How to create a great company culture?

I started my career as a sales executive for Hindustan Computer Limited in Lucknow, India. It was a regional headquarters, and after a month of on-field experience, I reached Patna, the capital of an eastern state (aka province) of Bihar.

It was a tiny office, a far cry from the posh headquarters in Noida. My boss and I were the only two salespeople. A five-member support team managed clients across the state. An office caretaker, a store manager, and an admin supported all of us.

The office set-up was frugal.

The sales manager had an air-conditioned office whilst the rest of us survived on rickety ceiling fans. An MS-DOS-based PC and a dot matrix printer were the only sophisticated equipment in the office.

Office expenses were closely monitored, from utility bills to tea from the roadside tea stall. The usage of computer stationery was rationed and monitored.

The message was clear. Make sales and increase profit before asking for anything from the company.

However, a humble 2 INR (~5 cents in 1995) envelope took the trophy for frugality.

As an outpost, we had a ton of correspondence with corporate and regional headquarters; our admin came up with the idea of using the inter-departmental envelope to courier documents to Lucknow and Noida. Her counterparts will then use the same envelope to send correspondences over to us. This continued until they ran out of all empty address blocks. Usually, it took 15 - 20 trips for the envelope to shout - Stop! Some envelopes miraculously survived the wear and tear; their journey used to start again by pasting fresh paper with empty address blocks.

It was a powerful message that every rupee mattered. A culture was set.

Takeaways

1. You do not need a memo or a tone to manage expenses.

2. Encourage innovation that instills a sense of pride. Not all innovation is about automation.

In 2024, an envelope may be a relic of history, but the culture it created will survive forever in the organization.

HCL recorded $13.27 billion in revenue in 2023.