"Culture eats strategy for breakfast" attributed to Peter Drucker is one of the key lessons which cover:-
- Be curious-and shameless
- Get coached
- Acknowledge missteps-and go big in response
- Obsess about culture
- Take a stand
Whatever segment you are in it makes sense to review these critical success factors. If Airbnb is challenging hotel chains to their foundations another disrupter will be planning the same to you.
Obsess about culture. Chesky, Gebbia and Blecharczyk were focused on the culture of their company from the very beginning, drawing up a list of other companies whose cultures they wanted to emulate (Zappos, Starbucks, Nike) and drafting a set of rudimentary “core values” before making their first hire. Today, culture is one of the top priorities at the company and, its leadership team would say, fundamentally critical to its success. Signature elements include: “core values” interviews, a separate set of interviews all applicants go through in addition to interviews for the technical role they’re applying for; OneAirbnb, an elaborate, three-day all-employee gathering-slash-festival that takes place every January; its headquarters building, a 250,000 square foot shrine to “home sharing” whose conference rooms are famously exact replicas of actual Airbnb listings; and a relentless focus on its mission, “belonging.”