Scaling culture - How to nurture a coherent company culture amidst change and growth
A presentation at Chief in Tech Summit 2022 by Jutta Horstmann
Scaling culture How to nurture a coherent company culture amidst change and growth Jutta Horstmann | Managing Director (COO) | eyeo GmbH Chief in Tech Summit 2022
eyeo… Who?
Most popular ▪ Most popular browser extensions worldwide ▪ Technology available on all major browsers and platforms
Ad-blocking usage around the world Source: GWI, 2019
The biggest boycott in history
Our Mission Empowering a balanced and sustainable online value exchange
Our Vision Any value exchange that is balanced between all sides; everyone benefits. Putting you in control of a fair and prosperous internet We aim to create solutions that give all stakeholders choice in how the internet works best for them. The healthier and stronger the ecosystem, the more enduring it will be.
FROM: 2 to 14 products 16m to 220m users 6 to 250 people 3 to 35 nationalities 0 to 10 lawsuits 1 to 700 partners
The startup needs to scale
Scaling Business Product Organization Culture
Scaling culture
How to scale a culture to 250+ people? Provide clarity Tell stories Embrace diversity Break down silos
Evolution of culture - from implicit to explicit Implicit ▪ Developer-first ▪ Remote first ▪ Open Source ▪ Libertarian ▪ Full transparency ▪ Work family A bit explicit ▪ Core Values Very explicit ▪ ▪ Communication guidelines Leadership principles Evolving ▪ Culture Council ▪ Core Values update ▪ Mission & Vision statements
Our values - the basis for scaling our culture Empathy Experimentatio n Ambition Trust Inclusivit y Balance
Finding balance in an ecosystem of extremes
Balance Optimizing for publisher revenue Short-term success Remote Professionalization & standardization High Performance Control Rapid change Optimizing for user experience Long-term sustainability Co-located Creativity & innovation Sustainable pace Empowerment Iterative and participatory approach
“Scaling people”?
Helping people to grow with the company The Old Guard 10% of staff hired 2011 - 15 Finding and keeping talent Resilience Change is here to stay 33% of staff hired 2016 - 18 World-wide hiring Anti-fragility 57% of staff hired 2019 - 21 Flat hierarchy Trust Talent development Empowerment & Enablement Appreciation
“In the past we were pirates, now we are the Royal Navy.”
Addressing identity crisis Empathy Clarity Leadership Explain. Listen. Repeat. Vision & Mission Commitment “What’s in it for me?” Strategy Multiplicators Values Leading by example Behavior
Scaling yourself ▪ Let go ▪ Step out ▪ Empower ▪ Relax
The next 10 years
How to keep disrupting? Beware of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse: ▪ Complacency ▪ Bureaucracy ▪ Mistrust ▪ Timidity
Takeaways
- Growth comes with pain.
- Build for scale, embrace change, and allow people to grow with the company.
- Enjoy the ride.
Thank you. Questions? Jutta Horstmann Managing Director (COO) j.horstmann@eyeo.com @smphr
At eyeo, we are a company built around a strong, inclusive culture. A blend of people who share a vision for a better online ecosystem, where content remains widely accessible, and all stakeholders of the internet can profit from a fair, sustainable value exchange. Thus, scaling that culture as we grow, preserving the pieces that make eyeo special, has been one of our most important challenges. The last ten years have seen us embark on the journey from start-up to grown up: we’ve gone from 2 to 14 products, from 16M to 225M users worldwide, from 6 to 250 people, coming from >35 nationalities. And we’re not done: we are working together toward ambitious goals to reach enough market scale to make a lasting impact, all while defending user control and an exceptional user experience.
Thus, we’d like to share some of the experiences we’ve gathered along the way, the complications, the successes, but also offer some insight into the pillars of that culture-scaling as we see it. How do we, as leaders and gatekeepers of the essence of the company’s values, preserve what is important about our culture while scaling to accommodate necessary growth? For us, that has meant many things, though specifically four core elements: clarity, story telling, diversity, and breaking down silos with the support of organizational design. We also, more generally, had to learn to embrace change and allow people to grow with the company. Of course, there’s a lot more to it, as we would illustrate in further depth in the presentation. Knowledge is meant to be shared (as any open-source-minded company will attest), and we…
