How is culture created in a new company?
One of the tools that we can use to create a long-term attitude, particularly in a startup, is the use of titles. Titles are great for communicating roles and where the organization is trying to go. If you give someone the title of Sales then you are telling everyone in the organization, and many outside the company, that you have something you are trying to sell.
On the other hand, if you give someone the title of Partner Development, then a completely different message is being sent to the organization. The title of Sales is about closing business and generating revenue. Partner development indicates building relationships to get clients down the road.
Similarly, giving someone a title reflecting their activity - such as Sales, Marketing, or Product Development is very different from giving them a legal title like Vice President or Chief Marketing Officer. Vice President and officer titles are corporate titles and go beyond the activity being performed by a person. The activities performed by a Chief Marketing Officer (and their related skill-sets) when a company has 25 people are likely to be far different from a company with 250 or 2500 people.
So why do founders give out these corporate titles? Starting up a company is extremely tough. Having founded two tech startups, I appreciate the challenge founders face. Founders are often in the position where they are trying to recruit the talent needed to grow the business, but they do not have cash to hire the people they would like to hire. One of the tools that I seen used is to give someone a Vice President or Chief Marketing Officer title in a very early-stage of the company's development.
The argument that I have heard is that if the company does not get this person the company won't move forward and there will be nothing to worry about in the future. However, if the company does not grow to a large size then the investors will not make a return on their investment - and the stock options of the employees will not be worth anything either. So the right attitude is needed by the whole team to accomplish the company's mission, even if the hire does not come on board.
Keeping people focused on their task, not on their corporate title, is where startup employees need to focus. If you have a prospective employee that is more concerned about the corporate title than the mission of the company, you may want to reconsider that hire - no matter how talented they are. When your team is thinking about the tasks needed to make the mission successful, you have a long-term focused team.
