If you build a foundation for a one-story rambler, it’s hard to then build a three-story English Tudor estate, so establish your foundations with forethought. When WordPerfect was a new startup company, its executives built a rewards system into their culture. As a perk, they would give all their employees all of the soda and popsicles they could possibly consume. When employees had been with the company a certain length of time, they qualified for even greater rewards. After a series of successful years, WordPerfect actually sent the entire company to Hawaii together—with spouses and partners!

As you can imagine, people loved that aspect of the WordPerfect culture and a high sense of company loyalty ensued. However, not long after, the company ran into financial difficulties that required a little belt tightening. The free soda and popsicles disappeared. The trips to Hawaii were replaced with free movie tickets.

Many employees who had enjoyed WordPerfect’s culture for so long did not like the sudden change. The changes in the company’s fiscal policies were easy to make—management simply cut out the perks it couldn’t afford. But changing the cultural expectations of the employees was far more difficult. The employees had bought into a culture of free soda pop and popsicles, and those perks were at the heart of why many were there. When this aspect of the culture disappeared, loyalty to WordPerfect diminished.

The past several years, I’ve had occasion to work very closely with Google. A stroll through its campus reveals the company’s perks policy: employees and visitors enjoy free Naked Juice (usually five dollars a drink), unlimited candy (dental hygienists everywhere love this aspect of the Google culture), as well as free breakfast, lunch, and dinner made by chefs flown in from exotic locations. I wonder what is going to happen to the Naked Juice and flying chefs the first quarter Google misses its number?

Don’t get me wrong. We stock our fridge and shelves with lunches and snacks. I love rewards systems. But our perks come from Costco. Whatever perks you provide, you want to make sure employees are buying into the goals of the company, not just the goodies. If employees are invested in their work and the planned outcomes, they’ll understand if a time comes when everyone needs to tighten their belts. They will feel involved and appreciated not because of gifts and food, but because they understand their contribution to the company culture and they feel vested in the success that grows out of that culture.

Writing and living a mission statement can sometimes help with this aspect of instilling your culture into your company. Writing mission statements was the big hype of the early ’90s. Everyone had a mission statement, including me. Companies displayed theirs someplace conspicuous, proud to be motivating their employees and serving their customers. Even so, no matter how great the words, those statements need to be backed up by what your company actually does. Mission statements are only hype if nobody internalizes them. You and your team must internalize them by following them. Words are nothing without actions.

Action establishes culture. Unfortunately, inaction does as well. If you don’t provide the leadership to create your culture, someone else will. If you don’t act, the culture will define itself based on the dominant personalities of those on your team. Greatness needs direction. Writing down and sharing goals is a good place to start, but you must take the lead and establish your culture through your daily actions and interactions.

Porter’s Points – Build it Right

• Your cultural foundation is established early and pretty much stays put, unless you get hit with an earthquake. Make sure your foundation is built on the traditions, values, and ethical practices you choose. You might be able to  build a buzz with popsicles, but you wouldn’t build a house that way.
• Words are a tool to reinforce your actions. Don’t think that writing a mission statement makes a culture. It can help, but don’t write what you’re not willing to live. Once you write it, live it, and help others do the same.
• Include a rewards system as part of your culture, but be careful of creating expectations that can’t be sustained through lean times. Also remember that rewards are no substitute for a solid, leadership-centered culture.

• To live
• To love
• To learn
• To leave a legacy

You must understand and address those needs as part of building your business. Each one will contribute to the culture you develop, as well as to the way your company accepts your leadership. For those of us who have peeled the layers back, it is evident that “leaving a legacy”—mattering—should be the primary focus. Make a difference. Do something that impacts more than just self. Establish worthy aspirations. Establish a culture that allows people to matter.

Not many years ago, I attended Ray Noorda’s funeral. Ray was the man who took Novell, a failing startup with 17 employees, and transformed it into to a computer giant. Novell eventually employed more than twelve thousand people and transformed an entire valley in Utah into a veritable techno-hub. Ray is known in the technology industry as the “father of network computing.” This is a fair assessment, but he was much more than this. He generated thousands of high-paying technology jobs, spawned numerous small businesses, and—of most consequence to me— set a leadership model that enabled young leaders to emerge. As one of those, I have tried, in many ways, to emulate his leadership style.

Ray was a multimillionaire who drove a pickup truck, lived in the same modest home until he died, and was often seen wandering into someone else’s meetings to sample the snacks. As heads turned to see who was moseying in late, Ray would pleasantly say, “Hi, folks. Got anything good to eat here?” He was down-to-earth and his values were real. “Make a real contribution” was not just a mantra for Ray. He mattered, and established
a culture that allowed others to matter as well.

Ray created stories. He did not establish the culture at Novell by lecturing or mandating but rather by making a point to drop by offices after hours and on Saturdays to visit with whoever was in. He would park himself on our desks to see how we were doing, talk shop, and inspire us. Stories that originated with him started in one cubicle would circulate like wildfire. He gave us all the impression that we could add to the Novell culture, and that it belonged to all of us. He took time to educate and inspire us personally through both his interactions and his stories. We learned from him how to behave, what we stood for, and what was expected of us.

