Reinforcing culture in a snap
Last night I had the opportunity to hear Jason Kilar as part of the Dean’s Speakers Series at Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC.
Jason talked about the origins of Hulu, the company where he is currently CEO. He discussed an interesting approach by Hulu to reinforce culture. The company encourages employees [hulugans] to bring their passions to work and has an interesting way of showing it during the onboarding process:
In the words of John Foster, Hulu’s Head of Talent and Organization,
When you enter our office, the first thing you notice is a wall of portraits with every team member showing off a bit of his or her personality. From this gigantic photo wall, even a casual visitor will quickly notice that our people are our most precious asset.”
Hulu hires a professional photographer and shoots each new hire. The only direction by Hulu is to bring whatever you are passionate about. The pictures are then placed in the lobby for all to see. Over 700 portraits adorn the wall.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s a 2 minute video that really brings the concept to life. Watch closely, you can see the wall of portraits in the background:
Today’s Lagniappe (a little something extra thrown in for good measure) – What is a HULU after all? Hulu is a Mandarin word. According to Jason, “it is used in an ancient Chinese proverb that describes the Hulu as the holder of precious things. It literally translates to “gourd.” In ancient times, the Hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things.
Speaking of precious things, let’s have a look Hulu’s first commercial starring Alec Baldwin. It’s a classic 60 second spot that aired on the 2009 Super Bowl broadcast:
The example in the post was taken from the Green Goldfish Project. The Project is a quest to find 1,001 examples of marketing lagniappe for employees. Green goldfish are the little signature extras given to employees. They help differentiate a company, reinforce culture, increase retention and drive positive WoM. The book, “What’s Your Green Goldfish?” will be published on March 29, 2013.
