John Corcoran 3:40
but that’s not enough, right? Just, it’s not as simple as, okay, we’ve written them out, we put them stick them in a drawer, and we’re done. Right?
Will Scott 3:49
Yeah, I think that’s the first two or three deeds of the nine deeds. So no, that’s absolutely not enough. And that’s one of things often say is, you know, core values can just be words on the wall, or, you know, a poster in your cube, they really do have to be brought alive, made to thrive in the organization and then use to drive performance in the organization. So no, it’s it’s it’s not enough. But yeah, you said you were mentioning where systems, it we’re thrilled to be in our 20th year and where we pivoted to being a NetSuite partner about six years ago. And that’s been really good for our business. And now, so if you if anybody’s in the NetSuite business, and they want an awesome supply chain management, and warehouse management system, then where systems is just seamlessly integrates with NetSuite, and just a full functioning, really great value play as a SAS, of course, like NetSuite. And yeah, we open a new client somewhere in the world about every two weeks. So it’s pretty exciting times for us there. Yeah. What
John Corcoran 4:55
is what was it like in the early days of building up that company? And what did you do early on to set the right culture?
Will Scott 5:07
We know, one of the challenges that we had is that we were very disparate, we were actually all over the world I had, even though as a small team from day one, I folks in Europe, in the States and in Africa, in Asia. And so it was really important to build a cohesive culture. Given the how remote we were in how little we actually physically were in the same space together. And so we just made a decided to make an investment in that. And it’s, I’m still talking about some of the same things today, in terms of what it is best practice for having a great culture. It’s things like making sure the language is unique, you know, and, and you feel special to you. And that you use that language and they use those values every day and every week, in your work in your meetings, that you are catching people committing core values and rewarding them for that. And that you are of course hiring and hiring around them. And, and finally measuring and going for that ROC as I call that return on culture. So making sure that the return you’re getting is well and exceeds the investment that you’re making in it.
John Corcoran 6:23
And what were some of the the core values that you decided on early with the business? And how did you come up with them? Was it just you deciding? These are the core values? Did you involve other people
Will Scott 6:38
know for sure, we involved the team. And we didn’t try this until we’ve been running the company for at least a year. So we had some folks and we kind of had some, some operational, you know, references really for for our values. And we had some stories about how we deliver to clients that could become folklore as part of our values. So know, we did it as a team. And you know, I remember, you know, today actually go for less hackneyed words, because we did have things like integrity and respect, you know, but today I don’t, I think that’s table stakes. And I like people to have more creative values. But yeah, we had integrity, respect. And we had three bullets, three behaviors underneath each Valley to describe what they meant. Another one was technical excellence, you know, we were in the software delivery business. And so technical excellence was an important one. But we again, we had some detail that describe what we meant by that little fire five of them, we put them on a little card and that little card with something you could carry around in your wallet. Or you know, haven’t been the desk when you’re ever you’re in a client meeting so they knew what values you stood for. Something that we could put at someone’s desk. Yeah.
John Corcoran 7:53
So I’ve heard some people say, you know, maybe putting up posters or doing something creative like that. You believe in those sorts of things? Good. Absolutely. In fact,
Will Scott 8:05
one of the differentiators about the culture is as delivery compared to other people in spaces. We’re not just about the words, we’re big believers. And there’s lots of research to show that people will remember, I’m 65% more likely to remember the values if they’re associated with other arts, particularly imagery, graphics. I even like to see, you know, music applied to the, to the, to the core values, and used to fire up a company meeting, you know, or a monthly Town Hall. So
John Corcoran 8:37
give us an example of that, like the CEO comes in singing like a little tune or something with the core values as part of it.
Will Scott 8:45
One good example is saber. And the CEO there is David Nance and saber in the pepper spray business. They’re actually the largest pepper spray company in the world. And their tagline for many years. The company’s also been around since 1975. And the tagline for many years graded by David Lanza CEO has been making grown men cry since 1975. So of course, it goes the Rolling Stones song start me up. It has lines in there about making a groan, making grown men cry. And so yeah, it’s awesome. You, you know, whenever they have their town hall happening, and David gets a soapbox to sort of stand in the middle of the factory floor. And one of the things he always does it that mean, by the way is lift people out for who were caught committing the core values. But the way they announced the meeting is with stop me out by the Rolling Stones. That’s great. They can grow and cry.
John Corcoran 9:45
Yeah. So how do you go about functionally? How do companies go about rewarding employees for fulfilling on these core values?
Will Scott 9:57
You know, in the case of Saber, we are who we just talking about, they actually give a monetary award every month to every department. So every department might have 10 nominations, but they pick one. And that person gets the award that month. And it’s $250 it’s pretty nice. It’s pretty nice award. Other companies stay away from the financial incentive and just make it something cuter. Like Mike pet solace and his company verb calm and Canada. They they’re in the Internet Security space. And they reward their employees. So their core values actually associated with the characters from the TV series, Star Trek. So they have Scotty and Spock and Scotty represents, for example, getting stuff done. So they have little statues. And every month they wore the statues and somebody somebody lucky enough to get to keep the statues on their desk, and it’s a thing of right for them. And the CEO forgets that, by the way at the town hall. The all the employees say Hey, where’s the where’s the where’s my Scotty? Where’s the statuettes? Yeah. So it can be simple, little inexpensive, stuff like that, that is very quickly becomes significant for the corporation.
