Spiceworks is the solution for complete network management software, helpdesk, PC inventory tools & IT reporting solution designed to manage everything IT in small & medium businesses. As a user of Spiceworks and an active member of the community, I’ve noticed that the culture that Spiceworks provides to it’s employees is something that really shows. The employees are passionate about what they do and you can see it in their day to day communications within the community.
I think that within the next few years culture is going to play more and more of a role in up and coming companies. Finally entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even long time executives are starting to see the huge benefits of providing a healthy, fun, and well defined culture in the workplace. Spiceworks was nice enough to offer up an exclusive interview with Community Manager Nic Tolstoshev to answer some of my questions based on the culture at the Spiceworks office based in Austin, Texas.
Enter Nic:
If you had to pick 5 terms to describe the culture at Spiceworks, what would they be?
1) Honest – that is one of the things that drew me here, was hearing the CEO say “lets see how far we can get telling the truth” in this video: http://www.spiceworks.com/tv/?cat=spiceworld&video=Coffee-Talk I actually recommend watching that video if you want to get the best sense of the culture at Spiceworks, from the four guys who started it. Now that I’m here and I see that put into practice, it is very refreshing. We don’t have to pretend things are going any better than they are, or brush problems under the rug and hope they go away. Being able to be open and honest with our coworkers, our vendors, and our users, is a breath of fresh air!
2) Relaxed – from the dress code, to the beer fridge, to the way everyone relates to each other, things are very casual. There isn’t much pretense or trying to make a fake impression. There are flexible schedules to accommodate how each person works best. If you aren’t a morning person, work 10am to 7pm, or whatever works for you.
3) Hard-working – everyone here is very self-motivated. They want to do a good job, and make great software to make IT folks’ lives easier. Nobody has to be micromanaged or tracked, because they know what they need to do and they get it done.
4) Fun – we have a lot of fun here, whether it is throwing parties for various events, or just having a laugh in any given meeting. There is a very playful attitude at all times here, where we don’t take things too seriously.
5) Initiative – when someone has a good idea they just run with it. Nobody has to ask permission, or get approval from a committee. This means that things can be a bit chaotic, but it works out better than in a more rigidly planned setup. The unexpected discoveries that come out of this culture more than make up for any of the chaos. SpiceRex is a good example. We didn’t have a search committee to select a mascot. It just happened by chance, and everyone ran with it.
How does Spiceworks differ from other companies you’ve worked for as far as culture is concerned?
The previous company I worked at was Intuit. They were a software startup 25 years ago, and as they grew they decided to write down what they stood for. They managed to hold onto those values and their culture for a very long time as they grew, but recently they’ve veered away from their foundation. In fact, when I was trying to look up their list of values, I found that they’ve recently reduced them from 10 to 6, and reworded them: http://about.intuit.com/about_intuit/operating_values/ – Part of Intuit’s slide from a values oriented culture to a standard corporate culture is what prompted me to look around and find Spiceworks. I’ve worked at a lot of small non-profits, and one thing I noticed was that lofty goals and missions often contrasted starkly with the disfunction in the day-to-day operations. So now I look very closely at whether an organization walks their talk or whether they use the ends to justify the means.
Check out part two of this interview here on synergy! Check out out Spiceworks and watch for the much anticipated 5.0 release.
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