Keys to Creating a Great Company Culture
By Alaa Bukhari
Two hours prior to the introduction of Laura Palmer I was preparing coffee unaware of this priviledge I was about to be offered. When approached by one of the RiskMasters, I was initially hesitant and then asked myself in true Draper spirit “Sure, why not? What’s stopping me!?”
I began to research Unity Technologies and learned they are a video game software development company based in San Francisco and that Laura is their Vice President of Sales. With more digging I learned that prior to Unity, Laura spent 7 years at Google in several roles, including Head of Sales for Google Cloud. Laura is passionate about building teams focused on disrupting an industry, and interested in attracting and retaining top industry talent.
Laura and I met minutes before her talk where we got to discuss many different topics, from the silicon valley environment to the economy shift of Saudi Arabia. She expressed her interest in expanding Unity Technologies to EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). My first thought was of my brother, a video-gamer with a Youtube following of over 1.3 million in the Arab region that could be great for Laura to connect with. This willingness to connect and challenge yourself and your business was one of the many important topics she discussed.
Laura spoke of her time at Google, and her decision to leave; she wanted to create value and make change in her workspace, but that was not easily recognized in such a big company.
She pointed out these keys for making a great culture in a company:
- Defining of culture, and explaining the “why”
- Implementing people, process, and technology.
- Gaining support from other organizations.
- Iterate and reinforce.
She clarified how paying attention to detail is important even when the company is doing great, as well as several other values like being proactive and the importance of sense of urgency. One key point she made that resonated with me is that filling an available spot in the company is not as effective as finding the right people for that position.
When growing a company, it is important to iterate, continue to invest, and sometimes take time to stop and think a bit too.
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