John Corcoran 11:17
Right? What about hiring? How do you how do companies ensure that they hire someone who’s going to be consistent with their core values?
Will Scott 11:28
Yeah, I love this one. Because people say to me all the time, oh, yeah, we hire for cultural fit, we always have people to fit. And I say, how do you do that?
The
gut feel of what comes out, you know? So yeah, the, but there are ways to hire for for your values. And a great way is your core values, should have some stories that represent that awesome stories that make those valleys come clear. And when you hire new people, then you can you can do that. And you hire people that, you know, you’re using that story as the benchmark, basically. And you ask the coaches are, as I say, to do these interviews, every time and they just get really good, then at using a series of questions that sort of flesh out the behaviors of the candidate, and make a you know, to make up the best attempt at making a match with, as you said, john fit with core values. So questions like, you know, what would you do in this type of scenario types of questions? So start with open ended questions, yes. You know, just start actually with the a, what are your values, you know, and then start drilling down into those. And before you even say what our values are, you then say, So, yes, it’s a scenario. What would you do if you’re in this scenario? And it’s a real scenario that your company’s experienced? And you’ve got one right on? So the one right answer is what your cultures are did? And then you measure their response against the how close it was to that ideal answer.
John Corcoran 13:11
Yeah. Right. Right. What about so we’ve been talking primarily about advertising these these values internally to your existing team, but what about advertising them externally so that you attract the right people to the team? Is that a different approach? How much should companies be, you know, advertising their Koval core values? Especially if maybe sometimes, they’re a little quirky? Like you mentioned, the, the, you know, the, the little Scotty dolls? You know, like I mentioned, companies sometimes are a little self conscious, we don’t want our clients to see that we’re giving up these little Scotty dollars, they’re gonna think we’re not serious, you know, that sort of thing? What are your advice? Yeah. What’s your advice to companies on that?
Will Scott 13:54
You know, once companies have identified a great culture, and it’s very personal to them, and they love it, then you those kind of embarrassments go away, and you just embrace it so strongly that you actually are very happy that people know how you represent your culture, and how important it is to you. But yeah, I always encourage CEOs to not just think of themselves as leading a company, john, but leading a culture, which goes beyond the four walls of the company and is upstream to your, your suppliers and vendors and downstream to your customers. The put the put them on your website. And, you know, once the very public, of course, to your first question about how do you recruit, you got a bit more be a bit more canny with your questions, because probably your candidates are coming in knowing what your core values are. And, you know, you don’t want them to be able to play smoke and mirrors with you. So you’re counting on that. But no, it’s definitely best practice to have them not only on the walls internally, but on the website and shared with your guests, summers and your renders. Because if everybody if your whole supply chain is basically operating to values that work for you, they are going to be just, you know, your whole life is easier how you’re doing businesses just goes much smoother.
John Corcoran 15:14
Right? Right. And now the hardest, one of the harder decisions for companies is when they have a client, maybe a big piece of business that is not in alignment with their core values. And maybe they need to decide whether they want that business or not. So how do you advise companies to make those decisions when money’s on the line?
Will Scott 15:38
Well, I know it’s not always easy, and I don’t pretend it’s easy. But if the company can economically, weather a transition, where they do, basically cease working with that customer, and find customers where who are a better fit, and therefore great to work with, I definitely recommend them doing it. And the sooner the better. A difficult client that’s not fitting the culture, just as a big drag on the company. They’re usually, you know, hard in lots of ways, very demanding. They want to pay the lowest prices, they are late payers, and they treat your customers badly your employees badly, you know. And when you hire a client like that, just the whole health of the organization just kicks up. And so yeah, do it and do as soon as you can, but I don’t pretend it’s always easy. Sometimes those clients are the whale, you know, and they might represent 30 or 40%. of the of your business.
John Corcoran 16:44
Yeah. And imagine you’ve had some clients where the boss thinks the culture is great. And the story on the grounds a little bit different? How does the boss know whether they have a good culture or not?
Will Scott 17:01
Well, one of the things I recommend There is, of course, checking in with the culture and doing it anonymously. When I start working with a new client, john, I always begin with a company wide survey to all employees, and that it’s 20 questions in line, it’s free, it’s free on my website, folks can can go, you know, borrow that. And it’s but it’s, you know, that’s just one data point. But it’s a very significant one, you tend to find out very quickly, just whether there is a match between what the C suite things and the, you know, the factory floor things or the other employees in the company. And then from that, go into interviews, and you’ll learn a lot more in interviews to, I like to interview at least some number of the employees, depending how big the company is. And yeah, you can very quickly generate a very effective data backed report for the C suite about just whether is as good as they think it is. And is it synchronous with the work they say it is? Right,
John Corcoran 18:06
right. Now, we’ve talked mostly about positive culture. But the flip side of that coin is negative culture. And the consequences of a company that doesn’t have its core values in place, doesn’t maintain its culture doesn’t actually put in the work in order to maintain it. One of your sub chapters in the book is titled when your culture train goes on track. So goes off track, sorry. So tell us a little about, you know, maybe some examples of the dire consequences, you know, caught, you know, some kind of nightmare scenarios.
