by Paul Santos and Rachel Ng
Welcome back to our mini series, “Key insights on building a healthy organisational culture.” In this last installment, we dive into the final driver of culture: the People.
Organisational culture is essentially the shared beliefs and behaviours of your People–it’s “how we do things around here,” especially when no one is watching. In the previous installments of our Culture mini-series, we enumerated the key drivers of culture: Values, Strategy, Structure, Process, and People. These elements are interconnected and either influence or reinforce the other elements.
It is through these elements that the Vision and Mission of the company are operationalised and by intentionally designing them in this order, desired outcomes are met.
When you’ve defined your Values and Strategy, designed the right Structure, and implemented the right Processes, the final piece is hiring and keeping the right People.
But while the culture chain ends with People, it also begins with People. It all starts with you, the founder–the main author of your organisation’s Vision and Mission, as well as your Values–the first driver of the culture chain.
How clear you are about your Vision, Mission, Values (VMV), and how much conviction you have in them to truly model them, are the most significant ingredients in building a strong and healthy culture. Without clear VMV, there is no point in operationalising them. This clarity empowers you to make bold decisions aligned with your VMV, whether they are Strategic, Structural, Process, or People decisions.
This clarity and conviction will cascade to your leadership team, who are stewards of the VMV and are extensions of you. They will model these values, and influence the behaviours of the rest of your people, ensuring your organisation is aligned toward the same goals, regardless of diverse backgrounds.
And the best stress test of your culture’s strength is how you and your people behave and make decisions during major triumphs and crises–what we call moments of truth.
If the behaviours and results in your organisation are not what you desire, there is likely a lack of clarity and misalignment among the drivers of culture.
Staying true in moments of triumph
Let’s look at the example of Coins.ph. The startup is a digital wallet and mobile payments platform operating in the Philippines, and was acquired by Indonesia ride-hailing giant GoJek in 2019.
Back then, ESOPs (Employee Stock Option Plans) weren’t well-known in the Philippines, partly due to the lack of ESOP success stories in Southeast Asia. In emerging markets, where employees are often sole breadwinners prioritising immediate income for their families, it’s crucial to ensure compensation packages are relevant and meaningful.
Given the choice between cash and ESOPs, many Coins rank-and-file employees opted for cash. However, Coins Co-founder and CEO Ron Hose secured the buy-in from investors and shareholders to set aside a sizable ESOP pool for discretionary bonuses, ensuring that employees who did not receive ESOPs still benefited.
At the time of the acquisition, the negotiations with GoJek were complex, but Ron fought hard to ensure that the ESOP bonus pool was honoured.
Speaking about one of Coins’ core values, Ron said: “Trust is a mutual contract. If you want employees to care about the company, the company has to care about employees.”
The value of mutual trust was clear to Ron and his leadership team throughout Coins’ journey, and their board stood by their value. While the decision for the ESOP bonus pool was made early on, they were unwavering in their decision to follow through with the decision at the final moment of truth.
When the exit took place, that ESOP bonus pool transformed the lives of many employees. While some received significant cash bonus payouts, the runners and office workers were given houses in their names. For many who lived paycheck to paycheck, this windfall was beyond their dreams.
Coins even opted for the bigger and better-quality houses instead of the smaller, lower-cost houses. Ron also allocated a portion of his own compensation to cover for the extra costs.
This clarity in VMV enabled Ron and his leadership team to build a strong culture that ultimately led Coins to achieve one of the first large exits for a startup in the Philippines. This success benefitted not just a select few, but the whole organisation.
Being bold in the midst of crises
Travel platform GoZayaan in Bangladesh is another inspiring story.
A week after the first COVID lockdown was announced, GoZayaan had completely run out of money, facing a large backlog of payables and refunds. With a heavy heart, Co-founder and CEO Ridwan Hafiz shared with their 47-person team about their dire situation, and that the company was unable to pay their salaries. He advised them to start securing new jobs to support their families, offering to write letters of recommendation.
But no one left. Despite not having income to support their families, the team believed in a purpose greater than their own interests. They bought into Ridwan’s vision and mission to impact the lives of Bangladeshi migrant workers working abroad. They bought into his value that “We’re here to make a difference.”
In the darkest moments, Ridwan’s leadership team urged him to not give up, giving him the confidence that the team believed in him. The leadership team addressed any doubts and fears from the team, inspiring them to continue hustling. Ridwan and his leaders stayed up until midnight frequently and worked through the weekends alongside the team to generate and execute ideas.
This fighting spirit with a sense of purpose not only kept the company alive, but allowed it to thrive after each lockdown wave. They launched a new service for safer commuting, expanded into domestic travel despite much smaller ticket prices, and even sold hand sanitisers. It is no coincidence that “Chase the Impossible” is another one of their core values.
Ridwan explains that “every human being can see the future up to a certain level. But we have to set our goals beyond that. Something that looks impossible today, we have to chase it and make it possible.”
No one would have predicted that a travel startup–in Bangladesh no less–could have weathered the COVID storm. The pandemic hit in multiple waves over two years, repeatedly bringing the company’s revenue down to zero. But Ridwan’s clarity of vision, mission, and values enabled him to make bold decisions time and time again. With his leadership team fully buying into these values, GoZayaan and its people were able to truly chase the impossible and make a difference.
Today, GoZayaan has 250 in their team and has expanded into new markets, and they are profitable.
‘As above, so below’
When you’ve intentionally designed your Values all the way down to your People decisions, with all of these elements aligned, your culture will be strong.
The “right people” can come from diverse countries, industries, educational backgrounds, and genders. However, diversity can be a double-edged sword. When we’re all different, it’s natural to feel hesitant about trusting each other. But when we unite around a common Vision, Mission, and Values, those differences turn into strength. We can trust that we’re all aiming for what’s best for the organisation, and that’s when diversity truly becomes effective.
Keeping the right people depends on your strong conviction in your VMV. With a clear sense of your values, your tolerance for variance in behaviour narrows, and you will retain the “right” people, and boldly let go of those who don’t fit.
Building culture is an ongoing journey, requiring constant reflection and realignment. But with unwavering clarity and conviction, you can make conscious and bold decisions that are in full alignment with your VMV, whether you’re making high-impact strategic choices or everyday decisions. It begins with you, the founder. Your leadership becomes the blueprint for others to follow, creating a ripple effect that strengthens the entire organisation, ensuring resilience and long-term success.
Part 1 – Introduction: Key insights to building a healthy organisational culture
Part 2 – Bridging the Values gap: What we say vs what we do
Part 3 – How strategy shapes your company culture
Part 4 – Designing your organisational structure: A blueprint for strategic execution
Part 5 – Values to Actions: Making culture come alive through Processes
Edited by Jum Balea
Lead image by Kristopher Allison/Unsplash
