Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What defines a great company culture?

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 176 posts

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#91

Post by spawarotti »

jiveturkey wrote: post #83
ysavir wrote: post #29

This thread isn't really clarifying or defining what a "great" culture constitutes, and it strongly suffers from survivorship bias. The author is pointing out that a necessary ingredient (among others omitted) is strong culture--which is something of a tautology. Of course a company with great culture has a strong culture; if it were a weak culture, it wouldn't be pervasive or definitive of the company. A company wit…

As the post says, "the knife cuts both ways". You're missing the point! One can't say what are the cultural elements of "great". All you can do is tradeoff one element for another. What defines a great company culture is one that is held consistently, and that you , personally, as a person with your own particular outlook (let's call it red or blue), enjoy and are productive in. What's great for you is not what's gre…

> What's great for you is not what's great for another.

> Too bad we can't understand this in our politics

Unless you have a very good reason to not get a vaccine and not wear a mask I will expect from you to do these things. Not because I don't understand what's not great for you. It's because I understand the objective reality of the disease.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#92

Post by jhrozek »

alex_anglin wrote: post #89
BayAreaEscapee wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a video once, the goal of which was to sell to Microsoft execs how to market the first Xbox. The video explained that the target market wasn't fortysomething guys wearing suits in cubicles. It was skateboarders with tattoos on their neck. (And many other demographics that varied significantly from middle-aged IT people).

As a middle-aged IT person, that sounds like poor advice to me for two reasons: 1. Marketing to the 'cool kids' with the expectation that everyone else will follow-along... is probably not good advice in the absence some key differentiation. For Microsoft, this could have just been the massive amounts of capital they could deploy towards getting the Xbox to market. Even then, just spending money is not a strategy. 2.…

Regarding 2. — are you sure the people with disposable income would buy a gaming console of all things? I mean it requires time to enjoy which is something a middle aged person trying to dance between family and work doesn’t have.. Also those younger people that are being targeted have middle aged parents with money:)

Of course it’s entirely possible that you’re right and I’m just bitter that I can’t spend more time gaming :)

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#93

Post by at-fates-hands »

dustinmoris wrote: post #58
ysavir wrote: post #29

This thread isn't really clarifying or defining what a "great" culture constitutes, and it strongly suffers from survivorship bias. The author is pointing out that a necessary ingredient (among others omitted) is strong culture--which is something of a tautology. Of course a company with great culture has a strong culture; if it were a weak culture, it wouldn't be pervasive or definitive of the company. A company wit…

Agreed! Microsoft is a great example of a company which had... a) many cultural shifts over time b) still is a company with many different sub team cultures ...and regardless of where they were on the spectrum they have always managed to sell Windows, Office and SQL Server very well.

> a) many cultural shifts over time

MS lost a decade because of stack ranking under Ballmer. Dropping that has allowed them to get back to being more competitive with Google and Apple.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2012/08/microsoft-l...

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#94

Post by dustinmoris »

alex_anglin wrote: post #89
BayAreaEscapee wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a video once, the goal of which was to sell to Microsoft execs how to market the first Xbox. The video explained that the target market wasn't fortysomething guys wearing suits in cubicles. It was skateboarders with tattoos on their neck. (And many other demographics that varied significantly from middle-aged IT people).

As a middle-aged IT person, that sounds like poor advice to me for two reasons: 1. Marketing to the 'cool kids' with the expectation that everyone else will follow-along... is probably not good advice in the absence some key differentiation. For Microsoft, this could have just been the massive amounts of capital they could deploy towards getting the Xbox to market. Even then, just spending money is not a strategy. 2.…

> Middle-aged IT people are likely to have more disposable income to afford a $X00 device and a library of games (where the real revenue is).

This is not as relevant as many think...

Good sales people know that..

- it's hard to sell expensive items to anyone, let alone middle aged people who have many other things to pay for

- the best people to convince a middle age person to purchase something are their children

- it's infinitely easier to convince children that they need something

... which is why so many industries focus on selling it to the cool kids. Once the cool kids have something then the other kids want it. When kids want something they will get on parent's nerves until they eventually get it, unless the parents truly can'f afford it.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#95

Post by bluGill »

CountDrewku wrote: post #71

How about none at all? I'm not joining a cult. I go to work to get paid and that's it. I don't need some weird culture shoved down my throat and I certainly don't need to be thinking about work 24/7.

Not having to think about work 24/7 is culture. You need to look for a job where that is part of the culture.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#96

Post by triceratops »

plank_time wrote: post #84

A great company culture is one where everyone is aligned to the mission of the company and everyone is aligned, empowered and incentivized in this exact same direction. I’ve worked at a couple of companies that had great culture and the best was Uber. Uber, post-shenanigans and pre-Susan Fowler memo, was hands down the best company I’ve ever been at. Everyone was aligned together which meant that everyone was working…

> but what they ended up changing ruined what made it great

Please explain more. Did they change more than just sexual and other harassment reporting and handling policies? Why did any of the changes have any effect on engineering?

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#97

Post by bluGill »

Loughla wrote: post #43
nabla9 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not my experience. In fact it's the opposite. I suspect that incorporating values can work, but it's not universal. Best company cultures usually concentrate on good work, not values. Results to the society don't matter when people get things done. I think most companies should try to be as amoral as possible outside the purpose of the company. People choose to work in different companies based on their values…

It's not that simple. I have never been convinced that there is actually such a thing as 'amoral' decision making. Making the sole decision to focus on good work and results (presumably making money for the company) is a moral choice. You have said to your employees and society at large that what is important is money. Make money. Ethical considerations are second. That is a moral stance. Let's say your company makes…

Your example is wrong. Many companies are careful not to use suppliers that use child labor because if they don't the negative media attention will collapse their market and in turn result in less money.

A better example is today many companies have no problem with doing business with suppliers that donate to planned parenthood, even though that means they are morally contributing to abortion. I know right now many of you will be screaming but abortion is morally okay, and others will screaming that they wish they could punish such companies...

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#98

Post by bluGill »

m463 wrote: post #61
kache_ wrote: post #44

The amount of money that gets direct deposited into my bank account, biweekly

You should try to get past that to post-scarcity thinking, possibly interstellar.

There doesn't seem to be any hope of me living that long. Interesting to think about in a science fiction world, but for now there are a lot of toys that I can't afford.

I don't think we will ever get there. The energy required for interstellar is too high, and global warming is a concern with anyone using too much energy. (Dyson spheres sound good, but mathematically they are tricky because they imply some form of global warming that you need to work around)

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#99

Post by bluGill »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #57
strathmeyer wrote: post #47

As an advanced programmer it always seemed I was getting rejected for jobs because of 'culture' because I wouldn't put up with their abusive environments.

Right. Say anything in an interview to suggest you won't work 60 hour weeks every week and you're suddenly not a good culture fit. Workaholism is a real problem in North America I guess

Find a different industry. There are plenty of companies doing boring everyday things and going home at 5 scattered around that would love to hire you. Sometimes you take a pay cut to work there - your willingness to do this reflects on you.
Post reply on HN