Swiggy’s Girish Menon Writes: Why Culture is Key to Building Successful Start-Ups

Even after more than four decades of its publishing, Tom Peters’ In Search of Excellence continues to remain arguably the most influential business book ever. It was also the book that brought the notion of organisation culture to the centre stage. Amusingly, Peters draws a parallel between an organisation’s culture and fairy tales.

Much like fairy tales enable a child to come to terms with fears, organisation culture is an anchor for employees.

All great organisations, Peters describes “are rich tapestries of anecdote, myth and fairy tale…and without exception, the dominance and coherence of culture proved to be an essential quality of excellent companies”. As a corollary to this, one could possibly say that start-ups and younger companies that have a good culture will prove to be enduring and more likely to achieve great things.

Culture Eats Strategy

Today it is an often-repeated phrase that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Some people may feel that the notion of culture is amorphous, but it has an inextricable link with an organisation’s financial performance. However, despite the best intentions, so many companies, especially start-ups, struggle with culture, especially when they try to scale up.

In such setups, culture remains a mere homily ornamentation in annual reports or investor decks. A true and abiding culture is to be expressed not merely in words but in action, and that too at every moment.

It has to be pervasive in every transaction and interaction of the organisation, and that too at every moment. It has to be a way of life.

For instance, you cannot sustain a culture of being scrupulous to your employees if you are unscrupulous to your customers. Because sooner than later, the employees too will imbibe mendacious ways to deal with each other. Therefore, it is critical to have the right tone at the top. The leaders have to show the way they walk the talk. Their own behaviour will be reflected in the behaviour of their teams.

Making an Impression

The imperative for leaders to be exemplars of the values and culture they preach is even more important in today’s era when your behaviour is manifest not only internally, but also conspicuous externally. Social media, regulatory disclosures, extensive media reportage, informal networks/social groups and ex-employees can combine to present perceptible and accurate contours of a company’s internal culture.

Just like a favourable image can elicit interest from several candidates of promise, an adverse perception can alienate not only potential but also existing employees. In fact, ex-employees often are brand ambassadors and emissaries of a company’s culture—for good and for bad. Today it gladdens our hearts when people fondly refer to so many bright new start-ups that have been established by colleagues who once worked at Swiggy.

I often get asked if an organisation is doomed to live with a poor culture, if it starts on a wrong note? In other words, is organisation culture once established, irreversible and immutable? My answer is two-fold: first, don’t define culture in haste. Mere grand statements written in florid capital letters are not culture. Nor is it necessarily true that because some tenets have worked for other organisations, they will necessarily work for you.

Learn from History

Take time to think over what it is you stand for, what sort of organisation you want to build and then go about defining it. Yes, it is entirely possible that despite the best intentions you may not get it right or even if you have defined it right, in the frenzy of the initial days of an organisation, the culture may get vitiated.

In such cases, don’t be afraid to hit the reset button. Corporate history is replete with examples of how great companies fell on bad days because the culture changed for the worse, and as a corollary, companies that could do nothing right witnessed a turnaround when their culture changed for the better.

One of the most remarkable books I have read in recent times is Re-culturing where prolific human resource practitioner and scholar Melissa Daimler makes a strong and convincing case that just like strategy and purpose, culture also needs consistent review.

Among the various examples she cites, Uber stands out in how under Dara Khosrowshahi the company was able to change its culture from overly aggressive and in-your-face triumphalism to one of innovation with a respect for values.

A Living Organism

An organisation’s culture is like a living organism. While it should have a solid foundation, it should also possess dynamism. Much like feebleness isn’t a great virtue for organisational culture, rigidness is problematic as well.

When we set up Swiggy some years ago, we decided that employees would be an integral part of the culture. We were also conscious that this value, unless backed with the right action, could become a trite slogan many companies talk of, but rarely live up to.

So we went about introducing policies that were best in the industry: remote working, educational or entrepreneurial sabbaticals, learning wallets, health club reimbursements and others. It is not a coincidence that Swiggy has one of the lowest attrition rates in firms of its category.

Is Copying Okay?

I also get asked if there is anything wrong in emulating the culture of an admirable firm. I would say there is nothing wrong in getting inspired or modelling on a proven example, provided these are done with one’s ears and feet on the ground.

So why would the aggressive Serbian take on the services of a mild-mannered Brit? Clearly, the intention is not to become Murray. But because Djokovic knows what he wants from his coach—his experience on hard court. In the same vein, start-ups need to know exactly what they want when they emulate.

The writer is chief human resources officer, Swiggy