course” in some organizations—underpaying women, celebrating aggressive “bro” cultures, excusing bad bosses, stigmatizing LGBTQ+ employees, marginalizing people of color—are no longer tolerated. People don't want to work for companies like this; they don't want to buy products or services from companies like this, and they don't want to support companies like this.
Consider the example of Uber, the disruptive ride-sharing pioneer that achieved a valuation of $70 billion by 2016, just seven years after it was founded in 2009.15 This valuation was truly a remarkable financial milestone, but there was a very dark side to this accomplishment. Uber's problematic culture, endemic in the engineering team, was revealed in 2017 when former software engineer Susan Fowler wrote a blog post about her experience of sexual harassment and discrimination at the company and her unsuccessful efforts to get management to do something about it.
By the time Fowler made her viral blog post, more than 200,000 people had deleted their Uber accounts—many to protest Uber's perceived support of the U.S. government's travel ban of January 28, 2017, and also the company's negative culture and then-CEO Travis Kalanick's alleged role in creating and perpetuating it.16 According to one Uber executive, employee morale cratered after these incidents. “Until 2017, you could go into Uber on any given day and half the T-shirts were Uber T-shirts. They disappeared overnight. People didn't want to wear Uber stuff.”17
In June 2017, Kalanick took an indefinite leave of absence, and he was ultimately pressured to step down as CEO by five key investors (he remained on the Uber board of directors until 2020). Uber's next CEO—Dara Khosrowshahi—joined a few months later and immediately got to work on reshaping the company's tarnished corporate culture, creating a more stable work environment, and stemming the exodus of talented employees. Even so, three years after the CEO transition and after publicly acknowledging that its culture was detrimental and in need of change, Uber continues an uphill battle to repair its reputation. This is a textbook example of how an unmanaged culture can cause real reputational and financial damage to an otherwise promising company.
Leading for Character and Culture
I have had the benefit of experiencing different corporate cultures at the companies I worked for and those of customers and partners that I interacted with. There is one consistent feature that distinguishes cultures that personally resonated for me. A strong positive culture guided by upstanding core character has always been highly motivating for me as an individual—an environment in which I wanted to connect, but also to perform. I felt like I belonged. I was part of something bigger than myself, doing good in the world, and I wanted to do well—not just for myself, but for the organization and for our customers.
When good character grounds culture, people are more energized and motivated to do well. The leaders set the pace. There's openness, so people understand what's expected of them. There's collaboration, so everyone works together. Drama, office politics, toxic behavior, and other negatives are discouraged and kept to a minimum. I've personally seen and experienced the impact of a strong culture that's created by people demonstrating a core character that made me feel included and valued, and consistently generated great results.
In my experience, leaders who embody upstanding character trust and respect the people who work for and with them, and this trust is reflected right back to them. Trust is built when we say what we believe and we follow it up with action. Employees say to themselves, “I'm going to do whatever I can for them because I like what they stand for. I believe that they're here on my behalf.” And, so, a lot of the behavior that I saw over the years in the people I respected as strong leaders and mentors, I tried to emulate myself as a leader, and I tried to model in the various roles or responsibilities that I've had.
So, who defines a company's character and culture? It's the employees themselves—everyone who works for the organization. And I believe at the heart of an upstanding character are two simple qualities: trust and respect. It allows for psychological safety so that you feel comfortable to speak up, disagree openly, or offer a completely different suggestion knowing there are no repercussions. When trust and respect are strong, people tend to commit fully, and they are less distracted by the unimportant, petty issues that plague so many organizations—destroying the energy and motivation of employees—while putting their focus on the important things that are positive and really make things happen.
After the big downsizings and layoffs of the 1980s and 1990s, when the markets turned around and companies started to hire again, technology companies started bringing back the kind of perks that we thought people wanted—particularly in the Silicon Valley. We started to offer free food, recreational facilities, dry cleaning, on-site childcare, Ping Pong tables—all sorts of pluses to attract and retain talent by creating a pleasant environment. But at some point, we began to realize that we needed to go much deeper than those superficial niceties. We needed to think hard about creating the kind of environment where people would truly connect and feel a sense of belonging—and where they could grow and realize their highest aspirations.
While people work in an organization to make money and further their own careers, they also get to socialize, communicate, collaborate, and learn new and different things. The environment plays a critical role in that, and a company's environment is tangible. You can sense something about a company's character and culture just by walking through the front door. Part of it has to do with how the environment looks and feels. Is it open and inviting? Or are people divided and closed off? You can see it in how people carry themselves and how they occupy their space. Are they engaged and active—excited to be there—or would they rather be somewhere else?
Here's an example of what I mean. One night, before the first COVID-19 shutdown, I stayed late at the office and decided to get something to eat nearby. I was hungry and didn't want to wait to get home for a very late dinner. There weren't many places open, so I stopped by a popular chain restaurant known for its rotisserie chicken. I hadn't eaten at this chain for a long time, but I fondly remembered it for its great food and great service in a friendly, home-like environment.
Unfortunately, the reality of the restaurant had nothing to do with my memories. To begin with, the restaurant was dirty—really dirty. It looked like the tables hadn't been cleaned off in some time, and there was trash and food scattered around the floor. The service also suffered—the employees acted like they would rather have been anywhere but there. They were sloppy, unfriendly, and just threw the food on the plate. The entire experience was decidedly unpleasant—for me and for the people who worked there. Whose fault was this?
I can tell you that behind the scenes, this company is not being managed well. They don't have respect for the people who work there, and as a result, the employees don't have respect for their managers or customers. Because, if they felt more respected, they would make sure that they presented themselves better. They would take pride in maintaining a clean and cheerful environment, rather than one that's neglected with food all over the floor. I saw a direct correlation between the company culture and the customer experience. And it wasn't a good one.
When employees are valued by the people who lead them, they feel important, appreciated, and connected. And this applies so much to Anaplan. I hear this all the time when I'm out with customers. I was at an event in London with some of our customers—executives from Jaguar Land Rover. Mike Tickle—Planning Director, Commercial at Jaguar Land Rover—said to me:
Frank, I don't know if you know this, but the reason why I started looking into Anaplan is because I went to an event and several of your people were there. They were so energized and so enthusiastic about what they were doing that I felt like I would be missing out if I didn't get to know more
