Nike’s Principals

This isn’t how I run my businesses, but one mistake most first entrepreneurs make is to not spend any time thinking about the corporate culture of their company. Fail to plan that, and you end up with Dilbert or The Office, with employees who are there for the job, not to build the successful startup.

Nike’s Principals

Our business is change
We’re on offense. All the time.
Perfect results count — Not perfect process.
Break the rules: fight the law.
This is as much about battle as business.
Assume nothing.
Make sure people keep their promises.
Push yourself push others.
Stretch the possible.
Live off the land.
Your job isn’t done until the job is done.
Dangers
Bureaucracy
Personal ambition
Energy takers vs. energy givers
Knowing our weakness
Don’t get too many things on the platter
It won’t be pretty.
If we do the right things we’ll make money damn near automatic.

Don’t just click to the next blog post. Take a moment, read each of these, and those you agree with copy and paste to start your own corporate culture list of principals.

Then look at how Netflix defines its culture. And LinkedIn’s Tour of Duty. Patagonia’s culture where surfing is as important as business. Read the bios of successful entrepreneurs and while you enjoy their stories, take note for how they talk about their employees. Are they teams? Families? Mercenaries? Or are they so relentlessly focused on operations and prices that they create something like Costco, where customers pay to be customers, and where employees work for decades… in retail.

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