Culture at arago We know we need a new kind of people in tech and this is why at arago, we have spent a great deal of time listening to our best and learning from the industry. Here is a description of the culture we are aiming for every day.

1. arago’sCorporate Culture

2. Thank you to Netflix, Lars Hinrichs, David Bizer, KlaasKersting, Robert I Sutton, Stephen Covey for inspiring us

3. We thrive on excellence, engineering and our fuel are our people

4. Values

5. Values are not for the entry hall, not to show off, they are intrinsic

6. We show our values by who we value

7. We are building an asshole free company

8. We do not bad mouth others

9. We do not drain each others energy

10. We are about the “we” not the “I”

11. Person over expertise -> personality + professionalism

12. Behaviors we value

13. Behaviours we value

14. Think

15. Think
Be curious

16. You yourself want to understand our strategy, our market and our customers as well as partners

17. You are about learning and finding out new things

18. You are knowledgeable in technology and our business in general

19. Think
Be innovative

20. You take the time to simplify things, because only by reducing unnecessary complexity we can solve more complex problems

21. You create new ideas that prove useful

22. You challenge the status quo when it makes sense and make better suggestions

23. You aim to solve big problems

24. Think
Make a difference

25. You are concise and articulate

26. You get a large amount of stuff done

27. Your performance is consistently high so your colleagues can rely on you

28. Act

29. Act
Be responsible

30. You can prioritize

31. You decide well

32. You cure causes, not symptoms

33. Keep calm

34. You focus on results rather than process

35. Act
Beselfless

36. You do what is best for arago, not what is best for yourself or your team

37. You can admit someone else’s idea is better than yours when searching for new concepts

38. You share information openly and proactively

39. You contribute outside your speciality and you help others

40. Act
Be passionate

41. You have arago’s success in your heart and mind
AutomationExpert

42. You make your actions count in the long run

43. You are about getting things done, not about adhering to process

44. You inspire others with your hunger for results and you stick to your guns

45. You celebrate wins. Our wins are your success

46. Learn

47. Learn
Behonest

48. You are straight forward, candid & direct

49. You say things about other employees only if you would say the same things straight into their face

50. You admit mistakes without hesitation and without explanation why they were unavoidable

51. You do not act political or tactical when others disagree with you

52. Learn
Beopen

53. You listen more than you talk so you can understand better

54. You respect others, regardless of their opinion or status

55. Learn
Becourageous

56. You say what you think, even if you know there is opposition

57. You take smart risks, i.e. you rather act and risk a mistake than do nothing and avoid making a mistake now

58. You do not tolerate behavior inconsistent with our goals, values and the no-asshole rule

59. You do not beat around the bush. Make decisions, even tough ones

60. Win-win is our road

61. Performance

62. A great company are great people

63. A company is for profit, not for welfare

64. Questioningourteam

65. We want to keep the ones we would fight for

66. We want to make sure the ones we would not fight for find a place where they can thrive

67. Tell them straight out that this is not a place for them

68. Make sure they are on the market while their knowledge is still valuable

69. The ones we would fight for, we fight for

70. The team we have is a team

71. We help each other –because unlike fixed teams we grow with good performance and there is room for all good team members

72. Keeping our values is everybody’s job

73. Loyalty
isgreat

74. It makes us sustainable

75. We cut people who have contributed some slack if they hit a rough spot, because we believe in people.

76. We expect the same from our people, if we hit a rough spot, we want them to cut us some slack.

77. Eternal loyalty
isbad

78. We cannot tolerate consistent under performance, no matter how long a person is with us

79. We do not tolerate asshole behavior, no matter how long a person is with us

80. We do not expect our people to tolerate continuous bad decisions or bad behavior from us

81. No brilliant jerks!

82. We aim to have top notch people, so you are most likely not much better than the rest. If you still think so you probably have a personality disorder

83. We expect results

84. Putting in hours is irrelevant

85. Results are what matters

86. Our culture
is not for everyone

87. It is for

88. The ones who want to compete to improve

89. The ones who tell things as they are and can accept straight out criticism

90. The ones who want to perform and do

91. It is not for

92. The ones who seek stability and more of the same

93. The ones who’s highest goal is job security

94. If it is for you, you will be part of a great team and part of changing the world

95. If it is not for you, we respect your decision, we value your contribution and we help you to move on

96. Responsibility generates freedom,
freedom is our destination

97. Freedom and responsibility

98. The kind of personan aragon is

99. Self motivated

100. Constantly learning

101. Self improving

102. Self disciplined

103. Self-conscious

104. Acting like a leader

105. Not afraid to get his / her hands dirty

106. Does not wait for someone to tell him / her what to do

107. These responsible people thrive on autonomy, mastery and purpose and they are worth it!

108. We want to increase freedom as we grow not limit it!

109. Why?

110. Most big companies have very limited freedom

111. Growth increases complexity

112. Growth also decreases talent density

113. This generates chaos

114. To manage chaos processes are created

115. Processes and procedures drive talent out of the company

116. A vicious circle

117. In a non-changing world processes and procedures can catch a lot of leaving talent, so the short term outcome of process introduction is positive

118. But the world never stops changing

119. We need a different approach

120. How?

121. We want to avoid chaos by increasing talent density with growth

122. Run informally as much as possible

123. Informal environments attract high performance and creativity

124. Our processes exist to enable our people to work on their jobs only!

125. Someone who focuses on working the system loses in our environment

126. Someone who does his / her job wins

127. Our service back bone watches out for that

128. We attract good people to stay informal

129. We increase business complexity as slowly as possible

130. We actively rethink and simplify our business

131. We want a culture of freedom, responsibility, self discipline and creativity

132. We do not want a culture of process adherence

133. Freedom is not absolute

134. Freedom cannot create disaster

135. Ones freedom cannot make someone else’s job hell on earth

136. Freedom cannot infringe moral, ethics and legal issues

137. In ourculturerapid recovery is more important than avoiding mistakes

138. No one gets fired for making a mistake

139. You have to recover from mistakes to make the system more robust

140. You do not want to make the same mistake over and over!

141. Good vs bad process

142. Good process enables talented people to get more done

143. Bad processes try to avoid recoverable mistakes

144. Bad processes creep in because avoiding errors sounds great

145. We encourage everyone to challenge bad rules and processes

146. Relevance is our motor

147. Context vs Control

148. The best managers create great results by setting the right context, not by controlling everything

149. Context vs control

150. Strategy

151. Metrics

152. Objectives

153. Clearly defined roles

154. Transparency

155. Knowing the risks

156. Context vs control
Avoid

157. Top down decision making

158. Management approvals i.e. cover your ass

159. Committees

160. Process valued more than results

161. Good context

162. Links to company goals

163. Priority (important has higher impact than urgent)

164. Level of precision required

165. Key stakeholders

166. Key metrics

167. Managers

168. If one of your guys does something dumb, do not blame them, think where you set the wrong context

169. When you are tempted to control your guys, think of what context to set

170. Great ships are not built by organizing wood gathering, etc., but by creating a longing for the endless sea

171. Why context?

172. Because self motivated people will do better work, if they understand and believe in the purpose!

173. When control?

174. In an emergency

175. When someone is still learning

176. When someone is in a wrong role

177. Context creates an organization

178. Strategies and goals are communicated clearly and openly

179. Teams focus their efforts on making the strategy real

180. Managers invest their time into making goals and strategy known and understood

181. Minimal cross functional meetings required because everyone contributes to strategy

182. Trust in groups

183. Leaders proactively coordinate

184. Forensic reviews to increase goal achievement and alignment

185. Thank you for your time which we hope was well invested, because dismissing good ideas can harm your future