Ben Horowitz, the high-profile venture capitalist behind some of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing startups, is out with an intriguing book, called What You Do Is Who You Are, that emphasizes the power of culture, rather than technology or money, as a driver of business success. One of his most intriguing insights is that powerful cultures are built around what he calls “shocking rules” — rituals and practices that are memorable, so “bizarre,” that people inside the organization “encounter almost daily” and that people who hear about them wonder why they are necessary.
To Build a Strong Culture, Create Rules That Are Unique to Your Company
Distinctive cultures produce distinctive products.
December 03, 2019
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Summary.
To build something distinctive in the marketplace, you first have to build something distinctive in the workplace. The author argues that “shocking rules” are a building block of a powerful culture. In other words, if you’re doing things at your company that outsiders can’t quite understand, you may just be doing it right. The article includes a few company examples, including one from Amazon. Jeff Bezos insisted for years, even as Amazon was growing by leaps and bounds, that desks at the company “were built by buying cheap doors from Home Depot and nailing legs to them.” Of course, a company with tens of thousands of employees and billions of dollars in revenue could pay for elegant desks for its programmers and executives. But this shocking rule reminded everyone that “We look for every opportunity to save money so we can deliver the best products for the lowest cost.”