Trustpilot VP: Maintaining the entrepreneurial innocence

How do you lead a company from startup to big business in just a few years? According to Anne-Marie Finch, Vice President of Global HR & Talent at Trustpilot, it requires a religious approach to culture, as the DNA of a company is crucial.

By Anne-Marie Finch, Vice President, Global HR

The entrepreneurial innocence is pure. Ideas are followed swiftly by action. The creative innovators’ workplace is a playground for grown-ups. They don’t work nine to five jobs, because their job is their passion.

In 2010, after several years working in a large company, I was made responsible for HR for a medium-sized subsidiary. I got a mixed reception. In the beginning, I was viewed as guilty of taking away innocence: the very innocence which was the reason for sky-high satisfaction
among the company’s loyal customers.

“I was corporate. The subsidiary was entrepreneurial. Being corporate, I didn’t understand the culture, customer loyalty, or self-taught entrepreneurs. I was academic and process oriented, spoke in abbreviations, and dressed differently. What was Casual Friday in other places, was Casual-Every-Day here.”

I arrived from layoff-round number eight with colleagues who had been working harder and faster than ever thanks to dwindling staff numbers. Taking my post at the HR front line, I found myself with new colleagues whose concerns included whether the breakfast rolls were hot enough. It was just one of a similar strain of topics appearing in my inbox.

During my first three workdays, I received friendly welcome emails, but also some saying things like “ It stinks of headquarters” or “W e’ve been headquartered.” The first six months felt like one long uphill struggle, and I felt stigmatised and surrounded by spoiled employees.

It took time and patience to win their trust, as my new colleagues were determined to maintain their entrepreneurial innocence. And in no way was I or my corporate approach going to change that. We were dealing with people’s existential foundation and the commercial religion of authentic customer care.

So I listened and learned. I unlearned some things and learned even more so I could guide my colleagues to unlearn and learn different things. It was necessary, as the competition in the mobile provider market was fierce, and our market position was being challenged. We could no longer just wallow in our success and growth, spend lots of money and consider ourselves unchallengeable. We had to think more strategically and cost-efficiently and professionalise the business. I could help with that, but I first had to speak the language and be invited inside.

Four years later, I became the head of global HR for the growth company Trustpilot. Starting up here was different, as I understood the entrepreneurial way of doing things. And this was necessary, as we were facing a massive upscale on a global level.

Today, two years later, we have doubled our number of employees. But we still consider ourselves a startup. On the one hand, we want to be grown-up and responsible, but on the other, we also want to continue being playful, young souls who think innovatively and celebrate each other, from the smallest sale to brilliant ideas. We are so busy conquering the world that we do not have time to wait for the right infrastructure, so we build away while the earth is trembling.

We are more than 500 employees comprising of 42 nationalities across six offices in Copenhagen, Berlin, Melbourne, London, New York, and Denver, and new challenges arise with increasing frequency. So how do we maintain our entrepreneurial innocence?

At Trustpilot, the answer lies in our near-religious adherence to the value of a “Culture Fit” when we hire new staff. It is obligatory to involve several stakeholders in the hiring process to ensure we find the right candidates. All new employees must fit the Trustpilot culture DNA, and it is crucial and a direct competitive parameter for our ability to successfully upscale on a global
level. The question is whether the entrepreneurial innocence can be maintained if the culture is not.

Oversat fra dansk. Original bragt på Business.dk