At the beginning of 2018, we added three more folks to the Moraware team. And, we’re planning to grow the company more this year.
“I love solving interesting problems for our customers with the other great people on the Moraware team. I love our customers – they have such fascinating businesses and are eager for our help. And, working from home is great, too!”
Patrick, Product Management
As one of the owners of Moraware, this is incredibly emotionally satisfying. When Ted and I started the company in 2003, we never imagined the level of growth and success that’s come to pass. I’m also humbled by the responsibility to our customers and our team.
It feels like it’s worth a series of blogs posts to reflect on what we do well and the kind of people that are thriving here. One of those things is working with people who share our “company values”.
Company Values
We’ve got company values. It’s easy to write a list like this and have it be “just words”. What’s important is that we aspire to live these every day. Some of these might be polarizing, but we want to be as up-front about who we are as a company as possible. If we hire people who don’t fit these values (even if they’re incredibly smart, motivated, and productive) will ultimately mean that they’re not going to last on our team.
So, here’s the list with a little explanation.
• Incremental improvement – each one of us will make a little bit of an improvement each day. That means we’re not usually doing grand ambitious projects, but it also means that we can’t just react to the day-to-day work either.
• Exceptional – we’re not average, and in fact we’re among the best at what we do. That means you’re doing something you love, you’re great at, and is really valuable to our company.
• Collaborative – we work better together to solve problems. We make important decisions together, working independently when necessary to execute those decisions. In practice, the minimum level of collaboration is bouncing an idea off a peer. If you can’t convince one other person that it’s a good idea… it probably isn’t, or you haven’t sufficiently figured out what you mean.
• Do what you say you’re going to do or don’t say you’re going to do it We’re a small team, and trust is hugely important. It’s okay to have debate and disagreement about what we’re going to work on. But, once you take responsibility for something, you can’t just blow it off. Sure, it might turn out that something you’re working on is harder or more complex than you thought, but communicating that as you’re working on it is just part of the process.
• Fun / Humor – Our responsibility to our customers and the company is super important, but we can’t take ourselves too seriously. We want to really enjoy hanging out together, having fun, telling jokes, and generally being happy.
• Brutal Honesty, kindly delivered – We’re self-aware and able to take and give criticism. As a group, we have to have a meaningful conflict of ideas to get the best answers, but we don’t want personal ego or insecurity to get in the way of those great ideas.
• Passion for solving business problems – Our business is centered on providing solutions to business problems for our customers, and everyone who works at Moraware needs to really love thinking about what we’re doing at a business level. What’s neat is that if you’re wired to be solving business problems, it not only helps our customers, but we can figure out solutions to problems in the Moraware business, too.
• Customer focused – we make decisions based on the value that we can create for our customers and we know that it will turn into value for us over time. Every good thing we’ve done in the past is a direct result of a conversation with customers. Even though it might be hard sometimes, we need to keep that focus on the opportunity and responsibility we have to making our customers’ businesses better every day.
Could you live up to this (high) standard? Every day? One of the ways to know you’re succeeding at Moraware is that you exhibit most of these values on a regular basis.
Sound interesting? Check out our careers page to learn more about the culture, goals, and open positions at Moraware.
