Ever heard someone comment “You’re too corporate” or “This place is too corporate”. Do you consider yourself to be in one of these places?

What is a bad corporate?

It is a place with tons of useless paperwork, procedures and policies. It is a place filled with people whose main aim is to cover their ass. Delivering value and solving problems are the last thing on their mind. Instead, they either care about looking good or doing as little as required.

Are corporates born bad?

I have always believed that every company started out as a good company. In the initial stage, before a company grows big, things must have worked. Otherwise they would have collapsed. During the stage of hyper growth, policies and procedures were introduced to streamline processes, to scale. It’s not like they had nothing better to do and introduced policies for the fun of it. But what sets apart a good corporate from a bad one, is that a good one constantly adapts to changes. A good corporate recognises that there are different measures for different phases.

Then what about the messed up corporate guys? It all boils down to the leadership. If the boss is one of those type, the good ones will see through quickly and leave; The sloppy ones will find a cosy spot in the organisation structure. A well run corporate will have the right set of KPIs to weed out the unwilling and unable. Encourage and empower your leaders to hire and fire as necessary.

A corporate is not bad because of bureaucracy, useless paperwork and policies. Redundant policies and paperwork are caused by people, who fail to recognise the useless policies, or cannot be bothered to make changes.

Getting good again or staying good

Good corporates have motivated leaders, who focus on driving value for the company and growing their employees. An employee with aligned goals and incentives can do wonders. Leaders who can foresee the changes in the operating environment and proactively adapt with the necessary changes are what you need. Everything can be fixed with a solid management team. Are you in a position to make an impact? If not, maybe it’s time to find, not another boat, but another team.