I’m obsessed with understanding and building company culture.

It’s clear to me that startups/tech have a very different culture than finance and other industries and I’ve been intrigued by why that is. Some thoughts: (1/)

Whether a job or an industry is zero sum or positive sum has a huge impact on culture. In zero sum games, the success of one party comes directly at the expense of another. In contrast, in positive sum games, the success of one party can make all parties better off. (2)

Zero sum cultures tend to be more competitive and less cooperative as people view the success of others as a threat to their own success. Positive sum cultures tend to be cooperative and innovative as people are focused on growing the pie rather than fighting for slices. (3)

Working at growing startups can be a unique and refreshing experience in the corporate world because they are so positive sum. If you come up with an idea for a new feature that increases revenues and growth, the entire company is better off. (4)

The tech industry as a whole is focused on creating exponential value from fixed resources and new products/behaviors and thus has many positive sum characteristics. There are also zero sum scenarios in tech, which are more common as cos get larger (Uber vs Lyft, FB vs Snap) (5)

Other industries are more fundamentally zero sum. In many sectors of finance, when you win a deal, your competitor loses it. In politics, if you’re elected into office, your opponent loses. As a result people may be less transparent or more likely to undermine others. (6)

Internal incentives can also be zero sum or positive sum. Eg Teams competing for budget allocation from a fixed pool vs creating budgets from first principles, stack ranking employees vs predetermined metrics for success etc. (7)

I notice that zero sum industries tend to have more zero sum internal cultures, but that does not necessarily have to be the case if the team deliberately designs internal incentives to be positive sum. (8)

Culture isn’t solely shaped by the will and character of the people in the building but also by the incentives and systems of the industry in which the firm operates. When evaluating career choices, or designing company incentives, game theory can provide a useful framework (fin)