As the company grows, we get lost in many activities that take away focus from culture. We hire in a flock with people of various backgrounds and expectations. We forgo our principle because we need a 10X engineer or high flying sales folk. The side effect of this is people who were with you from day zero when you and company was nothing start to see the change, some leave. They no more find the organization sticking to its original principle and culture.
Culture is an asset that can help in building a successful company for the long run. A founder should not delegate it to some HR. Monkey see monkey do. It is the founder’s responsibility to keep the company aligned and work as an operating system, not independent silos fighting with each other.
We like to see and learn from our leaders. If we are not doing our job well, why do we expect the team does it differently?
The entire family/organization needs to know what is not acceptable as company culture. That is the founder’s job.
Great companies like Zenefits, Uber, and Carta are up into ashes because of culture mismatch. [find web link]
If you don’t trust me, do read The phoenix project book. 🙂