On the 1st of November 2013 our agency was supposed to merge with another agency. Three weeks ahead of this date we decided to withdraw. The discussions around this decision and the following weeks beautifully revealed how big culture is in our small team.

We work remotely.

While we are based in Zurich, Switzerland we also run an outpost in La Plata, Argentina. Although we work remotely, we feel closely connected. It’s a connection which goes beyond the fact that we get our salaries from the same bank account. The book “Remote: Office Not Required”, which the founders of 37signals recently published, provides many insights into how remote work shapes the culture inside a company.

“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” — Walt Disney

The merger would have made sense with regard to business practice. Answers to “What are we doing?” and “How are we doing it?” — two of three questions which Simon Sinek tackles in this TED Talk — didn’t differ too much. But we felt uneasy when it comes to the third question which addresses values and beliefs: “Why are we doing it?”. It’s in the middle of Sinek’s impressive argument according to which it needs to be answered first. Our answer is not too far away from how Walt Disney was running his business.