Strategy · Organising to Growing
The DNA: the soul of your company
You write down, in two or three sentences, the bar you set as founder, so other people hold it when you're around less.
Does this sound familiar?
- A client says it doesn't feel the way it used to. Nothing's gone wrong, and yet he's right.
- You read back a colleague's quote. Everything's correct, and you'd never have sent it like that.
- A deadline gets missed. The client's fine with it. You're not, and you can't quite explain why.
- You're still the one sending back everything that isn't good enough. Without you, it would go out as it is.
Who it's for, and when
For founders who notice the company starting to feel different as it grows, or who want to take a step back. It matters from Organising onwards, when you're no longer in every decision, and again in Growing, when leaders come between you and the work.
The model
The DNA is what you as founder put into the company: the bar you hold, even when the client doesn't make an issue of it. It's two or three sentences, in your own words. The lesson Core values that guide behaviour is about something else: the behaviour you ask of everyone, with the behaviour you want and don't want. The DNA is the source, and the core values are the rules that follow from it.
You see it in what you refuse to accept. A construction company that never missed a deadline in fifty years hadn't written it down anywhere. Everyone knew, because they'd watched the founder make decisions. When the company grows, or the founder steps back, the DNA is the first thing to slip. Nothing breaks, but the bar quietly drops.
Writing it down is half the job. The bar only stays where it is once other people hold it without you. As long as you're the only one sending things back, it's your bar and not the company's.
A part of the strategy canvas that's Boldcaster's own, devised by Jurre Grimberg. In The Founder's Mentality (2016), Chris Zook and James Allen of Bain describe how growing companies lose the founder's unwritten standards.
What you brought with you
Why did you start this company, and what could you do that others couldn't or wouldn't? That's the source.
What you refuse to accept
The bar you set, even when nobody asks for it. A quote that goes out within a day. A mistake you report yourself before the client spots it.
The test
Would a new colleague recognise it after a month without being told? Would you lose a client over it? Is it something a competitor can't copy tomorrow? Three yeses, and you've got it.
Pitfalls
Writing down your product or market
'We make the best window frames in the north' says what you make. If you made something else tomorrow, the DNA would stay the same. Write down what drives you.
A sentence anyone could write
Customer-focused, reliable, quality. If you could swap it with another company's, it isn't your DNA. Look for what you refuse to accept.
Watch and read
The founder of Coolblue, a large Dutch online retailer, on how a company's culture grows out of what its founders brought with them, and how you hold on to it as you grow. In Dutch.
Watch on YouTubeOne of the authors of the book below explains in three minutes what a growing company loses of its founder, and why that slows growth down.
Watch on YouTubeRead
The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth
Chris Zook en James Allen · 2016 · ISBN 9781633691162
About the founder's unwritten standards that a growing company loses, and why that's the biggest cause of stalling. It sits alongside this lesson: the model here is Boldcaster's, not Bain's. A short, businesslike book.
View the bookApply it
- 1
Why did you start?
What did you see that others didn't, and what did you do differently because of it? Write it in your own words, not a website's.
- 2
When did you send something back?
Find three moments: a quote, a delivery, a reply to a client. What wasn't right, even though the client might have been happy with it? That's where your bar is.
- 3
What do the people who've been there longest say?
Ask two of them: 'What do we always do here, even when nobody asks?' Whatever they both mention and you recognise is DNA.
- 4
Does it pass the test?
Would a new colleague recognise it after a month? Would you lose a client over it? Is it something a competitor can't just copy? Cut anything that doesn't get three yeses.
- 5
Who holds the bar when you're not there?
Name one or two people who can send something back because it's below the bar, even if you'd already approved it. That doesn't go on the canvas, but without those names it stays your bar.
Examples
A three-sentence template
We [what you always do, even when nobody asks]. We never accept [the bar that doesn't drop]. That's because [what the founder brought with them].
The same rule as a core value and as DNA
Core value: 'We report our own mistakes.' Wanted: you call the client the same day. Not wanted: waiting until they notice. DNA: 'The founder came from aviation, where every mistake gets reported because otherwise the next one is worse. We don't accept a mistake we knew about and didn't mention.' The core value says what everyone does. The DNA says why it carries so much weight here.
A software agency
The first version was about 'innovative solutions'. After the test, this was left: 'We say no to a client when we can see they're building the wrong thing, even if it costs us revenue.' A competitor can't just copy that.
A wholesaler hiring a managing director
The founder is stepping back. Before the new managing director starts, he writes down what he never let happen: a client having to ring us because a delivery's running late. Now the managing director knows where the bar is, and he's allowed to hold it.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You write the DNA section of your strategy, and it stays on your strategy page.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.A founder fills in the DNA box with: 'We make the best window frames in the north.' What's wrong with it?
2.A company misses a deadline for the first time in years. The client's fine with it. The founder's worried. Is he right to be?
3.Your leadership team writes in the DNA box: 'Honest: we report our own mistakes. Wanted behaviour: you call the client the same day. Unwanted behaviour: waiting until they notice.' What do you say?
4.In six months you'll be working three days a week. The DNA isn't on the canvas yet. What do you do?
5.The DNA is on the canvas. Yet you're still the only one who sends a quote back when it's below the bar. What do you do?
6.An accountancy firm takes on a new partner, and the founder starts working less. What's the best thing the founder can do before the partner starts?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- A brand promise with a guarantee · You write down one promise your customer can check, put its KPI on your scoreboard and work out what the guarantee costs.
Not sure where to start? Take the growth scan