About the Session
Holly Liu, co-founder of Kabam (a gaming company that had a billion-dollar exit to Netmarble and Fox in 2017), is no stranger to building and scaling teams across borders and geographies. As a co-founder, Holly's role evolved over a decade, from developing games to developing people.
Her work has contributed to record revenue growth for Kabam year over year from $0 to $400MM annually, that led Kabam into the unicorn club in 2014. She led the design for Kabam’s award-winning "Kingdoms of Camelot" franchise, which has grossed over $250 million in less than four years.
She’s now a visiting partner at Y Combinator.
This session was joined by the founders of Xendit, Funding Societies and Codapay, we talked about theories and practices in scaling culture with a growing team. Holly also explains how she diagnosed team issues, and improved team dynamics between senior and junior hires.
Summary
Cultural practices need to grow and scale with the team.
Inspired by the Netflix Culture Deck, Kabam initially centered its culture around single words: Judgement. Leadership. Integrity. Effectiveness. Transparency. As the team scaled into the mid-hundreds however, understanding of these words differed across the firm. There was not enough time for one-on-one meetings to align everyone.
Leave little room for confusion on core values.
Kabam turned to crafting clearer and more specific values such as “Think and Act like an Owner” and “Success is never final” - which stayed in place till its exit in 2017. Holly recommended a book that helped with this - we linked it below.
“Instead of get-shit-done, it became make-it-happen.”
People have bias towards action and this works when you’re little. But as a bigger company, power lies in alignment. Sometimes it is more effective to have a big ship moving in a wrong direction, and then having to steer it back, rather than a loosely coupled team.
Culture can be shaped by external forces.
Entertainment, as a constantly evolving industry, imprinted adaptability into Kabam’s culture from the early days. The people you serve and changes in industry trends can determine culture.
On new hires: the more senior, the more baggage they come with.
Implement a cross-organizational buddy system to make the transition easier for senior hires. Regular meet-the-CXO sessions also help, as people look towards the top for cultural cues.
Award the right efforts. Incentivise behavior that aligns with culture.
Have a clear framework around promotions. Exercise consistent feedback. Be transparent about who the top performers are and why. Try peer-to-peer bonuses if you have a team of new executive hires. This keeps everyone in check and reduces unnecessary tension and politics.
Spend time with your team.
Be curious about them, and get personal through casual chats. Seemingly irrelevant things (e.g. being the only child in a religious family) can tell you a lot about why someone thinks and acts in a certain way.
When all else fails, trust your instinct. Don’t be afraid to fire.
Sometimes, even after going through all the best practices in interviewing and integrating, the new senior hire doesn’t deliver. Or they don’t seem to fit into the team. Or they’re not acting by the values you worked so hard to create. This is time to consider that you may have made a mis-hire. Let them go properly (carefully consider any cultural or circumstantial sensitivities), and fix the damage. The longer a mis-hire stays, the harder it gets to fire them.
Holly’s Resources
Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow” by Chip Conley
This helped a lot in framing our mission and vision.
Corporate Culture and Performance
This book was helpful in moving them into measurable behavior
This is a book I read recently that I thought was begrudgingly helpful. I have some concerns on the point of view all informed by male CEOs during a more contemporary time, but some things he offered clearcut guidance that all scaling companies have issues with (e.g. meetings and who is the leadership team.