pitchengine culture manifesto 2013

(supersedes Employee Handbook ver. 5.3)

An Employee Handbook for Corporation 2.0

Culture Manifesto

We love this quote:

If you want to build a ship don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

-- Antoine De Saint Exupery, (Author of The Little Prince)

Building Corporation 2.0Corporation 1.0 Corporation 2.0

Management controlling GUIDING

Prime Motivator dollars PURPOSE

Titles valued EXTERNAL

Evaluations formal, annual, documented

INFORMAL, WHENEVER,UNDOCUMENTED

Daily Decision-making policy, management- dictated

INDIVIDUAL GOOD JUDGEMENT

Info Access need to know 99% TRANSPARENT

Power boss TEAM

Vacation traditional GOOD JUDGEMENT

What got you hired at PitchEngine…

We believed you fit and grow our CULTUREWe needed your skillsYou checked all of the competency boxesYou presented yourself well

…is also what rewards you.

Cultureshared beliefs, values and practices

Culture is important

• Determines whether the mission will be supported

• Keeps team trust high• More efficient behavior• More fun

EVERY teamhas a culture

We can become the average of our collective good and bad traits

We can either build on and emphasize our culture by sharing with our team

OR

1

2

More than any single factor, the strength of our culture determines our ability to succeed.

If this…

CULTURE is this important to us:

StrongCultural Fit

PoorCultural Fit

WeakPerformer

StrongPerformer

Terminate(easy decision)

Terminate(hard but necessary decision)

Work to improve

Appreciate

If this… then this…

Reinforcing our culture is anEVERYDAY & EVERYBODY-thing

Every culture has values that form their basis for decision-making.

Self

Good judgment starts here:

Team

Company

Customer

PRIORITY

use good judgment.

It’s OUR culture, not management’s.

Management’s Role inCorporation 2.0

vision strategy resources guidance feedback

employee personal growth

Not being “boss”

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

VALUEWHAT WEMission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

WE BELIEVE that, in business, authenticity and passion prevail. We believe every business has something to say and we want to inspire and empower the storytellers. We develop technologies and educate communicators on innovative approaches to traditional marketing methods. We believe in challenging every antiquated process and never settle for status quo.

Mission(Why PitchEngine?)

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

Be fired up and driven by what you do

…if you’re not, who will be?

passion

…if you’re not, let’s visit and attempt to rekindle.

We’re PASSIONATE about marketing…

…no, seriously

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.

--George MacDonald

TRUST1

2 Managers need to be trusted too (i.e., ‘fair’)

PitchEngine trusts you to add value

Fair doesn’t mean‘same’ for everyone

…and that’s okay

We’ve terminated teammates, because:

• It wasn’t in PitchEngine’s best interests to retain them.– Most often, they didn’t fit the culture any longer.

• It was the right thing for them too.

TURNOVER

TURNOVER

We’ve also had employees leave.

Proud moment: We recommended a star employee take a better opportunity that we learned and made her aware of.

…and that’s okay

Compensation

C = V2

C = CompensationV = Value you bring

VALUEGROWING

Grow revenue Lower expenses Increase responsibilities Replacement value increases Do something excellent

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

TRANSPARENCYWe believe in sharing ‘company sensitive’ information with all employees

We have information.Information is needed for decisions.

EVERYBODY makes decisions EVERYDAY.We want you to make GREAT decisions everyday!

WHY?

SHAREWHAT WE

99%1%

•financial statements•cash balances•sales info•web stats•job descriptions•all other metrics

•compensation info•investor info•legally protected infoCAN’T SHARE :(

Loose lips, sink ships.

-- Anonymous

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

-- Stephen King

WYOMING work ethic

Cares about the quality of work

Strong and independent

Doesn’t seek credit

Finishes the job

While we like to work, we also like to play as a team, by:

..shooting zombies and such..

..team rides in the Wyo outdoors..

..and going bowling

..and taking way bad pics.

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.

-- Theodore Roosevelt

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

A teammate that raises ideas is someone that’s thinking about how to make us better.

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

INTERACTIONS that grow us

- speak plainly, honestly, directly and with respect -

- say ‘we’ when talking about accomplishments -

- permit, forgive and grow from mistakes -

- inform others when missing a deadline -

- welcome conflict that makes us better -

- check defensiveness, drama and ego at the door -

- smile and laugh -

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

PitchEngine Customers

• We pick up phones.• We are excited to listen.• We love to talk.• We are passionate educators.• We put our customers interests first.• We are problem solvers.• Our products may not meet their needs.• We want our customers to be heroes!

