The right environment
Organising the business so it is effective is essential as it underpins your ability to be profitable. It is important also to remember that one reason for leaving employment is your desire to enjoy work more. A key benefit of running your own business is that you have the opportunity to influence the ambiance of the business; everything from the layout of your premises to the underlying moral principles that govern day-to-day business practice.
Working in the right environment will enhance the experience for you greatly, irrespective of the type of company you are in and the number of people you work with. Job satisfaction is made up a variety of factors including the environment we experience within the organisation.
Establishing the right physical environment whether it is office space, a shop, a warehouse or a production line is important but often the easier part of the equation. More difficult is the company culture, which will affect the way we feel and behave about those around us. The culture of a business is important, as it will affect both the internal operation of your organisation and the external impression of it.
The physical environment
Do not underestimate the importance of your physical surroundings. If you have been working in a large corporation, you may well have been used to high value premises with all the luxuries you could wish for. You are not going to be able to compete with that in the early days. What is important is that your physical environment whether it is an office, an industrial unit, or space in your home, is practical, affordable and comfortable for you and anyone working with you.
Working from home is an interesting option for many. It offers a number of advantages: literally no travel time (unless you have to walk down to the garden to the shed!), it is low cost and in the early days can offer the flexibility you need as you establish the business. However, there can be a downside, as you have no separation between home and work life and the impact on your family needs to be considered.
Sharing office space is another way of keeping your costs down. There are many offices set up to offer this service where you can share such things as receptionist services, IT facilities, etc. The advantage of this route is the flexibility it gives you – you can expand your space as you need to – and the professionalism of the environment. You often find other young businesses sharing the offices and the ambience can be very supportive. You will need to explore the availability of such facilities locally.
Finally, you can choose to literally rent desk space or meeting rooms, as you need them. Regus is the big national operator in this area. The cost per hour is not particularly cheap but it is cost efficient in that you only use them when you need them. We sometimes use these facilities in our consultancy business; most of the time we can work most effectively from home but if we need to set up a client meeting in a more formal environment the Regus option works well for us.
Of course, your business may well dictate where you are located and the type of premises you must have. It is important to try and keep your costs both low and flexible in the early days whilst creating a strong working environment appropriate for your business.
There are some simple things that do not cost very much that can make a real difference:
- Location – you get to choose this. Reducing or even eradicating your travel time to work will just add value to your business – you can work in this previously dead time.
- Make it look professional. The adage “first impressions are lasting impressions” is sadly true. So anyone visiting your business should be presented with a smart first impression. Sometimes this can be easily dealt with in a reception area. Making it clean and welcoming will cost you little but effort.
- Make your workspace efficient for those that use it. You have the opportunity as you start your business to make sure it works practically to best effect. Organise your space to be efficient as this will make it easier to work in. Think about where the office equipment is placed in the context of those that use it; make it ergonomically work.
- Make it comfortable. It is very easy to offer home comforts cheaply – tea and coffee that is not out of a machine is a simple but great benefit in the small company.
- Make it presentable for those who work there. If you allow the workspace to be a mess, then it probably will be a mess. No one cares about their work space like they care about their home space but if you ask for the space to be kept tidy, everyone will benefit. And, of course, you need to lead by example.
The office space we chose was open plan and a largely blank canvas but importantly was affordable.
We managed our costs by popping down to Ikea and purchasing our furniture and this brought the additional advantage of a new skill – assembling desks, chairs, bookcases, filing cabinets, etc. This allowed us to afford a reasonable quality with a contemporary image.
This furniture stood the test of time and much of it survived the life of the company. As we grew and money became less of an issue, the first thing we did was to invest in a smart reception area including a large bespoke piece of glass etched with our company and brand logos. This created a smart first impression for visitors to the business. Most never knew that behind it lurked a good impression of an Ikea showroom!
The business culture
In simple terms, culture is a shared system of understanding, influencing how we behave and what we value. It is the glue that binds a group together, the group DNA. Culture defines the way in which a group of people solve problems and resolve dilemmas – which at the end of the day is what we have to do every day in business.
One potential danger is that we define the organisation in terms of what we don’t want. There are many things culturally about corporate life that we may not like – the politics, the layers of hierarchy and ensuing bureaucracy, being kept in the dark, to name but a few – but to be successful it is important that the expression of your culture be both positive and cohesive. In that way, members of the organisation will be able to buy into the vision.
If you are essentially a one-person operation, it is not really necessary to think about managing the culture of your business, as you will instinctively work according to your own principles and values. But even if you are working with a small team, it is worth giving some thought to the ethos of the business; if you do not take the lead, it is quite possible that those around you will dictate it for you.
