The hottest Company Culture Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Technology Topics

Values of My Hypothetical Company

Sarah's Newsletter • 199 implied HN points • 10 May 22
💼 Business Company Culture Values Relationships Decision-making Leadership
  1. Company culture is critical for employee happiness and retention, with clear values fostering alignment and unity.
  2. Values in relationships and business overlap, emphasizing the importance of shared core beliefs for effective communication.
  3. Key principles like valuing individuals, balancing logic and emotion, trusting employees, and working with intention and urgency can drive success in company culture and relationships.

Clive's Departure from Oxford Confirmed

ASeq Newsletter • 7 implied HN points • 11 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Startups Leadership Innovation Biotechnology Company Culture
  1. Clive has left Oxford Nanopore, and Rosemary Sinclair Dokos and Lakmal Jayasinghe are taking over his roles. They seem like good choices for the company.
  2. Clive's leadership was important to the company's vision and success, and many believe it could have struggled without him.
  3. There have been several senior departures from Oxford in the past year, which might have changed the company's culture, but product and strategy changes are still unclear.

Creating a Culture Where All Voices are Included

Suzan's Fieldnotes • 58 implied HN points • 24 Apr 23
💼 Business Leadership Company Culture Diversity Trust Building Team Management
  1. Building a positive culture where people feel empowered can unlock team potential.
  2. Emphasizing inclusion, equity, and access in the workplace is key for creating opportunities for everyone.
  3. As a leader, it's important to actively listen, create space for others, and build trust to shape and maintain a healthy team culture.

Defining Your Leadership Principles

The Digital Leader Newsletter -- By John Rossman • 58 implied HN points • 05 Apr 23
💼 Business Company Culture Strategy Innovation Employee engagement
  1. Clearly defined leadership principles help guide an organization's direction and increase its velocity.
  2. Developing leadership principles should be a collaborative and iterative process, not rushed or outsourced.
  3. Leadership principles should be specific, actionable, and not just generic statements to truly make a difference in an organization.
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Interviewing Company CEOs: The Must-Ask Question Checklist Every Investor Needs

Behavioral Value Investor • 126 implied HN points • 30 Jul 23
💼 Business Investment Financial Analysis Company strategy Company Culture
  1. Prepare questions for a CEO interview to focus on 'what' and 'how' without being accusatory.
  2. Before interviewing a CEO, decide your goals such as learning, relationship building, or understanding culture.
  3. Topics to cover during a CEO interview include strategy, customers, economics, capital allocation, company culture, and CEO motivations.

Pros and Cons of a C-level Job in 2024+

The Uncommon Executive • 19 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
💼 Business Career Leadership Work-life balance Decision-making Company Culture
  1. C-level executive roles offer significant impact on company trajectory and industries, allowing for big bets and tangible results in a shorter timescale.
  2. Executives have more control over their schedule, better anticipation of risks, and the ability to create work for others at well-run companies.
  3. The executive role comes with overflowing stress from high-level accountability, feelings of loneliness at the top, and a distance from day-to-day operations.

Alexa, WTF Happened?

The Radar • 19 implied HN points • 05 Mar 24
💼 Business Customer Service E-commerce Company Culture
  1. Amazon's customer service has shown signs of declining quality, leading to customer dissatisfaction.
  2. The shift from customer obsession to profit focus at Amazon is evident in interactions with customers.
  3. There are concerns about Amazon's business practices and treatment of customers, as highlighted by various incidents of mishandling customer issues and funds.

A Dream Indeed

The Radar • 39 implied HN points • 25 Apr 23
💼 Business Company Culture Corporate Governance Financial Performance
  1. Authenticity in workplace culture leads to better results and engagement. Employees feel a sense of safety, invest more time and energy, and focus on long-term goals.
  2. Honesty is essential for building trust and equality within teams. Open communication loops prevent insularity and negative outcomes, like the Enron scandal.
  3. Companies often sacrifice their values for shareholder interests. Boards prioritize shareholder value over principles, leading to short-term cost controls and reduced transparency.

Diya Jolly (Incoming CPO at Xero, ex-Okta)

The Takeoff • 19 implied HN points • 20 Mar 23
💼 Business Product Management Leadership Company Culture Remote work
  1. Lagging indicators for product success include revenue, mid-level indicators involve usage metrics, and early indicators consist of feedback from target customers.
  2. Building a strong product culture involves deep customer empathy, a focus on business growth, a drive for learning, and a collaborative team culture.
  3. Success in product management is measured by revenue generation, usage metrics, and meeting target customer needs through strategic decision-making.