Mission

Passion

Trust

Transparency

Wyoming work ethic

Action

Ideas

Interactions that grow us

Turn our customers into heroes

Make our community better

VALUEWHAT WE

This is where we live.

We care about it and the people here.

Investment in County 10 sprung out of this belief.

Marketing County 10 - 2012

Easter Egg Hunt Winner Winter State Fair - Wyoming

Riverton - Day in the Park

Lander Brewfest

International Climbers Festival10 Spot Winner

Other Policies

discrimination

…of any kind

8 5toSCHEDULE*

*We have customers and you have teammates that want to collaborate with you. This is a reality that we need to conform to.

Monday – Friday

UNLIMITED Leave*

Need to time off? Take a day or week off.

1

Clear the time with your team leader. They’ll weigh against priorities, timelines and coverage.

2

Give proper notice.

3

*This means no accrued vacation/sick leave balances. Recharge and prioritize when you’re not here so that you’re at your best when you are!

Use good judgment.

4

DOGSWE LIKEWYOMINGWE’RE IN

you cleaning up after your dog

dogs that don’t distract

your good judgment

We

We

We

Learning & Personal Growth

PitchEngine has budgeted funds for training/tools.Tell us what you need.

We are a Technology Company

We want to provide you with technologies/devices that allow you to build and create..

..wherever & whenever

For Example: Development

Background

PitchEngine DescriptionPitchEngine is the premier content creation tool for publishing beautiful marketing messages to the web and mobile. We help connect organizations with their audiences through content and provide brands and agencies with robust content creation and management software.

Founded in 2008 by Jason Kintzler, PitchEngine was first created as an alternative to the traditional press release and push distribution process. Instead of sending documents through email or news wires, for the first time, communicators could easily package-up their own branded content into a single web page called a social media release.

PitchEngine has been called, “one of the PR industry’s most transformative innovations” and is credited with “heralding in a new era of public relations.”

The company has appeared in several popular books including; Engage, Twitterville, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, The Digital Handshake, SocialCorp, Social Media Marketing for Dummies and more.

County 10 DescriptionCounty 10 was born out of necessity in December 2010 by an ambitious group of talented people at PitchEngine. We felt that our community was sorely underserved by traditional media outlets and decided to create a modern format that truly served a local audience. Instead of feeding readers what we thought was newsworthy, we would work to let the community dictate what was truly of value. We would also focus only on local news and not fill pages or airtime with national news that broke days, hours or even minutes ago on some other news outlet.

This modern “newspaper” will go well beyond the restrictions of print publications by encompassing video, audio and informative digital data that simply can’t be emulated elsewhere. We’ll use analytics to determine what’s working on what’s not to create a better experience for everyone. We’ll let the community tell their stories, not dictate what makes the cut. County 10 will be a mash-up of TV news, radio and newspaper to serve a local news consumer by web or mobile device.

While we knew that a good product was likely to attract advertisers, our goal isn’t to create a profit center – it’s to provide a needed resource to our friends and neighbors. County 10 is published and funded by PitchEngine, because we believe in our community and the future of media. In the coming weeks and months, you’ll see our team grow and the product evolve. Trust me, we’ve got plenty in store for our great community!

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

--C.S. Lewis

AcknowledgementsWhile we should shoulder the responsibility (blame?) for the ultimate compilation of this manifesto and it’s edgy and progressive--perhaps mistaken--direction, it is still appropriate to acknowledge the contributions of so many great thought leaders that we’ve followed, read and listened to. While their brilliance shouldn’t be tarnished by the manner that we’ve used their work to support our direction, we do wish to acknowledge the following: Netflix, Jack Welch, Ronald Regan, Tim Ferris, Gary Vaynerchuk, Steven Covey, HubSpot, South Park, and finally: We wish to say ‘thank you’ to all the Corporation 1.0 organizations we’ve worked with before. It’s difficult to appreciate the value of new directions without a full appreciation of successful albeit traditional practices that provided a baseline. Only time will tell if this movement is truly an evolutionary step for corporations and employees. Given what it infers about the relationship between corporations, management, employees and customers, we sure hope so!

To your Corporation 2.0!

WELCOME!