Things to think about:
- If you can, try to express the values you want to see:
- Think about what is important to you and to the success of the business. You need to be able to explain this to others.
- Think about your core proposition – what is it about your business that is different and what will you need to do to achieve that point of difference? This will include some elements that are about the physical organisation and other elements that are about the way in which you behave to achieve them, i.e. the values, attributes and behaviours that will be important. This can be especially relevant to areas such as customer service teams.
- Try and do this early on and then share it with those around you. You can evolve and improve it over time.
- Make sure that any outward signs of your culture are strong, including:
- Any logos, branding, shop signage. As we discussed in “business branding”, any form of company branding is sending a message about you and so you need to think about the sort of message you want to give.
- The organisation structure – reporting systems, pay structures, etc. Typically, these define hierarchies, team structure and generally affect the way people relate to each other. If you wish to develop a culture where people are independent and able to use their initiative, then a highly structured reporting system may not be the most appropriate. Whereas, if you need the organisation to be highly efficient and process led, then how you organise and incentivise would be different.
- In large corporations you often see departments and functions organised in very insular ways, which means each works to a different business agenda. This can be very damaging in the smaller business where usually you need everyone very focused on the same objectives. Think about how you can best engender this in your company through such things as structure and pay policy.
- Keep it real:
- Make sure that everything that you do as a leader of the business is consistent with the values that you have – lead by example.
- Look at how you can practically build in the cultural values in the following areas:
- recruitment
- training and development
- reward structures
- team building
- do things that allow you to build the company spirit, for example, company events, meetings, social occasions, which can bring everyone together to great effect.
- “Live the culture”. Do not be afraid to reference the culture to those around you. In simple terms, people often refer to “work hard, play hard” as a particular feature of their work environment. In itself this is a simplistic statement of culture but even so it states what unites the members of the organisation. Think about the things that can unite your company.
- Avoid corporate pitfalls!
- You may have an idea of what you want it to be but, in reality, it will take time to establish, so give it time to develop. As the business leader, you can watch for the less healthy elements you may identify with in corporate life and deal with them accordingly. Manage the culture don’t let it manage you.
- Don’t recruit clones! An easy mistake when you are applying criteria into an interview situation. Look at values not personalities – there is a difference.
- Don’t underestimate the value of experience. You can benefit from more than your own years of experience in corporate life. You may be able to recruit and benefit from very experienced individuals in all areas of the business. Although the majority of our sales team may have been relatively young, we also had some seasoned individuals who were nearing retirement age doing the same job bringing the benefit of experience to everyone in the team.
The Ubevco way
In the early days, the long-term culture of our organisation didn’t register as a business issue.
We were careful to create the right office environment. It was important to us that everyone worked together well. We created an open plan office that encouraged discussion between all functions and discouraged the development of unnecessary hierarchies. We wanted to create the right ambience to encourage a strong team spirit.
After the first couple of years, there was a slow emerging awareness of culture; people started to say things like ‘that’s not the Ubevco way’. There was an awareness that we did things a certain way and that this was an important factor where we were succeeding.
We experienced a couple of issues that made us think that being clearer on our values would be helpful.
Firstly, as the business grew, so did the headcount and we were having mixed success recruiting new staff. Some simply fitted in better than others and we became conscious that we were focusing too much on job skills in the process. Secondly, as Red Bull grew disproportionately to the beer brands, we also became aware that the culture of the Red Bull Company was very different to our own and this was having an impact.
With the help of our HR manager, we set out to be clearer on the values that made the business tick. We asked the people in the company to give their views on the things that made the business different and strong and we used this as the basis for our values blueprint.
This clarity of understanding helped us in a number of ways. It certainly improved the recruitment process helping us to focus on finding the right attitude and work ethic as well as job related skills. We conducted interviews in a more consistent way and the results of this meant we had more round pegs in round holes.
Perhaps more importantly, the process of defining these values seemed to create a sense of belonging amongst the people in the company. They too now had a better consciousness of what made the organisation tick.
Often, lists of company values can look very similar and it is important to try and reflect the things that make you different. In our company, ‘tenacity and initiative’ were important values, and very much part of giving us the leading edge in the marketplace.
Simply put, our people worked hard but additionally there was a real drive that meant they were rarely beaten by problems either because they would not give up or because they used innovative thinking to find a solution.
Red Bull became one of the biggest brands in the on trade due to the Vodka Red Bull mix. Whilst this had been an easy sell into the leading-edge independent outlets, we had massive problems getting the major chains on board because of a pricing issue relating to the need to use only a half a can of Red Bull. The rigid pricing processes of the pub and bar chains made it harder for them to control the margin.
