The ATDC has a great interview with Craig Hyde, the CEO of Rigor, titled Strong Company Culture is Good for Employees and Business. Rigor was named the #1 best place to work in Atlanta by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and is one of the fastest growing companies in the Atlanta Tech Village (Disclosure: I’m an investor in Rigor). One of the most important things entrepreneurs struggle to understand is that companies with a great corporate culture don’t have a great culture because of good benefits. I know of several companies that offer great perks but people don’t enjoy the culture.
Here are a few thoughts on the idea that corporate culture isn’t defined by benefits:
- Culture is defined by the core values of the people at the company
- Strong cultures have the most aligned core values across all the team members (not everyone is best friends)
- Great benefits are usually a sign that the company cares about its people, but alignment of core values is more important
- Many companies don’t have great benefits yet still have a great culture
The next time you hear about a great culture, find out what makes it great. The answer, as expected, is that it’s all about the people.
What else? What are some more thoughts on the idea that corporate culture isn’t defined by benefits?
David Cummings on Startups 
Charles Brewer does it best.
I founded a company with great culture that offered not so great benefits and sold it to a larger company that offered much better benefits, but we all soon realized that the culture at the acquiring company left a lot to be desired. In hindsight, everyone of us preferred the prior situation.