Why Must You Pay Sales People Commissions?

Dan’s Substack • 2 HN points • 19 Apr 24
💼 Business Sales Compensation Company Culture Employee Motivation Organizational Behavior
  1. Salespeople being paid commissions is a common practice, but it can lead to various recurring problems like high turnover and internal disputes.
  2. Research suggests that higher incentives, like commissions, can actually reduce performance in some cases, which is a counter-intuitive result.
  3. The debate over sales commissions reflects two different views of worker motivation: Theory X, where employees are seen as lazy and need external rewards, and Theory Y, where workers are viewed as self-motivated and thrive on autonomy.

Uniting Data Fiefdoms Under Your Banner

TeamCraft • 13 implied HN points • 30 Oct 23
💼 Business Data Management Company Culture Business strategy Team Management
  1. Uniting data fiefdoms under one banner can be challenging due to siloed incentives and data fragmentation.
  2. Data functions often lack proprietary data but have access to all data, highlighting the importance of understanding data context.
  3. Creating a Single Customer View can be a game-changer for businesses, enabling better attribution and decision-making based on a holistic customer journey.

Serendipity and Remote Work ✨

Mica’s Newsletter • 2 HN points • 12 Mar 24
💼 Business Remote work Innovation Company Culture Creativity
  1. In-person interactions are crucial for sparking spontaneous conversations and new ideas, which are often limited in structured remote meetings.
  2. Serendipitous connections among colleagues from different departments can lead to innovative features, products, and even startups.
  3. Designing workspaces to encourage interactions and chance encounters can be key to fostering creativity and innovation, as seen in examples like Building 20 at MIT and the Apple headquarters.

GRANTED: Your stress probably isn't burnout and your professional decline probably isn't imminent

Granted • 19 implied HN points • 02 Jul 19
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Professional development Mindfulness Company Culture Strengths
  1. Burnout is not the same as stress. Feeling overwhelmed can be healthy but burnout is persistent emotional exhaustion.
  2. Your professional peak relies more on acquired wisdom than innate intelligence. Investing in the next generation is valuable.
  3. Empathy in company culture is crucial. Developing empathy is a soft skill that can be learned through genuine care and effort.

GRANTED: The value of going outdoors, outside your expertise, and to the outsiders inside your team

Granted • 19 implied HN points • 03 Mar 19
💼 Business Productivity Leadership Remote work Communication Company Culture
  1. Spending time outdoors has benefits like increased test scores for kids in Finland and lower mental health disorders for adults near green spaces
  2. Hiring versatile individuals who excel in at least one area can lead to more innovation in companies
  3. Creating a sense of belonging for remote workers is important for their well-being and productivity

The Unconventional Journey of Virgílio and Sword Health

The Healthtech Initiative • 2 implied HN points • 13 Sep 23
💼 Business Healthcare Innovation Team Management Product Development Company Culture
  1. Virgilio's journey with Sword Health shows the importance of resilience and commitment in innovating healthcare and technology.
  2. Overcoming obstacles like limited funding helped shape a robust company culture, attracting investors and grants.
  3. Sword Health's success came from addressing healthcare buyers' needs, embracing complexity, and prioritizing talent and team management.

GRANTED: When to trust your gut and how to get people to embrace change

Granted • 19 implied HN points • 29 Nov 18
💼 Business Leadership Decision-making Company Culture Empathy Personal Development
  1. Hire based on motivation and ability to learn rather than talent or credentials to be future-ready.
  2. Trust your gut only in predictable environments with regular practice and immediate feedback; if not, gather evidence to test your intuition.
  3. Encourage employees to speak up by rewarding them for raising problems, concerns, suggestions, and solutions to foster a positive company culture.

GRANTED: Bouncing back from failure and the problem with hiring ninjas

Granted • 19 implied HN points • 06 May 17
💼 Business Professional development Company Culture Resilience Communication
  1. Character is revealed by how you treat those with less power, not how many powerful people you impress
  2. Face-to-face requests are more successful than emails; asking 6 people in person can be as effective as emailing 200
  3. Resilience after failure often comes from understanding that failures are often due to the situation, not individual shortcomings