Our sales team kept going back to accounts to deal with the concerns but kept getting knocked back. They did not give up and came up with the concept of a ‘perfect serve kit’, which helped the bar achieve the right mix and, hence, protect against wastage. We knew that the bar staff did not really need this and probably would never used it but it convinced the bean counters at head office.
This solution came from within the team as their determination to succeed drove them to find the answer.
The list of values alone did not fully define the culture though. The culture was more complex and in many respects we still find it difficult to explain in full and set down in words.
Everyone in the organisation had a clear understanding of their role and their responsibilities. The business plan was shared with everyone and was clear on what each team needed to deliver. It became clear that some of the policies we had put in place were feeding the culture positively. For example, we had a bonus scheme based on the fundamental principle that everyone was rewarded irrespective of his or her role. If the company over achieved versus the objectives, a bonus pot was created from which everyone shared. This clearly helped develop the strong team ethos of working towards a common and shared goal.
Sometimes, there are inexplicable things that link people together and become part of the culture. These may include things that bare no relation to a person’s job, or location or indeed level of seniority. If you like, they are things that put everyone on an equal footing and can develop to be something that is ‘owned’ as part of the organisation. We had a couple of these in Ubevco but perhaps the best example is football.
For some reason, there was a real love of football in the company and many people supported teams across the length and breadth of the UK and the divisions of the football league. It was something that people with little else in common would discuss, argue about and torment each other over. It even extended eventually to some of our brand owners and suppliers who gradually started to join in this everyday banter.
The ‘Ubevco way’ wasn’t always all sweetness and light. It included a fierce drive to get things right and there were many occasions when it felt safer under the desk as the logistics manager had a frank exchange of views with the sales director; his sales performance having had been somewhat lacking versus forecast. But an hour later all would be forgotten over a drink in the pub.
Sometimes it felt like the office was filled with either people shouting at or laughing at or laughing with each other. Everyone had the right to an opinion but everyone also had the right to be treated respectfully; disagreements were quickly resolved. Whilst it is difficult to clearly define the culture, it is easy to say what it was and what it wasn’t. It did include trust of each other to do the right thing, the right of the individual to say what they think, humour (often dark) and openness. It wasn’t in any way political or bureaucratic.
At the end of the day, a shared vision held everything together. To those people that worked in the business for a long period, just the word Ubevco is enough to evoke deep feelings.
There are practical advantages having a cohesive culture that can be realised in various areas of the business:
- More consistent recruitment. You can ensure that you probe in interviews to ascertain not only job skills but also values.
- More effective control systems and reward systems. If your systems reflect your culture it will be much easier to get people to work with them and equally if your reward systems are also consistent with values then they are likely to be more motivating.
- More effective management of groups and teams within the organisation. As your business grows, the evolution of the culture will not rest just with you but with the managers that you develop. If they are embracing the culture, you can rest assured that it will be maintained.
- A way of bringing people together outside of their job specification.
Managing your culture externally
If understanding culture internally is difficult, then managing the external element can be even harder. As soon as you or a member of your company steps outside the door, there is a good chance that you will come across business cultures that are different to your own. If internally your company culture acts as the thing that brings people together, then in the outside world it acts as a way of expressing in part what your company is all about. It effectively helps to mould your reputation and will affect specifically things like views on your reliability and professionalism. If you are striving to achieve these values internally but they are not being consistently used in the outside world, you are not only missing an opportunity but arguably you could be undermining your business proposition. If you want to have a reputation for “fairness”, you need to think about how you achieve that, not just inside the company but to the stakeholders outside of it.
It is not always easy for these values to be upheld when dealing with those outside of the business. In particular, when dealing with customers and suppliers, there is often the temptation to behave in line with their culture in order to endear yourself and importantly get the deal done. But this is a dangerous path.
The clearer you are about your culture internally, the easier this will be to manage it externally as you will recognise the things that affect it.
Ubevco worked with brands from all around the world that were owned by large organisations with very different cultures. Working with businesses from the Far East proved very different from businesses in the Americas and this brought new and interesting challenges.
The interesting thing about culture is that it touches everything – from the big questions about the sort of company you want to be to the daily trivia of who makes the coffee.
We worked with the Red Bull Company for six years and the cultures of the two businesses were different. They were different in a good way as we both had different jobs to do but there were differences that caused problems.
