What makes a good company great?

[ianw]

As some of you may or may not know... I departed the sunny shores of Australia recently to set up a new Marketing division for Carbon Poker in North America.
I am basically building up a new marketing team from the ground up here and I'm pretty sure you will be hearing a lot more from us in the future!

It got me thinking about jobs and places I had worked before and how we should build a new culture and ethos for the people we are hiring...here's a little story about an experience I had..

When I was out of college I was chosen to work for Marks & Spencers PLC as their graduate in the advertising department at Head office( for those that don't know its one of the most prestigious retailers in the UK with a pretty impressive graduate program) I worked their for a year and saw some of the most amazing things that completely changed my life! Certain levels of employees are only allowed on certain floors in the building, if you were not a level 3 then you had to eat in another dining facility outside of the main building, you could tell peoples position by the colour of the rim of the cup they drank their tea/coffee out of. You could never send an email to someone more than one rank above your station...
I soon realised that this type of corporate lifestyle was a little too restrictive for my creative mind and I'm the kind of guy that tells you what I think - right or wrong!
As a relatively successful gambler - I punted my way through University without needing to work or have any debts (famously asked to leave a lecture as I was listening to the premium rate phone horse racing commentary line shouting home the winner of the Gold Cup in which I had probably bet more on one horse than most students in the auditorium earned in a year! It won and I retired to the bar with a whole bunch of new found friends!) so it got me thinking that it might be good to get involved in marketing gaming companies... 10 years later the rest is history!

Back on track - I'm sure there are a lot of you that have worked in some amazing places for some amazing people over the years - and have some amazing stories to tell.. maybe here would be a good place for them?

What you think makes for a good office culture/environment,experiences with different cultures etc, how your ethos or standards impact on others, how you influence your working environment around you etc.

[Jeremy]

This is a great post Ian. Number one, congrats on the new office. I find this especially interesting because I have worked in about every environment imaginable. To be honest, the work environment and the actual office culture is why almost everyone I know in Corporate America hates their job.

Unlike many industries, ours is unique that we all work on the internet and it is actually our job to be surfing the web and talking to people on messenger all day. Working for or owning an internet company is so much more unique than any other industry.

Regardless however, I think the culture in an office setting should be one that is laid back and where employees are allowed to have fun. Likewise the environment should be one where employees are encouraged to be creative, take some risks, and not be micro managed.

The best run internet company in the world IMHO is FatWallet.com. Of course I am biased because I know the owner Tim and his management philosophy. But their office and culture is one where there is virtually zero turnover. Check these pics out. This is how it is supposed to be done.

Overall I think there just has to be a good mix of work ethic and fun in the office. The best way to do that is by having a team and not just staff.

[Kyle]

Vancouver is a very laid back place, so if you're hiring all out of Van City then I would say the first thing is to learn the culture there to see what type of environment would be ideal to your team.

[corpfan1]

They understand how important it is to KEEP a customer...

Little story...

2 days ago I went to start my car (which is 9 years old) and the car was dead . I assumed I left the inside lights on or something OR the 9-year old battery just bit the bullet.

I had my friend boost me and it started up fine - took a long drive to charge the battery and went to my local "Canadian Tire" (our local service/all in one car repair shop). I asked them if I should test the battery or just get a new one. They said I could test it if I wanted to for $20 but suggested I just get a new one ($130 total). I let the car and went to grab a bite in the mall... Returned a half our later and they told me they couldn't replace the battery because they couldn't find one that fit properly in all their stock!

So, I went home and decided to sleep on it and make some calls...

I called my dealer who I have done 90% of my services with over the last 9 years... The guy I usually deal with was gone (retired last week) and a new YOUNG manager was there to replace him. He went over my service records and said, "Mr. C., since you have been such a great customer, just bring in your car and we will pop in a brand new battery on the house...!"


Needless to say - guess where I will be doing my services for the next 5 years until the car ends up being Tuna cans?

[PokerNations]

Back on track - I'm sure there are a lot of you that have worked in some amazing places for some amazing people over the years - and have some amazing stories to tell.. maybe here would be a good place for them?

What you think makes for a good office culture/environment,experiences with different cultures etc, how your ethos or standards impact on others, how you influence your working environment around you etc.

I think the job that shaped me the most was my first middle management position. I worked for a family-owned and operated ski area and acted as their Communications Manager (hybrid department, part Marketing, part Customer Service.....although there were also Customer Service and Marketing Departments separate from my division)

Anyway, the family members acted as heads of specific areas of the ski area (i.e. operations vs customer service vs food service and so forth)

The problem was, they squabbled over who was the most important out of the bunch. So one of them might tell you to do something, and then another one would come along and tell you to do it a different way, and then the previous one would come back and be pissed that you were listening to their brother or sister.

They also felt that all their seasonal minimum-wage employees should be as vested in the success of the company as the people making the real money, which is just delusional (oh, thanks for working a holiday, here's a $5 food voucher!)

The Marketing Director was a total prick. The guy had a "my shit doesn't stink" attitude about him, and looked down upon those in lesser positions (i.e. me)

He'd often release all these promotions to the public, but he wouldn't communicate anything to the front-line departments (i.e. my staff, customer service, food & beverage, etc)

So we'd find out about promotions through customers who'd say "oh, we saw your promotion in such and such paper". Obviously very frustrating for employees and customers.

But this joker didn't care because he didn't have to deal with the customers. So I took it upon myself to create a company-wide newsletter that would spell out events and promotions for the staff, so people would know what was going on.

