We often meet founders who switch from their 5–15 years of corporate careers to entrepreneurship as they don’t find themselves aligning with the corporate culture.
The culture that doesn’t allow them to move fast as a result of complex processes and hierarchy. This is often linked towards killing innovation.
Innovation lies at the core of progression, but is often over emphasized over the other aspect of progression i.e. Execution. Google was not the first search engine, Facebook was not the first social media platform. The success of all these inventions was a result of better execution than their original innovators. (I will delve deeper in a separate blog)
Founders are innovators, but they are incomplete without executors.
Execution in early stage ventures can be nurtured by the right Culture. Work culture describes the way people behave within an organization. It’s the way people communicate, interact, and in general, work with each other. If you are building a startup, then you must build a culture.
One of our most recommended rituals inspired from Jeff Bezos’s company Amazon ($ 1.315 Tn. market capital) is the “Default-yes ritual”
This ritual promotes ownership by allowing any member of the team irrespective of their position to come and pitch ideas.
If anyone, including the head management, opposes the suggestion, then a 2-page worth statement must be written to justify the denial.
In my opinion, this practice is excellent in every sense possible:
- It allows anyone to participate in the growth of the company regardless of their position.
- It breaks the authoritarian rule where the communication doesn’t just flow from top to bottom but also bottom to top.
- It promotes diversity in opinion & encourages creativity amongst employees.
- In the process of writing a 2-page statement, it also allows the decider to take time to think rather than abruptly ignoring it.
This ritual is impressive because it enables us to nurture innovation and promote execution.
The team forms the core of every business, thus every founder should ensure nurturing a culture of innovation and execution even at the lowest end of the hierarchy.
We at Auxano follow this approach, we’re a team of entrepreneurs not employees.
Author:
Ashish Padiyar
