What The Best Companies Do

In your quest to create a brilliant culture that works for your organisation, drives your strategic objectives and enables your success, you must remember to remain authentic, and create something that’s unique to your company. But that doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch.

Businesses all over the world have wrestled with the challenge of culture development for hundreds of years, in thousands of different ways. I’ve spent my career studying what the best companies in the world do and translating that into practical tools you can apply to your enterprise.

The secret is, you can accelerate your success not by copying what others do, but by modelling the traits of the very best in the world. And there are key themes that develop when you look at hundreds of successful companies.

So, what are they? What do the very best companies in the world do when it comes to creating a brilliant, highly effective culture.

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1.??????? They are VERY clear on why they exist, where they’re going and who they are.

In the most successful companies, there’s very little ambiguity. Clarity is king, and seeps through the organisation, forming a solid foundation on which everything else is built. And that clarity starts with absolute precision of Mission & Purpose. Companies with highly engaged workforces that display significant levels of discretionary effort, creativity, innovation and high performance are driven by an unerring sense of the difference they’re trying to make in the world, and why that difference matters.

There’s a distinct, deliberate direction of travel, too. There may be details that still need to be worked out, but overall, the company’s leadership know where they’re headed, what the organisation will look like when they get there, and the key drivers of their success. They communicate these things consistently to their teams, so everybody in the business understands what the future holds. You can’t anticipate everything, of course – and it wouldn’t be much fun if you could – but by painting a clear picture of what lies ahead, the best companies create a vision of the future that their people can see their own path in.

Naturally, there are many ways you can achieve a set of objectives, but the best businesses have a strong sense of personality, driven by agreed-upon Values that shape the way they work. They know who they are, and they don’t compromise that to appeal to “the market”. Often, there are people who identify strongly with them, and others who resist – they’re not for everyone. These organisations use their Values to forge the culture that drives their success, connecting the behaviours they want to see with reward, recognition and achievement.

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2.??????? They hire the right people, not just people with the right skills

Technical skills are important, especially in highly specialized fields like Biotech. But a collection of people with the right skills doesn’t necessarily make for an effective team – it’s the coming together of individual, diverse characters with complementary strengths that enables performance. Great companies use the Values they’ve identified as central to their culture to ensure they hire the right people, those who already align with who the company is and compound its unique environment.

The best companies are normally (but not always) hotbeds of diversity too, and they definitely don’t prioritise “culture fit”. I’ve talked about culture fit at length in other blogs, but in short, it’s a flawed concept, typically very subjective, and leads to homogenous teams, quashing diversity. If we agree that diversity is a good thing – which has been proven to be true, at least as it relates to innovation, problem solving and overall business performance – then we need to look beyond culture fit.

That doesn’t mean you can just hire anyone, though. Bring the wrong group with the right skills together, and you’re headed for disaster. Excellent companies focus on Values fit instead, creating specific competencies from the Values that define them and testing candidates against them. By doing so, they’re able to assemble diverse teams that still share common ground in the areas that really matter, but have varied backgrounds, experience, perspectives and ways of thinking.

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3.??????? They align objectives, manage performance and invest in their people

I’ve been working with Biotech companies on creating brilliant cultures for a couple of decades now, and it still surprises me when I talk to leadership teams who, from the outside, look like they’re doing everything right – exciting science, success in fundraising, great profiles in the business – but that, under the surface, make key mistakes in performance management.

These are the companies who agree on corporate objectives for the year around about April, then manage to cascade them down to individuals by the end of the summer. When they’ve set those objectives, they’ll be reviewed once a quarter (if you’re lucky), unless the employee is particularly proactive and takes control of their interactions with their line managers. (If you find one of these people, by the way, promote them immediately!). If there’s any attention paid to skills development, it’ll be in the form of development goals, rather than clear plans, and they’ll typically consist of attending a couple of conferences or reading a book or two.

The best businesses do things differently. Given the clarity of mission that already exists, they translate their long-term goals into company objectives well ahead of time, often several years into the future. The year will have specific outcomes from the start, and a “golden thread” will be evident from these outcomes through to quarterly priorities, monthly objectives and weekly action plans for each individual. Every single person will know exactly what they need to deliver, and managers will align objectives to ensure there’s no accidental overlap or gaps, and that the team are working in the same direction.

Performance will be closely monitored, not to micromanage or control, but to identify issues early, provide proactive support and communicate setbacks quickly. While objectives will be stretching, team members will have tailored development plans, tied to their goals, that ensure they develop the skills they need to deliver, and that increase the capability of the organisation from one day to the next.

As a result, there are high levels of engagement and enthusiasm, performance is excellent and problems are tackled when they’re small, rather than festering and growing.

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4.??????? They listen and try to improve the environment

Exceptional companies are in no way perfect. The key distinction is, they recognise that and consistently try to improve. This goes for everything they do, including how they deliver for their customers, how effectively they run their operations and, of course, how their people feel about their working environment.

Your team don’t expect you to be perfect, either. They do, however, expect you to listen to their feedback and frustrations, and to attempt to make things better. The very best companies know that the people with the most impactful ideas are usually the ones at the coalface, and they spend lots of time, energy and money to get feedback from those people. When they have that feedback, which typically comes in many forms through a variety of channels, they act on it, removing interference, providing resources, and changing things that really matter to the people responsible for their success.

Much of the time, the things that make a real difference don’t cost a lot of money – they just require you to listen thoughtfully and take action. Do what the greats do and create feedback loops, then try to make things better.

5.??????? They identify and develop great leaders

The higher the quality of leadership, the more successful the company. If you look, I’m sure you’ll find exceptions to this – but not many. Great leaders are the beating heart of great companies. You can do everything right, but if you don’t have a core group of leaders who connect people to the organisation, bring the best out of those in their charge, push them to achieve things they never thought possible and communicate the future you’re trying to create, then you’ll be in for an extremely tough fight.

Leadership development is often neglected in fast-moving organisations. It’s seen as a luxury or something you’ll get to later. But brilliant companies understand two things: that leadership qualities are rare and hard to find, and that every leader can become better.

Because of this, truly remarkable companies constantly scan their teams for those who display leadership qualities and the ambition to take on more, advancing them quickly and empowering them with responsibility. They support this acceleration with specific, tailored development plans, access to mentors, and ensuring that the only limit on their potential is their performance. Even the most experienced leaders are pushed to continuously work on themselves – and yes, that includes the CEO.

Without great leaders, everything else falls down. With them, what’s possible becomes exponentially greater.

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Clearly, there’s a lot to consider in each of these five areas. Every company is different, and the way you’ll define your Values, identify talent, and manage performance will be unique to you – if you’re doing it right, at least. But these are the things that the best companies in the world have in common. Creating your own version of them will be key to your success.