The 7 must-haves to building a solid company culture that outlasts you: Lessons from Steve Jobs & Apple
When it comes to building thriving company cultures, no one got the secret mix better than the innovative Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. From hiring only A players to reinforcing the right culture early on through marketing, Steve undoubtedly set a solid corporate foundation for success at Apple that without a doubt is still at the core of their immense success decades after his death. But in this day and era of VUCA, a corporate world torn to confusion post-COVID and amidst so many technological & demographic changes affecting the future of work, what did Steve get right about building a solid company culture that outlives you? Let’s dive in…
Steve Jobs, was born February 24, 1955 and died October 5, 2011, in Palo Alto, California. Apple Inc. was founded later on 1 April 1976 by Jobs and other cofounders. As of November 2023 (47 years and 164,000 employees later) Apple has a market cap of $2.915 Trillion. This makes Apple the world’s most valuable company by market cap according to data. The market capitalization, commonly called a market cap, is the total market value of a publicly traded company’s outstanding shares and is commonly used to measure how much a company is worth. It is also among the world’s top 10 global brands to work for. So how does culture come in here?
1. Measure the impact of culture on your business outcomes
‘I used to believe that culture was “soft” and had little bearing on our bottom line. What I believe today is that our culture has everything to do with our bottom line, now and into the future.’ — Vern Dosch
‘Maintaining an effective culture is so important that it, in fact, trumps even strategy.’ — Howard Stevenson
‘Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur.’ — David Cummings
As Apple’s business numbers show, there’s no financial downside in investing in a good corporate culture. Apple, whose core value is innovation, has been at the forefront of technology & marketing. This same principle that drew hundreds of millions of loyalists when the iPhone was launched and that still makes thousands of others line up for hours today and pay premiums for new products is what Apple knows grounds their brand value & profits. By using emotional branding & sticking to its values, Apple(just like Coca-Cola)has continuously appealed to a unique set of customers(and talent) spanning generations & geographies who throw logic to the wind and choose to purchase their shares & products year in and year out. It’s a big sweet cycle of success for all involved. As we wrote here, data can be used more in HR to show the ROI of our initiatives and tie our goals to strategic ones which helps us earn a bigger seat at the table. The happier your employees are, the more money you make. Culture can & should be measured in dollar signs just like we do with brand value & perception. For instance, we can measure talent costs such as retention, total labor costs, engagement rating, employee happiness & turnover in relation to culture by doing exit interviews better & employee pulse surveys. Google has also been cutting down on employee perks like massages to cut costs & improve profits.
During hiring & transitions, our processes are most prone to culture erosion. Google for instance, like many other similar older companies around the globe that are struggling post-pandemic to innovate & maintain their culture in the modern workplace, has been losing their older talent who say the company’s original culture has been eroded throughout the years for various reasons. Turnover is very expensive for companies. This employee who’s leaving the firm after 18 years, explains well in her own terms how she feels betrayed by this erosion and the loss of one of the key things that made her be a Googler in the first place—more on how to avoid this below.
2. Have unquestionable leadership standards
‘The organisation needs employees to help model the desired culture and teach new people what it means to be part of a high-performing organisation.’ — Randy Pennington
"Dysfunctional leadership can perpetuate the misery of thousands of people by being the primary source of low morale, disengagement, enduring stress, stress associated problems, and poor organizational results."- Derek Lusk
Whatever standards you hold your employees to, your leaders should be measured with twice the yardstick. You cannot punish the business developer who was corrupt during the customer acquisition process and leave out his Customer Success Manager who does worse to achieve the same. Leaders build and destroy your corporate culture brand. As shown by the recent Google case study above, leaders do this by their choices with regard to hiring, promotions, budget allocations, communication, and nonverbal cultural cues. One terrible leader can be the one responsible for 10% of your turnover. Different leaders have different personalities and will opt for different business strategies. However, the original cultural values should be the compass that guides them all regardless. This will ensure you maintain them despite employee transitions as years go by. This is why the Steve Jobs and Apple story also shows us why it’s important to build a culture that goes beyond personalities. Many founders fail terribly at this. Managers too.
3. DON’T tie culture to personalities
Any Manager whose team cannot sustain or maintain that same culture of success has failed at doing their core job. Every leader who ties the company's or team's success solely to their own gratification & name-building is one who is doing the opposite of what you should be accomplishing. Identify and remove such people who cannot replicate or germinate the same values in new employees or teams. They may appear to be doing you good but time will reveal this as a weak link. A good culture is timeless and spans generations and geographies and Jobs showed us that. Just like franchisees like KFC aim to do with every new outlet and expansion, ensure consistency around your culture story throughout all your teams and regions. Guard your secret sauce religiously. You don’t want to look back years later and not be able to recognize the company you’ve become(in a negative way.) Tie culture to processes, not individuals.
4. It all starts & ends with your People processes
‘If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.’ — Simon Sinek
‘Companies with positive cultures that promote trust, respect, collaboration and professional development for their employees are often able to recruit and retain the top talent.’ — Libby Gill
Culture, more than products or services, is what differentiates an organisation from competitors, both in the minds of customers and of employees.’ — Joe Tye
By now millennials are all well accustomed to the buzz words of “people are our most important assets.” In a highly competitive talent marketplace, companies have had to not only tell but embody their company values throughout every touchpoint a new employee goes through. From helping us attract the right type of talent, onboarding them in their first 90 days, and all other interactions within their lifecycle within your firm, culture should be at the bedrock of every people process and initiative. Steve was known very well for his strong hiring standards and often spoke against outsourcing for this primary reason. This means HR has to do more than just have their core values up against pillars in the office with some nice bright graffiti or in new hire documents.
Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” which is why we say leaders & employees today need a “To Be” list more than a “To Do” list. You can’t do values. You have to BE values. How do we implement this philosophy in HR? For starters, by doing the below;
💥Recruitment & Onboarding-Have a values-based behavioral screening process first. Technical Competency can continually be developed. Character cannot. Emphasis should also be put on employer branding that’s focused on communicating the firm’s company culture and how that makes you a great employer! Read more on that here in our earlier post.
💥Employee engagement-Beyond pizza parties, do your leaders develop meaningful connections with staff across the team and firm so they can get real actionable feedback about company culture? Do they try to ensure these company values & individual values are aligned? Do you measure culture in your pulse survey?
💥Performance Management- Feeds off the values-based screening process by incorporating values as a mandatory company assessment feature for all leaders & staff across the firm.
💥Process design- Incorporate your company values in the design of all HR & employee experience touch points eg onboarding feedback forms and stay interviews.
💥Exit Management- When a staff is leaving, measure their sentiments about company culture. Is there any way we failed “TO BE”? Culture isn’t what we say it is, it is what employees say it is.
5. Put your money, time & effort where your mouth is
‘We believe that it’s really important to come up with core values that you can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you’re willing to hire and fire based on them. If you’re willing to do that, then you’re well on your way to building a company culture that is in line with the brand you want to build.’ Tony Hsieh
Tony who was the former founder of Zappos, demonstrated this well not only during recruitment but also had all new staff no matter the level or department dedicate a sizeable amount of hours working in customer service to not only understand the firm business but also show them from day 1 that he meant business about customer happiness being the thing that drives their success. Steve Jobs was also known to hire and fire those who measured up against Apple’s culture yardstick unapologetically. It was the number 1 competency check for early Apple employees and he openly made the effort to reiterate the benefits & consequences of supporting or going against it. Behavior that is rewarded thrives and vice versa. If your staff see the business developer who cuts corners to get new clients as the one who gets the promotion, that is a clear message being sent. If staff see their leaders act the opposite of what they preach, they eventually stop embodying those values because you’ve shown that that means zero. Have proper recognition & reward publicly and frequently to the employees who demonstrate your desired values and you’ll see the ripple effect. The score will take care of itself.
6. Be clear on your company culture, values, and mission
“The greatest gift you can give your team: clarity, communication, and pulling people together around a shared mission.” — Anne Sweeny, American businesswoman and former chair and president at The Walt Disney Co.
“Tell yourself what you want to be, then act your part accordingly.” by Epictetus
While this might sound obvious, I dare you to walk around your office and ask a couple of employees and leaders about what your company mission or values are and come back with a response. For most firms, the gospel of why we exist and how we aim to be ends during Day One in onboarding in those HR slides. Beyond that, we may or may not hear about it annually when the CEO sends out the New Year communique. If you stand for nothing you fall for everything so the saying goes. Just like values are a compass to an individual’s life, culture is the compass to the company. As James Clear shows in his book Atomic Habits, it’s much easier for people to commit to certain habits when they are tied to an identity. So who do you wish to be? And what habits or values will help you achieve that? If you’re an HR or business leader struggling to change a bad culture, try this identity-based approach instead.
Most firms fail because they presume culture to be about pizza parties, branded t-shirts, funky office designs, and such perks. But as we’ve seen with the big FAANG dropping these for the more impactful culture pillars like inclusion, engagement, succession planning, automation & HR data, DEIB, accountability, autonomy, reward, wellness & mental health, mentoring, learning & career development, and transparent communication & listening or feedback tools to leadership building. No one ever stayed in a company because the birthday cakes were good. Putting up a modern breastfeeding room for female staff while you still have gender pay inequalities doesn’t make sense. And as this HBR post showed 2 years ago, it doesn’t make a real dent in your talent retention.
"Culture is typically designed in an ad hoc way around random perks like gourmet meals or “karaoke Fridays,” often in thrall to some psychological fad. And despite the evidence that you can’t buy higher job satisfaction, organizations still use golden handcuffs to keep good employees in place. While such efforts might boost workplace happiness in the short term, they fail to have any lasting effect on talent retention or performance."- HBR
Decide what type of a company you wish to be, what values you’d like to be known for, what your inhouse data is telling you, what stands you’ll take on topical issues like racism, and what you’d like any staff going through your doors to experience from day 1 to their last day.
7. The power of storytelling
Steve Jobs, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”
“Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess.” — Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group
Stories move the heart, data moves the mind.- Unknown
Undeniably one of the most sought-after skills for corporate leaders and HR folks alike, the power of storytelling in building Apple’s long-term solid culture cannot be discredited. The marketing genius himself took this mantle well as he intentionally crafted excellent communication material inside & outside Apple’s doors. Whether he was launching a new product to millions of customers or speaking to staff during an All Hands session, Steve took time to master the art of storytelling. The incredible skill to inspire people to take action, drive change and connect people is important for culture building. Without a doubt emotional branding as I explained in detail here, has become critical for us to attract & retain top talent who are aligned with our values because the human brain works through narratives. When our culture is solid, we also transform our staff into brand ambassadors through employee advocacy initiatives as everyone wants to become a part of that story. Whether it’s through our company website or job ads, CSR, or later on during onboarding or engagement, it’s necessary that we become expert communicators and marketers because it is stories that make us stay. At the core of everything, human beings are connected by logic and emotion and storytelling allows us to tap into both to achieve our cultural goals.
This year, how have you faired in your corporate culture-building goals? Where did you succeed and where could you do better? All the best.
Still looking for more, check out https://medium.com/jobonics/is-your-job-ad-the-weakest-link-in-your-hiring-process-part-2-b6e6a33a21d6 communicating company culture.
