“We selected our 12 best managers and we psychometrically profiled them. From that profile we were then able to build what we saw was an ideal person that would fit our culture.” – Angus Kennard, non executive director and third generation leader of Kennards Hire.

Creating culture is often easy in the early days of your business. When you’re making all the decisions and sharing them directly with staff, culture is improvised and ad hoc. But how do you keep the workplace somewhere everyone enjoys when you grow?

In today’s episode of Xero In, Angus speaks to co-hosts Jeanne-Vida Douglas and Rob Stone about how his family business choose which elements of culture they wanted to maintain.

Angus remembers that Kennards has always had a strong culture – but at first it was difficult to describe. So, they asked staff and family – and found out that getting their input was best way to put words to the culture they were all so proud of.

“We wanted to enunciate what our culture was. We got a number of experienced people, many have been around for a long period of time, and they were to actually uncover in words what our culture was. The business, in essence, came up with what our brand promise was, which is to help make our customers’ jobs easier.”

In any business, Angus point out, there are some values that will be obvious right from the start. For Kennards, it was quality of service.

“My dad was always about being the best, not the biggest. It wasn’t pursuing growth for growth’s sakes, it was about pursuing excellence and quality in excellence in everything we did.

“There’s a number of mantras that we have that have actually carried on to the business these days from those early days of my uncle and my dad actually living them and actually breathing them and actually carrying them through the business.”

Small business resources

• Small Business Guide: How to hire the right employees – Xero.com
• TEDtalk: What makes us feel good about our work | Dain Ariely – YouTube.com
• Article: Why company culture is more important than ever – Entrepreneur.com

If you loved this podcast, check out last week’s episode on why it’s important to quit, fail and make mistakesfeaturing Stone & Chalk residents.