Forming our Corporate Culture
What is important? The glue, or the parts. Maybe the answer is both.
Camaraderie was abounding as my coworkers and I were gathered at the Common Pub celebrating the 21st birthday of our new employee Haneen. During our small get together I recounted our company’s experience during an employee screening of The Room. Giggles were aplenty. It was then our CTO, Brad, made this proclamation: “In terms of 4Thought Studio’s corporate culture. I mean, the very core of our corporate culture, I think that Harrison is the one that has helped really form its identity. He is the glue that holds everything together.” (Paraphrased of course, but you get the idea).
This was perhaps one of the most flattering and surprising remarks I have ever heard. It was one of those moments that not only felt like a compliment to my work, but a compliment to myself and who I am as a person. The truth is, it was a moment that will likely stick with me for a long time.
I don’t want to say that Brad is wrong. Forming the brand identity of 4Thought Studios is one of the main aspects of my job and ensuring that corporate culture aligns with brand identity is imperative to honest and genuine marketing. After all, if you want a company to come off as pleasant and inviting, you should do your damndest to make a company pleasant and inviting.
At the same time though, I don’t want to say that Brad is right either. The truth is, I think that the core of our corporate culture (and other healthy corporate cultures) consists of many distinct parts. Often, what I find in other companies is that their corporate culture revolves around a cult-of-personality. If our corporate culture was truly a reflection of me, with my strengths and weaknesses, hopes and fears, and desire to impulsively move from one subject to the next, our company would be a strange and messy place indeed. Thankfully, it isn’t.
Our Company Culture
Our corporate culture truly shines out with the people who help make it up. I’m aware that me listing the people and what they do for this company will sound like a description in the Pokedex. However, I can’t help but see the massive contribution each of these people play with their roles in the company. I also want to add that these people aren’t boxed into the one category I am putting them in. Everyone here wears multiple hats. With that being said though, it is clear that everyone wears one hat more than the other and this is my gross generalization of that.
Jenna, our CEO, is the vision behind everything. She is the one that helps keep things focused and is the one that primarily keeps all of us from going off course. She is the reason why we are developing a single, fantastic application, instead of a hundred crappy applications. Her commitment to this company and this idea is what keeps the company driving forward.
Brad, our CTO, is the analyzer. “Let me play the devil’s advocate…” is practically his catchphrase. You want to pick apart an idea, beat a horse to death, and then keep beating the dead horse until its bones are nothing but pebbles and then some? Brad is the guy to go to. He is the reason why the company remains focused on discovering best case and worst case scenarios, and allows us to question things that we sometimes think of as basic logic.
Kwame, our Creative Director, definitely speaks true to his title. His description on the team page of our Epochly website is perhaps one of the most bizarre descriptions you will ever read. At the same time though, Kwame is a master of finding creative solutions to even the most difficult problems. He helps give 4Thought a hint of unpredictability while also giving us the solutions to even the most difficult issues.
Don, our beloved seed investor, is our big thinker and master of optimism. If Don had a theme song every time he walked in, I would say that song would be “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” by the Starting Lines. We are the company that is going to change the world. What we are doing with Epochly is revolutionary, and after Epochly (if there even is an after) we are going to keep changing the world. It isn’t that we don’t believe that, but Don’s injected optimism gives us an extra boost that we sometimes really need.
There are, of course, several more people and several more contributions that I can acknowledge. In fact, I probably have enough to fill an entire novel. An update on this article will definitely need to happen to address newer people as well as the fantastic contributions of our interns.
In regards to my contribution to the corporate culture I like to think that I am the idea man since I am the one that comes up with ideas and communicates our ideas and attributes to the outside world. Perhaps, in the latter regard, that does make me the glue that holds everything together. Regardless of that though, the glue is only the glue until all of the relevant parts come together. And if any of the relevant parts were to fall off, it doesn’t matter if the glue is keeping the rest on, the overall component would still be broken.
The lesson to take from this is that it doesn’t matter who the glue is or what parts people play in a corporate culture. What matters is that there is glue and that there are multiple parts that fill a complete whole in the first place. This is something that many corporate cultures don’t get and this is something that I believe that we have all managed to achieve.
