Recipe for Growth: A passionate focus on the client

A company either grows or it dies. Ask J.C. Penney. Its one of the top brands expected to disappear in 2014.

Getting bigger, however, has its own risks because it becomes difficult to maintain the culture which produced the growth.

When I joined Hacker Group, it was a family business of 20 people. I learned about customer-centricity at the feet of the founders. They knew every aspect of the job and served their customers extremely well. They cared deeply about the return on every investment, because every dime came from a limited resource: customers.

Hacker Group now employs more than 200 people and were part of a giant corporation. As CEO, one of the most important parts of my job is to maintain a culture that takes customer service as seriously as any family-owned business.

Here are a few ways we maintain a passionately customer-centric culture even through times of spectacular growth.

Define your culture.

If you dont know what makes your organization different, or what your strengths and your values are, you wont notice when the uniqueness starts to slip away.

We have a touchstone document, originally written by the companys founder. Its inspirational. Its instructional. I discuss this vision in depth during each employee orientation session we hold. While the document has evolved over the years, the core values remain the same. Because half of our employees are millennials, we work to make sure our ethos resonates with them.

Employees are customers, too.

Nothing is more important than keeping customers happy except, perhaps, keeping your best employees happy. We have a keen regard for the people who do the work on behalf of our clients.

A significant part of our culture is the innovative compensation program the founders developed for us. Its a profit-sharing program called Pay For Performance PFP for short and everyone who isnt directly bonused on sales participates. Each quarter, everyone from accounting to web development gets a check thats a direct percentage of the profit we made the previous quarter.

Our unique compensation program shows we sincerely believe every individual has a significant impact on our profitability. It rewards the right behaviors. Most of all, it keeps the team fixated on our clients, who provide that profitability. It makes everyone think more like an entrepreneur.

Accountability is key.

We emphasize accountability in our culture. We dont have many organizational layers so we need to clearly define who is responsible for what. Nothing can fall through the cracks. To foster deep client relationships, we invest more deeply in people so they become masters in their area of expertise. We could spread resources more thinly, but we dont believe thats best for the client.

People who prosper in an accountable culture enjoy the control they have when they own their part of the project. They relish challenges because they can take credit when they succeed.

Each team member owns their piece of the project, but they are also part of a team that owns the whole project. Theres safety in this. If the team is working toward doing the best job for the client, rather than on their own agenda, anyone on the team has the right and the responsibility to speak up when something bad could happen. And they earn the respect of their team.

Names are powerful.

Evolution is critical to a creative business. Staying relevant means being open to change. Key positions ebb and flow as the business grows. Weve added a Strategic Planning role. We have a new Targeting and Analytics group. Some of these functions were performed by client services people in the past but now that were taking a more holistic approach to our clients needs, were creating these new positions.

Titles arent just about function. Theyre also about feelings on both sides of the desk. Select names of products, services and titles with an eye to customer-centricity.

Perspective is priceless. And its a process.

Having your own, definitive point of view is invaluable for a CEO. Seeing others perspectives including your clients gets harder as you climb the ladder. Thats why customer-centricity is both essential and difficult. I find I need to re-focus all the time. I cant get too far from the clients and the work we provide to them. I need to pay attention to the details and be engaged at all levels of the business.

Continually reinforcing your values with your team will keep your culture strong and keep your company growing.

Spyro Kourtis is president/CEO of Hacker Group, located in Seattle. He can be reached at [email protected]