For years technology companies have struggled with maintaining their culture as they grow and scale, but today’s challenge is even tricker because of the generational shift underway that is complicating matters.
The sheer number of technology companies starting up each day is massive, and competition for top talent has intensified as predicted over the last 10 years. With this as the backdrop, it’s often the case that founders and executives have set a culture and values structure that worked in the past, but risk being dated or irrelevant. Organizations must revisit and realign their corporate culture to attract the best talent and manage the generational changes in the workforce, which can be painful for many who either didn’t value or took culture for granted in the past.
At the same time, the retirement of the boomer generation poses the risk of losing valuable institutional knowledge while also opening the door for innovation and cultural transformation, which makes it a great time to look at it. This is happening in even the most established organizations, such as the National Security Agency, which is competing with the private sector for the best talent to protect and defend our nation’s best interests from foreign adversaries. NSA’s culture, long established as valuing serving in silence (thus garnering the nickname ‘NSA = No Such Agency’), no longer fits with the times, nor communicates to the motivations of younger talent.
There’s this culture that was established for decades from leadership at the top who values “sacrifice and service to country” trying to compete with private-sector employers who have the perks and pay beyond traditional government work. Pay is never a reason great talent wants to join the intelligence community; it’s much more about the mission, making a difference, and being able to work on our nation’s biggest problems. This doesn’t translate as “service” per se, as much as it does having a job with “purpose and meaning” and being part of an exclusive, elite team, so words and behaviors are important to define. The goal is to define values and behaviors that are inclusive across the organization, not just relevant and applicable to a few.
In this example, as with cybersecurity in general, threats and vulnerabilities expand and accelerate because of AI and Quantum, so certain cultural behaviors that have benefited the private sector such as agility, collaboration and resilience become even more important. The cultures of the past may not support how problems of tomorrow get solved. This means that not only does research and development need to be agile, but business decisions and workflow need to be agile across the entire organization.
This is especially true in many technology or STEM-based organizations with a bias for logic or outcomes, not the human factor. There’s a generational belief that getting the big idea done is what matters, but to younger generations, the “how” the work gets done is just as important. This is also the case with organizations that strive to maintain their mission regardless of who is running it. The armed forces strive to instill leadership, integrity and execution across the force, regardless of who the General is at the top. In the private sector, many tech companies have cultures that are based on the cult of personality of the CEO or key leaders that are difficult to sustain beyond their tenure.
It’s time for organizations to reevaluate their culture and values during these generational transitions, focusing on key strategies such as aligning with modern talent expectations, maintaining a competitive edge in the talent market, and mitigating the risks of high turnover and disengagement. It may also be time to take practical steps to ensure they are driving the right behaviors top down and bottom up to galvanize a culture that lasts beyond any one set of leaders.
Having an operational culture requires holding people accountable and encouraging behaviors that reinforce the values. This can be a major cultural shift on its own, and leadership needs to have courage to change it. For example, if an organization has historically been hierarchical but now wants to drive certain behaviors around leadership and inclusion, one strategy is to set up upward feedback from teams on their leader’s performance against these behaviors. That’s a best practice today in the tech industry through 360 and upwards feedback review programs, but it isn’t prolific. In a government entity or in more hierarchical cultures, this could be a significant change that can make people at the top nervous. However, the only way to drive accountability for value-based behaviors — and get an intentional, sustainable culture — is to make sure people are held accountable for their behaviors.
Leaders are encouraged to view generational turnover not as a disruption but as an opportunity to refresh their company’s identity, embrace innovation and drive long-term success by establishing a lasting legacy that lives beyond their own careers.
Holly Rollo is CEO of Surge Strategies, a strategic marketing advisory firm helping B2B software CEOs drive growth and scale. With more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry, Rollo is a strategic advisor who specializes in transforming go-to-market (GTM) engines and repositioning products and services portfolios in the face of major market disruptions, turnarounds, hyper-growth, carve outs and pre/post-equity transactions. She has led and supported enterprise B2B, transformational and growth initiatives within multinational environments operating at scale, across various domains such as cybersecurity, cloud, ERP, HCM, and network security.
Her first book, Power of Surge: Five Ways to Supercharge Your B2B Software Business and Unleash Hidden Value (Advantage Media Group), provides the key steps for CEOs to transform their marketing strategies to gain competitive advantage and transaction success.
