Promote your culture
If you want to have a strong culture as you grow your business, you need to start with strong communication. In the aftermath of the 2005 and 2006 acquisitions, DeBenedictis rolled out a plan that would drive communication down to the ground floor of the company, and do it level by level.
The go-to person in DeBenedictis’ plan was president of each state’s operation. Aqua America has an operations president for each of its 13 states. That executive is charged with having an ongoing and detailed knowledge of the markets that Aqua America is serving in the state and how to best meet the needs of customers.
“The state president is a person I normally select myself, and we usually get a person who has been a star in another state to take on the challenge of having their own state,” DeBenedictis says. “That person basically lays the groundwork for the organization and the people they need, whether the people currently in the company are the right people or if there are changes that need to be made.”
In acquisition scenarios, DeBenedictis and his leadership team try to keep as many executives in place from the acquired company as possible, since they have already built relationships with employees and customers. If the existing state-level leaders can be kept in place and educated on Aqua America’s culture and processes, that is the best-case scenario. However, there are times when the existing managers simply can’t mesh with Aqua America, and DeBenedictis needs to move quickly.
If you don’t remove people who can’t or won’t see eye-to-eye with your strategy — particularly if they occupy influential positions — it can damage your culture and your ability to serve customers.
“We try to keep as many of the original people as we can, but if the culture doesn’t work, you can’t take too long to make the changes,” DeBenedictis says. “If people just don’t understand a corporate philosophy, if they’ve always been a part of a small business, they’re probably not going to understand how we do business, and they’re not going to be productive or happy.
“It’s the people who take up with us very quickly, who like the idea of being with a bigger company with more dollars to spend, those are the people we like to keep. Those are the people who are going to know our type of business.”
Promoting a culture to a new group of employees is primarily the product of two factors: managing by example and managing by data. Managing by example means you set the cultural example yourself — placing an emphasis on customer service and high quality standards with your own actions. It also means highlighting the people in your organization who exemplify your cultural values by putting them in places where they can influence the values and behavior of others.
Managing by data means you set a plan of action that includes well-defined goals, and then using metrics to ensure that your managers and employees are meeting those goals. If your company isn’t hitting targets — whether they be on a companywide level or further down the ladder — it can be damaging to culture every bit as much as a high-ranking employee who isn’t sticking to the plan.
“You have to know that you and everybody else in the company should lead by example,” DeBenedictis says. “They’ll see how you operate and realize that this is how they should operate, as well.
“Managing by data is critical, as well, because you can’t do it all by instinct. As engineers, we learn to listen, analyze and then set a plan of action. Our assets are 100-year assets, so we can’t just do it by instinct. We do a lot of studies and data, and then make huge investments.”
Your biggest allies in developing, sustaining and promoting a culture will almost always be your long-term employees. Your staff members with the greatest company longevity have an extensive knowledge of your processes, your core values and why it all makes sense for your company. Compensation and benefits play a role in reducing turnover and increasing your numbers of 10, 15 and 20-year employees. But aside from that, committed employees will often groom other committed employees.
“We want our people to feel like if they want to work for a company like ours and they want to do a good job, they can be employees for life,” DeBenedictis says. “That is very rare in today’s world. You have to expect that employees should want to be with you for a long time, find their potential within the company. That’s why a part of our culture is entrepreneurship but also consistency and a reward for professionalism.”