JUNE 2017 BCBUSINESS 25 ILLUSTRATIONS: VICTORIA PARK
INSTILL THE CULTURE
As you bring on more people, the
culture keeps evolving, Shen observes.
"It's dierent for every company,
because the individuals that come in,
they all bring new values and new ways
of doing things," he says. "But the core,
of course, stays the same, so whoever
joins one of our teams, we make sure
we onboard them correctly and also
align with those values going forward."
Corcuera suggests creating "culture
experience programs"—for example, an
orientation process with activities that
help new employees understand the
company's values.
INVOLVE THE TEAM
Keep the team empowered and
involved, because ultimately the
culture is for everyone, Shen advises.
"It's not just the founders or the man-
agement who say, 'Hey, we're going
to do this, like it or not,'" he notes.
"Never force it on [people], because it
will be arti†cial and will never stick."
MuseFind has polls for employees in
its Slack channels to help get people
involved. "Everyone's always welcome
to give an opinion, and we go from
there," Shen says.
DEFINE WHAT YOU STAND FOR
Look at the company's values and the
image you want to re‹ect, Shen says.
"Start with the founders sitting down
and †guring out what that looks like,"
he advises. "Your core values are what's
most important to you as the founder or
entrepreneur and your organization,"
Corcuera agrees. A company's values
always start with the founder because
that's who had the original idea and
understood where the product or the
service was going to go, she explains.
HIRE LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE
"Our recommendation, †rst steps
†rst, is that pretty much your num-
ber one or second person you hire
is someone who really can support
you through your culture," Corcuera
says. "For us, we want to promote
thought leadership, we want to be
the young, hip brand out there, and
so that's the kind of people we want
to attract onto our team," notes
Shen. "To support that, we try to
bring the team together. We always
go back also to our mission and what
we want to do."
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DO A CULTURE REVIEW
"It's almost like a performance
review, but it's for the whole com-
pany," Corcuera says. "You can do
that quarterly or annually, but it's
important to check to see how did
we do—did we live our values?"
MuseFind does an informal review.
"We want to make sure everything
still lines up with what we believe
in," Shen says. "At the end of the
year, every team would have a 360
review, so everybody goes around
giving feedback and compliments
and also revisits those values."
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Stephen Shen, chief technology officer of MuseFind Technologies Inc.,
a Vancouver-headquartered developer of influencer marketing software,
and workplace culture consultant Lorie Corcuera,
CEO of Spark Creations
and Co. Inc., also in Vancouver, discuss how to build an effective startup
culture
by Felicity Stone
Cultural Ties
DIY MANAGEMENT
