Growing pains in company culture

Think of some of the best-known in our industry. Paul Allen and Bill Gates loved programming way back in 1975 and that passion has grown to 128,000 employees at Microsoft today.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started selling personal computer kits in 1976 and now Apple has 98,000 employees.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin were simply completing their studies in 1996 and their little research project exploded into 54,000 employees in less than 20 years.

I am sure many CRN readers have a similar story to tell. What started out as a passion grows and grows and before you know it, you run into strangers in the hallway who are your employees.

People talk about the efficiencies of scale but I often see the inefficiencies of scale. As organisations grow, the greatest challenge becomes how to ensure the entire organisation is working together and communicating effectively. 

From the early days, Google was famous for a collaborative environment and a flat structure. But as the organisation grew, they found their culture was being eroded and starting to look just like any other large multinational. 

So they employed a chief culture officer – while that sounds great, it is an additional expense. I know that Google can probably squeeze this person into their budget but my point is that as organisations grow sometimes the ‘per employee’ costs go up rather than down.

Crash and burn

I had a mountain bike accident recently and found myself in the largest hospital in the state. With 855 beds and 23 operating rooms, there was no shortage of staff. While I could not question the quality of care, I had major concerns about the taxpayer funds with the inefficiencies and silo approach. While lying in bed, in pain with four broken vertebrae, I started mentally writing this column. 

On my arrival at the hospital, the ambulance drivers were fantastic and stuck around chatting with me. I noted how friendly they were being and told them they could leave me. I would be in the emergency department soon. 

Then my ego took a hit: the reason they were chatting to me was because they needed their bed back! 

I assumed there would be just a pool of ambulance beds but this wasn’t the case. The hospital and ambulances are different departments so they don’t share information with one another. 

Possibly the worst inefficiency I saw was in relation to my neck brace. Three women arrived to show my wife how to correctly re-fit my neck brace. Unfortunately, they arrived before the team that delivered neck braces. Hours later, two men arrived to deliver the neck brace. When my wife asked how to fit it, we were informed this wasn’t their job. Another team would show her this procedure. Re-enter the original three women. Having five people over three visits to deliver and instruct on a neck brace seemed somewhat inefficient.

I witnessed many more examples in my short stay.

The greatest challenge for any growing business is to ensure communication channels among teams are open and encouraged. This may mean having regular team meetings, physical or via videoconference. It may mean brief but regular internal updates. Most importantly, it may mean regular social occasions so the staff actually know their fellow employees. 

While it is still frustrating that money is wasted on our health system, their $19.9 billion annual budget gives them a little bit of wiggle room. My business doesn’t quite have that amount to work with.

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Mathew Dickerson is a technology professional who has started a total of six small businesses