Katie Burke, VP of Culture & Experience Culture as a Competitive Advantage

1. Culture as a
Competitive Advantage
Katie Burke
VP of Culture and Experience, HubSpot
@KatieBurkie
#GDRoadshow

2. How can I get
on this list…

3. …or this one?

4. The secret to
getting on THAT
list.

5. Meet Rose

6. Most organizations look
outside instead of in.

8. Over 2 million views on
CultureCode.com

9. Culture isn’t:
Motivational
Posters
Corporate
Governance
Perks &
Rewards

10. • A bar for what’s possible at your company
• A powerful weapon in the war for talent
• A proactive catalyst to help employees make better
decisions
• Your promise to your customers
• Collective clarity on what it means to be a part of
your organization
Culture is…

11. Let’s talk about
culture at your
company
What does it stand for?

13. How do you make
your culture known?
How do you market to candidates? To
employees? To the world?

14. The Ultimate Litmus Test
for Culture Alignment

15. How do you know your
culture is working?
How do you know if it isn’t?

16. Most people wait until something
fundamentally breaks with their
culture to pay attention to it.
That’s missing the point.

17. The Top Mistakes
We See with Culture

18. Thinking it’s easy

19. Thinking it only
comes from the top

20. Making it an HR
priority versus a
business priority

21. Hoarding what makes
you special versus
spreading it to the
world

22. Recipe for Culture as a
Competitive Advantage
1. Make culture a business priority, not an HR priority
2. Decide what you stand for and share it with the world
3. Measure how well you’re delivering on your culture
vision by surveying your employees regularly and
anonymously
4. Share the results — good, bad, and ugly — with
everyone in the organization
5. Work tirelessly to address what’s not working
6. Rinse, repeat

23. Hire remarkably smart people who
are passionate about your mission
and care deeply about the people
you employ and the problems you
solve. Do not compromise.
Ever.
Forever ever.
And the most important ingredient of all:

24. Your products will change.
Your strategy will shift.
Your culture will determine whether you can hire top
talent, how you respond to challenges, and how you
succeed for the long haul.
Invest accordingly.

25. Questions? Concerns?
Comments? Critiques?
Know someone awesome
who should work at HubSpot?
Katie Burke
katie@hubspot.com
@katieburkie