On Building Culture

Rod Favaron, CEO Spredfast

Rod Favaron is currently the President and CEO at Spredfast, a social analytics and management software company. Spredfast is a portfolio company of Lead Edge Capital. Rod is a successful serial entrepreneur. He was formerly the CEO of Lombardi Software, a business process management software platform that sold to IBM in 2010. Prior to Lombardi, Rod was the CEO of Mediaprise, a brand resource management solution for multi-channel marketing.

Summary Notes on Building Culture

Building culture

• Culture is a reflection of the leadership and how it acts in good times and more importantly bad times
• Embodying a culture of innovation is key

General tips for maximizing employee morale and culture

• A collaborative, highly-communicative environment is an essential part of building morale
• The CEO must commit to communication opportunities i.e. open forum Q&As with management

Best practices for maintaining culture when opening new offices

• Taking HQ culture and infusing remotely is very hard
• It’s important to bring regional workforce to HQ regularly – the travel expense is well worth the added feeling of connection to the company