Gousto’s secret sauce: people and culture! Why we’ve refreshed the ownership principles we live by

The values we live by

Our Ownership Principles are our core values that we expect of ourselves and each other. They form the basis of our decision making and are a fundamental part of our culture; a culture that inspires our teams to dream big, deliver with impact and care.

Dialling up our purpose and mission

We defined our Ownership Principles early on in our journey. While they remain fundamentally the same, there are three main reasons we’ve updated them:

We are driven by purpose. Gousto was born out of a belief that food waste is a wrong that can be solved. We have moved mountains in the last year to reduce plastic packaging. We take our impact seriously. Purpose is part of our DNA and we wanted to reflect that even more in our Ownership Principles.

We are growing rapidly. Our team has doubled from 500 to 1,000 passionate and talented individuals in the past six months. We’ll soon be operating from four UK locations. We need to scale our culture too.

And finally the world has changed this year. From Covid-19 to the Black Lives Matter movement, 2020 has held up a mirror to society and encouraged us to reappraise what’s important. Having a purpose-driven business is more important than ever before.

Our refreshed Ownership Principles

Our vision is the same as it’s always been: to become the UK’s most-loved way to eat dinner. Equally our Ownership Principles remain centered around Dream, Deliver and Care. What’s changed is that we’ve dialled up our purpose and mission even more, while also better highlighting our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Dream

• Think big. We've got huge ambition and don't let boundaries get in the way. We don’t say “can’t”, we say “how”?
• Disagree & commit. We have the humility to listen, the conviction to disagree and the enthusiasm to commit to a decision.
• Be curious, learn & grow. We're resilient, adapt positively to change and always on the lookout for ways to improve. 

Deliver

• Focus on impact. We use data, insights and collective experience to understand where we can add the most value.
• Get things done. We're impatient for better. We work hard to make things happen at pace, raising the bar every step of the way.
• Own the solution. We don't just spot a problem, we take ownership of the solution and see it through.

Care

• Make a positive difference. For us, it’s not about personal success. We do the right thing for our customers, our people and our planet.
• Make 1+1=3. We combine our strengths and challenge each other, seeking and giving honest feedback to be the best we can be.
• Champion each other. We're proud to be one team and free to be ourselves, valuing our differences and celebrating one another.

Culture comes first

We are proud of our culture at Gousto. It is the foundation of our success and what keeps us going to achieve the impossible. It is all of our responsibility and my personal mission to protect & build our culture as we grow. Without our culture we lose our foundations; we lose what makes us special. This is why I am so excited to share our updated Ownership Principles and feel confident they will once again take us to the next level.