Will Scott 18:39
Yeah, well, I’ve, you know, Jonathan mentioned this one on other podcasts, but I’m going to use it again, because it’s, it’s a well, it’s a public one that’s quite well known now. And so everyone can relate to it, but a good one is the Wells Fargo. The they had recently the largest fine of all time, a billion dollar fine from the FDIC for malpractices that they were doing. And you know, what they were doing, john, they were, they were, you know, things like opening credit cards, I’ve been accounts, hundreds of them, thousands of them in their customers names without their customers knowing or wanting those those things. And this is all driven by internal policies around incentivizing the sales people, you know, to open more accounts like, right, yeah. What do you think? What do you think that core values, their core values said, we will only push products to our customers, if they need them. And we will only do things that are benefits and that are right for the client, for the customer.
John Corcoran 19:39
So they had it in writing, but they just weren’t living that
Will Scott 19:42
they had a line. Yeah. And the same CEO that wrote those presided over the malpractices. So just a really good Stark example of where you have values, but they are you’re really not paying their dues, you’re not paying him pay lip service to them. You’re actually stomping all over your own values. Because you’re pursuing something and your values clearly are not what you said they say they are. So and that is very common. There are lots of examples that makes employees very cynical. And of course, does it pay? No, it doesn’t pay. In the end, you’re found out just like Wells Fargo Where? And if you don’t have a big fine, you have certainly some very disgruntled employees who, you know, are not doing their best for you. Right, right. So yeah, the flip side of a great culture is, you know, it’s it’s, it’s 180 degrees.
John Corcoran 20:37
Right, right. Absolutely. We’re running low on time. But any other advice for companies that are looking to improve on their culture of then, of course, getting the book culture fix, but what else?
Unknown Speaker 20:48
Oh, yeah, one of the favorite.
Will Scott 20:50
One of the favorite things that I talk about, about having a great culture and is in the book is the why a lot of companies even if they have core values, and have a great culture still haven’t put into words, what their Why is, and if they can, that can be so significant for the employees, everyone’s to feel like they’re doing something meaningful in the world. So yes, a great culture means they can walk into work, and they can love where they work and who they work with. But if they can leave at the end of the day, believing they’ve done something worthwhile for the world, then that’s so much better, and they’ve been will be so much more productive. And that comes from, you know, answering the question, what’s the why, or determining the core purpose for the business? And the book goes that goes into how to do that, I think I have a very unique way of doing that, that I haven’t seen anybody else do. And it works in any company, as a way of determining what your why is in your company.
John Corcoran 21:47
And they can learn about that on your website. I assume cultures ours com
Will Scott 21:53
that’s a you know, it’s it’s a it’s definitely in the book.
And it’s touched it and on the way but it I don’t go into a lot of detail on the website as to as to how it’s done. Whereas there are some few steps to the process, which is in the book. Yeah. And the book is available on Amazon. com. It’s available on Kindle for just 299.
John Corcoran 22:14
Excellent. Yeah, I was gonna say that. So the culture fix from core values to valued culture using nine deeds is the name of the book. So you have to get that on Amazon. But before we wrap things up, the last question I’m going to ask you is we’re let’s pretend they were an awards banquet, much like the Oscars, the Emmys, and you will receive an award for lifetime achievement for everything you’ve done up to this point and tell me, you know, who are the relationships that have been so instrumental to your success in your career so far? I’m going to guess that being the cultures are yourself you got to mention everyone, right? Because you can’t leave anyone else. Anyone out, right? Or else that’s going to create the wrong culture. But there’s got to be some people in particular,
Will Scott 22:51
there are there are definitely some some standouts for me, I mean, yes, of course, I’ve learned a lot from from a lot of great people in the world, and I couldn’t, I mentioned them all. But the first thing we’re going to mention is Hugh Scott, my father I mean, he was a values driven man and you know, both at work and within the family. And I definitely learned a lot from from him. I’ve worked with some great folks to my business partners in where system which includes my brother, Rod Scott and, and also the Lex tech, the mobile app development company, the team I’m working with now coaches hours, learn from them every day that they’ve gone through all this process with me and that’s been really great to I’ll give a shout out to a couple of well known folks that you also know people like Vern Hornish he wrote, writes about core values in his book, The Rockefeller habits. Gina Whitman also believes that having, you know, a well defined a healthy culture is very important. Patrick Lynch Yoni does too. So I’m not the first doctor to write about it. But I’m, I think there’s some unique pieces in in my program, and particularly what’s unique is that the visual side I believe in, in making these things visual and having them on the on, you know, displayed and powered by the arts.
John Corcoran 24:14
Yeah, that’s a brilliant idea, the culture fix from core values to value culture using nine deeds in 90 days. You can check out on Amazon cultures Rs. com. Well, thanks so much.
Will Scott 24: 55
Thank you, john.