CIO100EA: Define your startup’s culture

Companies should design their culture in a way that would necessitate them to propel it towards its strategic goals.

Generally, different companies have different cultures since they as well have varied  strategic goals or beliefs in achieving them. There is no right culture for all companies. Culture is the means to an end.

In her presentation during the recent CIO100 Symposium and Awards, Joy Ngaruro Solution Delivery Manager – Commonwealth Bank stated that creating a start-up culture in organizations is significant as that would help in entrenching values, being purposeful and getting focused and utilizing worthwhile skills to to achieve goals.

Joy noted that a start-up culture involves; the willingness to take Risks, having Values and being Transparency in Communication. She further stressed the need to have Feedback Mechanism, pleasant and inclusive work environment, hiring professionals, upholding collaboration and teamwork and ensuring continuous improvement.

Joy spoke of hiring accordingly as a key factor in ensuring your start-up culture matures. “You need to build in-house teams with relevant skill-sets, diverse in make-up by hiring women in your team but also empower them to make decisions, implement things, make mistakes and learn from them and above all renumerate them well,” she added.

According to to Ann Rhoades, in her book “Built on Values” she states that People do exactly what they are incented to do. Your expressed values will be perceived as hollow and meaningless unless you base compensation and rewards on the behaviors that go along with the values. It takes diligence and courage to hire only people with these values, and fire ones who have lost them.