Red Bull had a strong view about the culture of the brand. The clarity of this vision was very much at the heart of the brand’s success. Red Bull believed that ‘living the brand’ was important and, consequently, had an expectation that the people associated with it were also seen to be ‘living the brand’.
For our sales people, in particular, there were many times when they had to switch from the Ubevco culture to the Red Bull one. For example, as the brand personality was about behaving unconventionally, Red Bull believed that the brand should not be sold to trade customers in a conventional fashion. In itself, this is fine and we didn’t have an issue with it but it caused disconnect at times with the developing culture of the Ubevco business and this caused us some concern.
There were many examples of how this impacted the business but perhaps the best example is rooted in the trivial and in what on the surface seems like a very innocuous issue – wearing ties! Internally, we had a very relaxed management style. In and around the office there was a relaxed attitude to how people preferred to work and indeed dress. However, it was agreed by all, that a more professional stance was required in the outside world, hence, if we had visitors or were visiting customers or suppliers, we adopted a more formal approach and dress code.
As a result, our sales team dressed smartly when visiting customers as ultimately they were representing Ubevco. However, Red Bull decided that this was too traditional for its brand and insisted that our team dress informally when conducting Red Bull business. Ultimately, this wasn’t too difficult to manage – we allowed the sales team to dress smartly without ties when on Red Bull business. The significance of this seemingly small issue hit home hard however when we next met with the senior Red Bull management from the parent company in Austria. Of all the business issues on the agenda for the brand (which at the time was showing year on year growth of 500%) the first thing they raised was their abhorrence that our sales team wore ties!
There may be occasions where you are dealing with very significant customers or suppliers where it is worthwhile thinking about their culture and how it could impact on your own and positively how you might work with it to encourage a better relationship between you. If you look for the areas of similarity, you may find advantages for your business relationship.
Over time we came to respect the different cultures of our stakeholders and appreciate that you can learn a lot from them.
- We learnt the importance of long-term relationships and the role for ‘face’ from our partnership with Asia Pacific Breweries in Singapore.
- We learnt to accept that Mexico ran on a different time clock to the UK, not just in terms of the time zone difference but also in respect to taking the time to make the right decision.
- We saw the ultimate passion for a brand working with South African Breweries where their management and employees display incredible degrees of loyalty to company and brand. (And the best party animals.)
- We learnt that Americans speak the same language as we do but in some respects are the most different culturally. We observed a very insular culture in terms of their willingness to work as a team and to consider and embrace outside views.
- Our relationship with Red Bull was often difficult as they displayed an unwillingness at times to take our advice on board. However, we came to realise that in the situation where they ultimately owned the brand then they had every right to the last word on the management of it.
- From many of our partners around the world we learnt a lot about making people feel welcome and the power of good hospitality.
- We came to understand that what may seem like a small cultural difference can, in fact be a much bigger deal in someone else’s culture.
“A fish only discovers its need for water when it is no longer in it. Our own culture is like water to a fish. It sustains us.”
Fons Trompenaars – author and consultant
The simple principles for a successful culture in a small organisation are:
- Don’t underestimate the importance of culture – your own or that of another company.
- Take the time to think about it – what are the specifics of the culture you want? In the early days, this may not amount to more than a simple set of values but it will at least give guidance to the positives that you want to achieve.
- Make sure that you are consistent in how you communicate these values. Attaching to a website or to a mission statement is not enough. Through your actions, they need to be used on a daily basis to underpin and explain the decisions that are being taken in the business.
- Make sure that there is a “fit” between your culture and your corporate goals. Ubevco was aiming to be the best independent brand agency business in the UK, therefore, it was important that our people embraced the need to behave as brand builders.
- Lead by example. This is at the heart of developing your culture. If you have an aspiration to have a culture based on fairness, you have to play fair! You need to make sure that you “live the values” and can be seen by all to do so. You are the leader.
- Try to identify and capture things that are really personal to your organisation such as language, practices, habits and activities. Often this is the easiest way to bring your culture alive and make it understood within the organisation.
- Encourage everyone in the organisation to “live the culture”, whether they are working with people inside or outside the organisation.
In summary
Creating the right environment gives you the opportunity to make going to work more enjoyable and improve the effectiveness of the organisation.
- Think about the physical environment and ensure that it works well first and foremost for you.
- Ensure that it creates a good impression to visitors.
- Try and ensure it meets the needs of other people that have to work in it.
- Think low cost – it is hard to justify how it adds to profit in the early days and there are more important calls on cash.
- The way you and your employees behave will influence your reputation so it is worthwhile thinking about how you can shape this to best effect.
- Your culture will help unify your organisation and is an easy way to influence new members of the organisation.