At Armour Insurance, we believe that culture is important. It is also inevitable. Culture will grow in your organization whether you actively build it or not, so why not build a culture you love. In 2013 we set out to do just that, and it all started with our core values.
Core values are the building blocks on which your organizations culture is built. They give us a way to quickly identify what acting within our culture looks like. Because of this, we put a tremendous amount of effort into communicating and promoting our core values with Armour staff and others. The wall art featured in this video is just one example of how we keep culture top of mind at Armour.
Where did it Start?
We actually had a little help with our first draft of our culture code and even our core values. In September of 2013, we attended our first Inbound conference in Boston, Massachusetts. We went there looking for new innovative ways to market our organization without relying on the interrupt and outbound methods that the insurance industry has relied on for years. We found what we were looking for, but we also found something unexpected.
We saw life and business changing keynotes from a set of amazing speakers. We were in enlightened as Simon Sinek spoke about the importance of why and how we can apply that to our business, customer service and our everyday life. We were filled with awe as we heard Malcolm Gladwell recount real life historic David and Goliath tales and how they forever changed our perspective on what is possible. And we cried as Charity Water's founder, Scott Harrison, recounted tales of communities with access so limited to clean water that it engulfs their very existence.
All of this at a marketing conference, we thought? Then Hubspot's cofounder, Darmesh Shaw, got on stage. Rather than speaking to us about their new products, he spent the next hour discussing the importance of culture and the impact it has had on their organization. He shared Hubspots Culture Code with us and we knew that this was necessary for Armour. Our number one priority when we returned from this conference was to get our company culture defined.
Darmesh shared Hubspot's culture code after that presentation. And we liked it so much that we used it to boost the development of our own. Each organization will have a different culture that works for them. We found that Hubspot's definition resonated with our organization in many ways. Some things we borrowed from them, and some are unique to Armour. It is a great place to start though. If you're interested in building a culture for your organization, I'd recommend taking a look at the Hubspot Culture code on slide share for some inspiration first.