Often the wording in the advertisements to customers was vague and didn't include specific details that were sure to come up, so I did my best to try and help out with the Communication aspects of things.

One funny story is that the executive secretary was going to be gotten rid of, but they didn't tell her. Instead, they started interviewing for her job and picked someone to take her job before she even knew.

But she found out, because one of the managers in another department knew her replacement. So he was speaking with her and mentioned he heard she was leaving, which was news to her!

That job really helped mold me, because I saw how people at the top levels were treating those beneath them, and it was pretty awful. So the way I approach business is:

I don't care if you're the CEO or the janitor. At the end of the day, everyone in a company has an important function to perform. So treat them all with respect, instead of looking down at them as beneath your station in the company ladder.

[Satya]

As some of you may or may not know... I departed the sunny shores of Australia recently to set up a new Marketing division for Carbon Poker in North America.
I am basically building up a new marketing team from the ground up here and I'm pretty sure you will be hearing a lot more from us in the future!

Nice post, Mr Double

Glad to hear that you are back in Vancouver and setting up your new marketing office. I would suggest a flat structure like PG minus the few positions you know who. That was one the best work cultures I have seen so far. Everyone has their own areas of responsibility and still work as a team. You can make as much as you can depending on the company's growth and your portfolio's performance.

[TheDonk]

The best person I ever worked for did something I've never seen from any other manager. Lots of businesses require their employees to do personality tests, but few know what to do with the information they gather. Whats the point then?

At this particular job, the manager was not only the smartest person I've ever known (and was making $400k/yr at 26 years old), but he learned how to get the most out of each person by learning about them. He started with the personality reports, then by trial and error to see how things affected each person.

The last thing he would do in every sales meeting was address each person individually. He had the conference room tables set up in a U shape and we sat in chairs on the outside of the U. He stood in the center of the U and went up to each person. If you were the type of person that would get inspired by telling you you're the greatest thing since sliced bread, that's what he would tell you. If you needed to be insulted in order to get inspired, he would insult you horribly (not that you should do this of course). For me, I won't listen to someone insult me, and I hate being patronized. I loved knowing that my boss was happy and didn't feel the need to say anything to me.

Well, he would go around to each person and say what he had to say, and when he got to me he would always say "Jess........", then he would wave his hand as if he didn't feel the need to say anything to me and he would move on to the next person. I loved this, and it made me want to make him proud of me, so I worked my ass off to make sure I did.

By the time we were done with the meeting, every single person was so fired up to do their best work it was crazy. I've never in my life seen people so emotionally affected by the words of a man. Although berating people is obviously bad for an office environment, it worked for certain members of our sales team ultra-effectively.

In an office environment, the same ideas still exist, learning how to motivate people based on their own personalities is very important in my opinion. What might inspire one person, may insult another. What might inspire one person might do absolutely nothing to inspire someone else. People are different and when they are all treated with the same tactics, lots of undesired results come from it.

My boss was able to recognize that, did little tests on us, and adjusted the way he dealt with us - based on who we were.

Even the salespeople he berated loved him to no end. He had a way with using down time to pull people aside, ask them about their families, or whatever was important to that person. He used to invite me into his office and we would talk for hours about my family, what I want out of life, my girlfriend, etc.. He would make associations between my own life and his, make me feel like we were a lot alike. This got me on his side and made me feel like he really cared.

He convinced us that he wanted to help us become successful in our own lives. So, even the people be berated during sales meetings felt like he was doing this to help them. Truth was, he did. We had salespeople making $250-350k/yr, some of them were insulted into it.

BTW, he was my boss at a Mercedes Benz dealer in Encino, Ca. Before he started at this dealership, the dealer barely existed. The sales volume and dealer reputation were terrible. Within 2 years of him taking over we were the 3rd largest Benz dealer in the US and were winning awards from Mercedes. All of the biggest Hollywood stars and athletes were buying from us, and he changed everything about that dealership. Everyone I worked with said he was the best person they ever worked for. And the best part was that our customers loved us too. After the sale was made, he always told us to do whatever we had to to make sure our customers were happy. We sent flowers to customers, gave away $1200 burl walnut steering wheels, sent customers gift cards to famous restaurants, tickets to Lakers games - you name it. And the business grew and grew and grew.

For the sales team and our effectiveness, it came down to one thing really - treating and inspiring us as individuals.

[Hazo]

Great post Jess. One of the few things I learned at Uni was similar to this in a course called Organisational Behaviour. I completely agree with what you said above. If more managers were like this there would be a lot more successful businesses.

I will send you my text book for some light reading

[Connie Burstin]

Hi Ian,

First of all, thank you for referring me to PAL! I like it here!

Great topic!

I think on the industry that we work on, it is important that people feel that are not doing anything wrong. They are providing entertainment service for people that are looking to play from the convenience of their home.

It doesnt matter the culture/background from someone, people want to feel that are being treated fairly and appreciated. They will work more and their job will be more efficient.

Tough Love is also good to have in an office. As long as there is respect between 2 people.

On a side note: If you take them out once in a while for some salsa dancing might work!

Cheers,

Connie Burstin


[What you think makes for a good office culture/environment,experiences with different cultures etc, how your ethos or standards impact on others, how you influence your working environment around you etc.[/quote]

[ianw]

Hi Ian,


Tough Love is also good to have in an office. As long as there is respect between 2 people.

On a side note: If you take them out once in a while for some salsa dancing might work!

The Salsa dancing is much more fun after being thrown out of the hottest club in Miami for refusing to paying a certain owner of CAP's private bar tab!