By: Matt Auron

Over the past three decades, startup culture has generated a message of growth at any cost, and many startup founders take this as an acceptable practice. But the idea that growth outweighs the company's unique essence, or that high scalability must come at the cost of company culture, doesn’t represent optimal leadership. Furthermore, this perspective is seriously damaging to a company’s long-term success. Sustainable growth means understanding what is unique and distinctive about the company from the beginning and then building mechanisms to keep what is sacred while scale is happening.

The big question is: How can leaders maintain and develop a distinctive company culture through rapid growth?

Stop and think. Are you ready to scale?

One surefire way for your company to suffer is if you dive head first into growth without considering whether or not your company is built to scale. Consider these signs that indicate you’re not ready. 

• Lack of development initiatives

• Low engagement scores, poor performance, and turnover

• HR processes not intentionally designed or built out

• Lack of culture code

Establish a strong company culture now, not later.

An all-too-common mistake is to think of culture as a “soft” asset rather than the foundation of your business. Is your company enriched in such a way that your team will stick with you and work towards a common goal? Start with culture at the trailhead and implement some of these practices, initiatives, and techniques. 

• Provide coaches for your executive team (and yourself!) in order to align behavior around cultural principles.

• Create your culture code (Likely a written doc or slides detailing your values, principles, mission, key symbols, etc) at 10 employees

• Build a culture roadmap using the code as its base

• Regularly create mechanisms that reinforce your culture, including specific training, internal communications, and reward systems that align with your essence

• Reiterate, discuss and role model culture principles frequently to help engrain them

Playing “catch up” If company culture was an afterthought.

Ok - so you didn’t set up your company culture at the onset. Don’t worry, it’s not too late to start. 

• Launch a grassroots and democratic process, allowing people to shape the company's essence: principles and values. This also energizes people.

• Facilitate an executive team offsite to realign and plan, and to keep yourself as a neutral contributor, have the session led by a coach.

• Create a culture roadmap and publicize it to drive energy

• Begin executing one

There are many massively successful companies in which business growth has come at the expense of their culture, it is the case more often than not. But a select few iconic and enduring companies exemplify what it means to scale while maintaining an internal culture that is as strong as their external brand, the two of these things being their essence. These companies represent the future of what business should be, and what we at Evolution prioritize in our work. A company's essence is the core of the Earth as an organization expands, informing every process and system they design. Meet with your team to identify opportunities for culture expansion, and determine how they will fold into your growth strategy.