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Ben Horowitz: Culture Is Not What You Believe. It Is What You Do.

By Ben Horowitz · Leadership · 1 min read

Horowitz says most companies have 20 values on a plaque. Zero matching behaviors. Their culture is hypocrisy.

Key Points

Culture is the day-to-day behaviors -- do you return the call immediately or never?
The standard CEO advice on culture is all wrong
In the samurai tradition, they call them virtues, not values -- because it's the behaviors that matter

When people have 20 values, I'm like, how many of those behaviors do you have? None? So your culture is hypocrisy.

None of That Is Your Culture

Horowitz: "You have an organization, you've got a mission statement, you have all the management techniques, you have KPIs, OKRs, whatever you're using. But none of that is really what the culture is. None of that really drives the day-to-day behaviors that define you."

Horowitz: "Do you return that phone call immediately, tomorrow, next week, never? Do you show up to the meeting on time or are you late? Do you go home at 5 or do you go home at 8? Do you stay at the Four Seasons or the Red Roof Inn? All these things are your culture. But they're not defined anywhere."

Do you return that phone call immediately, tomorrow, next week, never? Do you show up to the meeting on time or are you late? All these things are your culture. But they're not defined anywhere.

The CEO Advice Is All Wrong

Horowitz: "The advice you get when you're a CEO is all wrong on culture. It's like, 'Go have an offsite, have everybody say what they think the cultural values are, put them on a nice plaque, and then operationalize it in people's performance review.'"

Horowitz: "You don't even know if they got the phone call. How do you know if they returned the phone call? What are you talking about, performance review? You don't know that."

You don't even know if they got the phone call. How do you know if they returned the phone call? What are you talking about, performance review?

Virtues, Not Values

Horowitz: "I love the quote from The Way of the Samurai that I use in the book: a culture is not a set of beliefs, it's a set of actions. Which is why I call the book 'What You Do Is Who You Are.' It's not what you believe, it's not what you think, it's not what you tweet. It's what you do."

Horowitz: "It's not the values you have. That's not who you are. Who you are is what you do. In the samurai tradition they call them virtues, because it's the behaviors. The behaviors are the culture, not the values."

Horowitz: "When people have 20 values, I'm like, how many of those behaviors do you have? None. So your culture is hypocrisy."

When people have 20 values, I'm like, how many of those behaviors do you have? None. So your culture is hypocrisy.