#company-culture

#company-culture

In a company's early days, culture is forged through proximity-shared desks, late nights, and the push-and-pull of turning ideas into reality. Decisions happen on the fly, and everyone knows each other by name. But as you scale-especially as a remote-first organization-that sense of connection can quietly fade. Suddenly, you realize you can't attend every onboarding, celebrate every milestone, or even recognize every face on a Zoom call.

Before committing to working at his Greenville, North Carolina production studio, MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, starts some workers on roughly three-month contracts. During that trial period, internally called a vibe check, the company gives staffers an apartment and a rental car so they can focus on work without worrying about relocation. The objective is to "ensure you don't uproot your entire life and move to Greenville, North Carolina, and not work out," a former MrBeast staffer said.

The video game industry has been a tumultuous place of late, with mass layoffs, game cancellations, and studio closures, not to mention ongoing fears about the role of artificial intelligence. These issues have affected developers big and small. One smaller developer that has endured and thrived is Supergiant, which just launched Hades 2 this week. Supergiant was formed in 2009 with seven people and has grown to 25 today.

Palmer Luckey says he learned the hard way that relying on Silicon Valley talent can be a trap. The founder of Oculus VR and Anduril Industries recalled how, after Facebook (now Meta) acquired Oculus in 2014, his other company's hiring funnel narrowed almost exclusively to Bay Area engineers. Many, he said, were "very mercenary-minded" and more interested in résumé building than mission.

Corporate events should focus on connection and fun, appealing to a diverse range of interests. With creativity, they can energize and inspire employees. Giving employees to showcase their inner capabilities easily. Such events are also crucial in reducing stress among employees. Here are 20 ideas for corporate events that can boost; Team morale, Inspire creativity, and Strengthen your business culture.

Listeners and readers of "Ecommerce Conversations" know I occasionally depart from interviews to share my experiences owning and operating Beardbrand, the direct-to-consumer brand I launched a decade ago. To date, I've addressed hiring, branding, profit-building, priority-setting, exiting, overcoming setbacks, and top business models. This too is a solo episode, addressing entrepreneurial doldrums, when a business is seemingly stuck in no growth or worse. Certainly that's the story of Beardbrand over the past couple of years.

We're on a mission to make evidence-based autism care accessible to families everywhere. 🌍 Families shouldn't have to uproot their lives to access support-that's why we break down barriers while keeping the human touch at the center of our work. Our goal? To positively impact the lives of 1 million children with autism. Rooted in a culture that values trust, collaboration, and balance, we foster a workplace where everyone feels valued and empowered.

The HR department pressured me to sign a paper acknowledging responsibility for an incident with no prior knowledge of what had occurred or who complained.

You have to be willing to do yourself, to an even higher degree, what you ask of everyone else.

"I've talked to plenty of people who got these offers at Anthropic and who just turned them down. Who wouldn't even talk to Mark Zuckerberg."

None of this (Trump Media deal, subtle DEI rollbacks, etc.) was ever openly addressed. Since the firm advertises its commitment to socially progressive causes, I thought this was a tension that warranted conversation.

Refreshing a mission or strategy feels productive. It gives leadership the impression of progress without demanding real disruption. Revising words is easier than confronting entrenched behaviors, broken incentives or outdated processes.

Being productive isn't just about how many hours you spend working. It's a complex interplay of psychological, environmental, and organizational factors.

"I've always been able to find interesting pieces in everybody I meet and things to connect with... There's connections with everybody. And so I think what I've learned in my personal life and at work is finding that common ground with people."

Customer service is not just a department. It consists of unscripted moments and acts of ownership that build trust and loyalty, belonging to everyone in a company.

The company was a little over 1,000 people. One year later, it is over 3,000 and I was in the top 30% by tenure.

"If you live 30 minutes away from the office, that's an hour a day that you could be working," says Jimenez, who also lives within a short walk to the office.

"We just killed unlimited PTO at Bolt," its founder and CEO, Ryan Breslow has just revealed on LinkedIn. "It sounds progressive, but it's totally broken. When time off is undefined, the good ones don't take PTO. The bad ones take too much."

Amazon is integrating its Leadership Principles into employee evaluations, marking the first time these principles will officially influence performance reviews. This shift aims to reinforce company culture and performance expectations.

We felt communicating that there were no plans for layoffs and that we would do everything possible to avoid them would help ease concerns, reinforce trust...

And when your tools aren't talking, your team probably isn't either.

Some companies are not great at writing job descriptions—or they'll write perfect versions of a role that don't reflect reality. You need clarity during interviews.

A thriving employee advocacy program doesn't start with content templates. It starts with building a culture where employees genuinely want to share your company's story.

Solomon's crackdown on dissent and investigations into leaks signal a significant shift in corporate culture, moving away from Goldman's historically collaborative environment.