Define the vision
To create a new company culture, Paquin had to first create a vision for what ModSpace stands for and what goals would drive the business into the future.
To make that happen, he needed the involvement and buy-in of leaders from both former companies.
Ultimately, the process involved getting everyone into a room and talking about it, but underlying that was a lot of prior history, a lot of former Resun and former GE associates used to a certain way of doing business.
“You had a small company in Resun that prides itself on being very entrepreneurial, very opportunistic, very nimble and quick, able to capitalize on market opportunities as they develop,” Paquin says. “At the other end of the spectrum, you had GE, which is very process-oriented and methodical, doesn’t take risks and is very linear in its approach to business. We had to bring together those two types of companies and not lose any of the advantages that either one brings to the table.”
Paquin gathered all of his new company’s management-level employees and held a full-day session behind closed doors, during which the basics of ModSpace’s vision, mission and values were hammered out.
The end result was what Paquin termed a “quest,” a statement that summarizes the guiding principles of ModSpace. Unlike an open-ended vision, the company’s quest is a definitive statement with an end point.
“Our quest was, ‘By championing unparalleled value, service and quality, ModSpace will be the largest and most profitable provider of modular buildings and storage solutions in North America,’” Paquin says. “The first part of it really says what we stand for, how to get there and what our goal is. It’s not something that is going to happen 50 years from now. It’s something we’re going to have to refresh over time. But the message of what we stand for is very clear: We’re North American, value, service and quality is what is going to differentiate us from our competitors, and we have two core products in modular buildings and storage solutions.”
With some cultural principles in place, Paquin began harping on the ModSpace concept. Getting the one-company concept to sink in was a difficult task — not because managers and employees were necessarily resistant to the idea, but because they were so used to the old way of doing business at their respective companies.
“People started referring to themselves as ‘former GE’ or ‘former (Resun),’ which drove me nuts,” Paquin says. “It’s anti-what you’re trying to accomplish. You’re trying to bring people together, and now you have this wall where people are saying, ‘I used to be at GE,’ or, ‘I used to be at Resun.’ Both groups thought it was good to be former GE or former Resun, and that language drove me crazy.”
Paquin’s solution was rooted in basic communication: Model the behavior you want to see in your employees, and keep doing it every hour of every day.
“If someone wants to identify themselves by their former company, I correct them,” he says. “I made it very clear with my team that they are not to use that terminology. By leading the behavior, we are able to mitigate it. You do have to be willing to make some corrections from time to time.”
Building a new culture is a sometimes-messy process that involves course corrections and setbacks. You have to keep pointing everyone in the right direction and remain patient. You can identify the principles by which you want to guide your business through a time of transition, but in the end, your employees will need to accept and drive the culture.
“The culture is something that needs to be built block by block,” Paquin says. “It’s not something the CEO or business leader can dictate from his office. It’s a belief system. You have to establish it first, and then at every opportunity you have, tie back to it. It relates heavily to how you communicate and how you compensate people.”
The initial steps of creating a new culture aren’t unlike the initial steps you might take to create a new brand or integrate finances after an acquisition or merger. You build a playbook that outlines short-term and long-term goals and the time frame within which you plan to achieve those goals.
“Typically, you’re going to have a 100-page playbook that says, ‘Day one, this is what happens on all fronts,’” Paquin says. “Then it outlines what needs to happen in each area further down the line. You’ll have timelines and milestones in place. My advice is that you need to have the same type of plan for your cultural integration, with the same level of detail. You need to outline what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, when it needs to be done by and contingency plans if something isn’t working.”