions. I’d far rather they stay! But I’m proud knowing we helped them become better during their time at Curator. Our senior vice president, Dan Miller does an excellent job of leading our career development program and creates group training curriculum as well as individual growth plans that he takes very seriously. Invest in your team’s individual growth. As they get better so does your brand. Win-win.

·??Listen: Hate to be the one to tell you this, friend, but you don’t have all the answers. I don’t care how long you’ve been doing your thing or how many awards you’ve won for it – your team members have ideas that will make it better. Be open to listen and implement their thinking. True collaboration is part of culture.

·??Communicate Culture: A workout trainer I like a lot says, “you get good at what you practice – if you practice discipline you get good at it, if you practice quitting you get good at it.” Make culture a cornerstone of your brand. Talk about it with your team, make it overt. You get good at what you practice.

·??Hire for Talent AND Culture: We are very direct in our hiring practice. We say we’re hiring for two things: talent and cultural fit. It’s not importance level 1 and 2, it’s 1A and 1B. They go in lock step. If you surround your brand with people who come in understanding the role of culture it just keeps getting better.

I hope your brand gets to be one of the 30-percent that makes it past year 10 and I’m confident if you focus on culture it will help you get there. Plus, don’t you just want to spend your day with people you like? I’m so thankful for all the team members, past and present, at Curator. It is truly because of them we’re staring down year 15 with many more to come.

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