I think that rule packages really are a large part of the company culture. It’s a hard thing to outsource.
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Most firms rent standard office buildings instead of making their own buildings to match their company culture. Why not do the same for firm rules too?
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Because making your own buildings is expensive and takes a long time?
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New firms have limited need for policies on vacation, hiring, travel, etc. when they start. Policies limit discretion. Only as they grow do managers need to constrain the discretion of those they can't directly monitor. They need processes and people to do that work.
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But whenever they need rules, why don't they adopt standard packages?
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Typically because at small companies, the rules are meant to constrain only a portion of the enterprise. Once they're sufficiently mature (e.g., when they have an HR manager), their policies really do start to look similar.
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And I mean, really similar. It used to be that only pilfered policies and elite law firm libraries were good sources of examples; everyone has had to start from scratch. Now, anyone can buy access to reasonably good models, and they end up converging on many/most points.
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Is there a ‘good’ rules package anywhere? They all come w all sorts of excess bureaucratic garbage specific to their growth cycle?
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Why isn't there market demand for someone to develop a good package?
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Is it possible for a good rules package to survive as a good rules package? Ie my guess is most of the ‘badness’ of a bad rules package isn’t structural, but accumulated falderal?
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Why doesn't the same question apply to families?
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It does apply.
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The trite answer "every family is different" seems convincing considering the high interaction surface area between individuals. Maybe the same is true for companies?
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The interaction between explicit rules/policy and implicit cultural norms is the most important factor in determining whether the combo is fit for a specific purpose. Firms have no idea how to define or measure cultural norms, but do realize how important they are.
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Example: Netflix has unlimited PTO. Now lots of companies have adopted it. A common complaint at those new companies is that unlimited PTO becomes a race to the bottom where nobody is comfortable taking PTO. If your manager doesn't take it, you're scared to. New norm
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Bezos at Amazon established a strong norm of ripping up receipts and loudly claiming "Amazon isn't paying for this" to make it clear that expensing things should be minimized. Their actual written policy is less impactful than that widely-understood norm.
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That norm is useful at low-margin (non-AWS) Amazon. At a consulting firm where 1 extra expensed steak dinner with a client can bring in millions of lifetime value, Amazon's norm would not maximize future firm value. But they might have identical written expense policies.
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Business folks are just as bad as economists at measuring/understanding culture, but they're just as likely as economists to point to the value. Written rule packages are like the imported constitutions of unstable democracies. They're easy to observe, but have little impact
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Great responses Wes. You can't export company rulebooks because the most important part - which rules are actually enforced, and how hard - is always unwritten.
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Not quite the same but most enterprise software vendors will happily provide standard processes for HR, Finance etc. These generally balance minimising the need for configuration with ‘good’ practice across firms.
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