Culture Is How You Act When No One Is Looking
Scaling Culture with Former Hulu and Vessel CEO Jason Kilar
Today’s best founders understand the importance of company culture. It should be an early priority — not an afterthought. Culture permeates to the workplace you create, the team you build, and how your brand is perceived. But as your team grows to hundreds or even thousands of people, the challenge is establishing the foundation that enables both your culture and company to scale in parallel.
Jason Kilar, the former Hulu and Vessel CEO and a former Amazon and Disney executive, joined us at the Scaleup Offsite to talk about how some of today’s most iconic companies scaled their culture. Below are some of the key lessons from his talk:
- As a kid, he went on a trip to Disneyworld which changed his perception of how great an amusement park could be. He became obsessed with figuring out how Disney could perform at such a high level at scale.
- He eventually landed an internship at Disney and realized that much of their success was a product of their culture. He distills three ways the Walt Disney company scales their culture:
- Be Explicit: Walt Disney was explicit and repetitive about what he wanted their culture to be. He had many different ways of imparting “Quality and attention to detail matters” to his team.
- Walk the Talk: Walt Disney was well known for picking up trash around the theme park. His actions permeated to the whole organization who understood that cleanliness and attention to detail matter.
- Create Mechanisms: Mechanisms are good processes that can be repeated and delivered for (and at) scale. One mechanism Disney started is Disney University, a mandatory orientation program for new employees to learn the values and principals of the Walt Disney company.
- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was explicit about culture early. He took the lead on writing the Fourteen Leadership Principals of Amazon. Jason wrote a similar document while leading Hulu called What Defines Hulu.
- Amazon created a mechanism called the “Just Do It” Award, an award for employees who, without permission, had an idea that could move the company forward and just did it.
- Being explicit about what you want your culture to be may repel some candidates who do not share the same values, and that’s okay.
This presentation was recorded at The Scaleup Offsite, an event focused on scaling companies co-hosted by Greylock Partners and Y-Continuity. All talks will be available on video on Greylock’s YouTube channel and via podcast.
