Gary Vaynerchuk, the irrepressible entrepreneur and media personality who is known by the nickname Gary Vee, once opined, “Company culture is the backbone of any successful organization.” I find that view to be interesting because I was once affiliated with a media firm whose “culture” (for lack of a better word) was so weak that existed within a corporate equivalent of osteoporosis.
The company sought to indoctrinate the workforce by highlighting the “pillars” of its existence. Each pillar was a rah-rah slogan that was supposed to empower people to pursue excellence – canned stuff like “We Create Raving Fans,” “Urgency is the Ante to Play” and “We Find a Better Way” were part of the jingoism. In concept, it was very thrilling to anyone joining this team – who wouldn’t want to be part of a company that seemed so serious about their work?
Sadly, the messaging of the so-called pillars had little acquaintance with reality. In lieu of “raving fans,” the company had a significant audience of unimpressed folks who took to social media voicing scatological disdain over its output. Urgency was never at play internally, particularly with an IT staff that refused to answer questions on why the content management system kept breaking down. As for finding a better way, some reporters with limited talent found a better way to improve their articles – they cut and pasted coverage from other media sites and pretended it was their own work; the editors were aware but never reprimanded anyone for such shenanigans.
When I parted ways with this operation, I warned one of its executives about an architectural analogy that was absent from the company’s emphasis on pillars: it is impossible to have sturdy pillars if they are placed on a weak and crumbling foundation. Noble ideas are admirable but cannot be transitioned into results if you lack the people who can embody, personify and expand on the beauty of the ideas. People, not philosophy, represent the foundation of a company – and with the wrong people in place, philosophical pillars will be worthless.
And that’s where (I think) Gary Vee is wrong when he stated that company culture is the backbone of any successful organization – if only because there is no such thing as a company culture. There might be the parameters of recommended behavior and desired results, but I view “company culture” as being an elusive notion.
One could assume a company culture is defined by specifics regarding sales, output, quality control and workplace behavior, but what happens when exceptions and excuses are made to justify poor performance? I’ve worked with salespeople who didn’t sell, journalists who blithely and unapologetically missed deadlines, co-workers who were openly hostile to me and routinely insulted me in front of our colleagues, and managers who allowed such nonsense to thrive. In all cases, the pretense of a company culture was ultimately trashed – there was 9-to-5 anarchy, not a well-running corporate machine.
If I were to rewrite Gary Vee’s aphorism, I would say that “consistency is the backbone of any successful organization.” If a company is consistent in what it seeks to achieve and is driven to pursue that mission with unwavering consistency, then it is on the road to success. There is no guarantee that it will get to its goal, of course, but the chances of detours are considerably smaller.
The companies that are not successful are the ones who are endlessly inconsistent – they talk the big game but fail to staff themselves with capable and competent people. These companies may have a few star players, but at the same time they casually enable and forgive mediocrity or worse, have no concern about their reputation or their future, and are ignorant to the percolating chaos within their walls. Not surprisingly, these companies have very high turnover rates, very poor reviews on job boards and usually wobble along until they go bust or (if they’re lucky) get purchased by deep-pocketed types who think they can make charcoal from the ashes of their misadventures.
But, then again, why should I complain about how others are doing something wrong? As usual, Gary Vee is the ultimate smartest guy in the room, especially when you recall my favorite quote from him: “Stop whining, start hustling.”
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
Cover photo courtesy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Facebook page.
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