Our Culture at Gousto

Culture predicts success the most?

Culture is code for this is how we do things around here. It‘s an amalgamation of the winning behaviours we want to make as repeatable as possible. The more defined, understood, embedded and shared they are, the more likely a company succeeds. Over time, the culture benefit compounds.?

I talk to analysts, investors, fellow leaders and employees all the time. Everyone asks about past metrics, strategic direction, or valuation. But what truly predicts where a company will be in 5-10 years is its culture, and how intentional it‘s designed, embedded everywhere, and flexed depending on external factors.?

A quick recap of our unique culture?

Our Ownership Principles are the 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.

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.

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.?

How our culture is embedded into everything we do?

We try to embed culture into everything we do, and to name a few examples:?

• We hire based on culture?
• We promote based on behaviour, and our expectation around behaviours differs at every level?
• We give quarterly ownership awards to people nominated by colleagues for epitomising our Ownership Principles the most.
• Extra holidays, champagne and a very special lunch!?
• We have bi annual performance reviews that cumulate in personal development plans for every single employee, with huge focus on amplifying your super strengths?

The list goes on.?

Ten tenets define high performance cultures (IMHO)

So what makes a high performance culture great? I brainstormed and came up with ten tenets I think are true for all companies (but please challenge me on it):?

1. Vision and purpose driven leadership?
2. Customer focus with clear product market fit
3. Codified values, aka the winning behaviours we want to make as repeatable as possible?
4. Data, goals, strong financial forecasting, and meritocracy?
5. Operating model including purpose of each of our team/functions/tribes?
6. Extremely high people standards, leveraging potential above all, with people bets based on potential?
7. Growing yourself / what is it only you can do / commitment to development / managing your energy?
8. Ownership as a big part of compensation?
9. Psychological safety, two way feedback, empowering and active performance management, coaching mindset and PDP focus?
10. Focus on IDB, and you being your authentic you so that everyone can be their very best. This topic alone deserves a post as it’s so important!?

What's next re culture at Gousto?

Since pre Covid, we have grown by almost 4x, with the team jumping to c. 1,500. As of today, 47% of the office team have tenure under two years, and across heads of, Director and VP roles, 38% have under two years tenure. Making them the culture flag carriers is the single biggest unblock, accelerating performance again. To do so, I'm inviting the team to an offsite this autumn, in which we will go deep on culture. For instance, given the cost of living crisis, which of our ownership principles needs flexing the most and why? Beyond that, there is a huge opportunity to focus on the factory floor even more.?