Ray’s legacy ranges from larger-than-life examples of business fervor to amusing situational anecdotes. I was present for one of my favorite stories, which took place between Ray and my mentor, Dr. Peter Horne. Dr. Horne had flown in from London for a meeting with Ray and others, and things got started with some small talk. Ray casually mentioned his love for skiing, adding the aside, “But only on Tuesdays.” Dr. Horne, with his proper English accent, asked “Why only on Tuesdays?” Ray responded, “Because Tuesdays are Senior Citizen Day, and I ski for half price.”

Without fanfare or self-aggrandizement, Ray set the tone of the meeting, establishing the fiscally conservative nature of Novell and laying the foundation for a strong and productive relationship between Novell and Dr. Horne for years to come. This was Ray’s way: understated but clear, light but appropriate. I love and appreciate everything that I learned from him.

At Ray’s funeral, the speakers gave outstanding eulogies, attempting to sum up several of his key beliefs. Ray wove these into the very fabric of Novell and, of course, his own life. Following are the characteristics I made note of during the service:

• Believe and trust in people.
• We all have a responsibility in life. Be faithful to it.
• Customers first, employees second, shareholders third.
• Be unassuming.
• Listen, especially with your heart.
• Practice integrity.
• Be loyal.
• Be true to your own core beliefs, but recognize the need to compromise within parameters that don’t violate those beliefs.
• Respect the individual, not the title.
• Marriage is ordained of God, and is your first priority in life.
• Practice fiscal responsibility.
• Take care of your health.
• Willingly forgive others’ mistakes and shortcomings.
• Retain your dignity, no matter the circumstances.
• Give something back.

Ray never put together a PowerPoint on these principles. He didn’t make posters or require us to attend “Company Culture” development workshops. He simply lived and shared what mattered most to him and expected us to internalize similar principles. Ray knew the culture he wanted, and he owned his responsibility to create it.

In owning your company culture, remember that your culture has to work for you. Each company is different, and what might be appropriate for a marketing company could be outrageously unsuitable for an accounting firm. Your culture is about the way your office is laid out, the perks and fun things you do together, and the values you embrace.

Whatever your culture, communicate it. You must be the one to start your own legacy and stand up for what you want to see happen. As an entrepreneur, you have the freedom to pick and choose and develop whatever you want your culture to be. Don’t succumb to laziness or insecurity and simply live and let live. Your culture is your Holy Grail, and you have the power to pursue it and make it your own.

Porter’s Points – You Own the Culture

• People don’t learn company culture from lectures and meetings. You create your culture by what you do. Map out how you want your company to act, and start acting that way yourself.
• Everybody wants, somehow, to matter. Show your team that they matter to you and to the company’s objectives. You must balance your administrative duties with your need to lead.
• How do you want to be remembered? You determine that memory by your every action.

Countless crusaders spent their lives in search of the Holy Grail, a mythical object of deeply spiritual significance. What came of their quest? Did they ever find the Grail? Well, no, but their lives changed, and they left a legacy—some good, some bad. Long after deals are done, contracts are completed, and companies are closed, you and your team will be bound together by the experiences you shared. For good or ill, you will remember what you learned and how it felt.

Your company culture is your Holy Grail. Establish it right from the start. Rich alluded to the function of your culture in the last chapter, but understanding why and how you are to establish your culture warrants its own space. You build your culture because it is your responsibility. You must, for the long-term success of your endeavor, establish a durable, viable culture. As you commemorate the great actions of the past, you help create a vibrant legacy that wins loyalty to your company and enhances the effectiveness of your work.

As it goes in life, so it goes in business: the most infectious method of teaching and passing on your culture is by example. You must create the culture within your company because if you do not, someone else will. That someone else could be anyone, right down to the depressing engineer whose daily complaints bring everyone down.

Influential leaders have not been influential by accident. Leaders leave legacies built on their actions and the stories that grow out of those actions. Gandhi walked across India, millions followed, and their boycott of salt brought the British government to its knees. Winston Churchill ordered that theaters remain open despite Nazi bombing. George Washington galloped into a firestorm of lead, emerging with his cape riddled with bullet holes and his person unharmed. Mother Teresa labored in Calcutta and other poverty stricken areas to minimize suffering with love and care until her own death. Great acts of leadership do not happen by accident.

While your culture is your responsibility, you have additional resources at your disposal. If your company has been around for a while, you have already created part of your legacy. Past successes fuel future achievements. If, on the other hand, you are just starting out, there are plenty of names and faces to look to. Decide on values, rules, and attitudes. Make sure you enter the business world with a boom and hire employees who match. That’s the way the masters do it, and that’s the way that Rich does it. He doesn’t just do it, though—he has fun with it!