Culture and Values in High Growth Companies: What Boards and Founders Get Wrong in Australia

Culture is one of the most talked about concepts in business yet one of the least understood. In Australia many high growth companies believe they have a strong culture because staff appear happy or motivated. Others assume culture is something that emerges naturally from the founders or from a set of posters with values written on them. Boards and founders often fall into the trap of thinking culture is soft or intangible. In reality culture is a set of consistent behaviours that shape performance engagement and strategic clarity.

In high growth environments culture can deteriorate quickly. Hiring speeds increase. Pressure intensifies. Communication slips. Decision making becomes reactive. Without a structured approach culture becomes accidental rather than intentional. This is where Australian founders and boards most often get it wrong.

1. Mistaking Vibes for Values

A common mistake is equating a positive team atmosphere with a strong culture. High growth companies often begin with a small group of committed individuals who know each other well. The environment feels energetic and aligned. This feeling can mislead founders into thinking that culture is solid. In reality what exists is an early stage social dynamic not a defined culture.

Values must be documented understood and applied consistently. They need to influence hiring onboarding leadership development and decision making. Without this level of structure culture is unstable and collapses under growth.

2. Values that Sound Good but Mean Nothing

Many Australian businesses choose values because they sound impressive. Words like integrity excellence and innovation are common. The problem is that these values carry no meaning unless they are translated into observable behaviours.

For example if innovation is a value the behaviours might include running small experiments sharing ideas regularly and encouraging constructive challenge. Without behavioural definition people will interpret the same value in different ways which creates confusion and inconsistency.

Boards should expect values to be defined through behaviours rather than slogans. This helps leaders hold teams accountable and supports consistent decision making.

3. Overconfidence in Founder Influence

Founders often believe that their personality is enough to shape culture. This may be true in the early stage but does not scale. As teams grow culture must shift from personality led to structure led. Without formalised systems culture becomes diluted and unreliable.

Boards have a responsibility to help founders understand when their influence is no longer enough. Culture needs to be institutionalised through governance people processes and leadership rhythms.

4. Poor Hiring Practices that Undermine Culture

High growth companies sometimes hire quickly without considering cultural alignment. Skills and experience are important but behaviour alignment is equally critical. A single person with poor behaviour can damage trust and morale across an entire team.

Boards and founders should prioritise a hiring process that tests behavioural fit. Clear values and defined behaviours make this easier. Businesses that fail to do this often struggle with retention product quality and internal cohesion.

5. Lack of Leadership Capability

Culture cannot survive without strong leadership capability. Many high growth companies promote early employees into leadership roles because they were part of the original team. However these individuals may lack the skills required to lead in a more complex environment.

Boards should push for leadership development early. Coaching training and mentoring help leaders reinforce cultural behaviours and respond to challenges effectively.

6. Inconsistent Communication

Communication is the foundation of culture. High growth companies often assume that communication is happening because everyone is busy and interacting regularly. This assumption is dangerous. Without structured communication rhythms people feel unsure about priorities and expectations.

Boards should encourage founders to establish regular communication such as weekly team updates monthly strategy sessions and quarterly reflections. These rhythms reinforce culture and help people stay aligned as the company grows.

7. Culture as a Strategy Asset

Culture is not separate from strategy. It is a strategic asset that influences execution learning speed and customer outcomes. High growth companies with strong cultures tend to:

• Move faster with fewer errors

• Retain stronger talent

• Navigate uncertainty more effectively

• Build better products through collaboration

• Scale without losing quality

Boards should evaluate culture with the same seriousness applied to financials or risk management.

8. Governance and Culture in Australia

In Australia regulators and governance bodies increasingly expect boards to oversee culture. This includes monitoring behaviour reporting on culture risks and ensuring that leadership models the behaviours expected of the whole organisation. Culture is now recognised as a governance issue because poor culture creates operational reputational and compliance problems.

Boards should ask management to provide culture metrics. This could include turnover absenteeism engagement scores behavioural incidents customer feedback and leadership effectiveness. Without metrics culture remains vague and unmanageable.

Conclusion

High growth companies in Australia often misunderstand culture. They rely on founder charisma informal communication and early team cohesion. When growth accelerates these foundations collapse. Boards and founders must take a structured approach to defining nurturing and measuring culture.

Culture is a performance driver. It shapes how teams think act and align with strategy. When treated seriously it becomes one of the strongest advantages a business can have.

If your organisation is scaling and wants to strengthen culture and values you can contact us for a consultation to build a structured culture strategy that aligns with performance and growth.