Maven is a creative agency full of creative people built to be a powerful, creative partner. COO Corey Curyto exemplifies this company mantra. He not only talks about it, he lives it and models it to his team members every day. When I sat down to interview him about the culture of his company, he spoke with enthusiasm and excitement. He started right off by saying culture has to be intentional and modeled from the top down. Building a winning culture can’t be just words, and the people leading the organization must cast the vision and live it out every day.
Great words to hear from the COO!
To Corey, investing in his people is what makes his company successful. He also believes that the culture of Maven is a living, breathing organism that invades every corner of the organization. The following three themes that are foundational to the everyday operations of this organization rose to the surface as we talked:
1. Value-driven culture. When Maven hires for any position, they look for someone with the same DNA as their cultural values. Those values include: Freedom, Servant Leadership, Honor, Fun, and Integrity. Everyone is part of the family there. Everyone is a leader. They look for smart, passionate individuals for their team. They all feel like they are building something together. Included in this value-driven culture is a value-balanced life. Team members enjoy a flexible work schedule that is goal driven instead of hourly driven. With regular office hours of 10a.m.-4 p.m., team members are expected to prioritize their time out of the office for their personal lives as well as work. In order to preserve their values, they are always asking themselves the question, “What can we do better to create an environment our team members never want to leave?” They are very serious about serving their clients and getting work done, but they don’t take themselves too seriously. They often do fun things in the office such as birthday celebrations, half days out of the office, and Friday lunches with the entire team.
2. Emotionally invested in clients. They view their clients as an extension of their team. They genuinely care about the issues their clients are facing, and they do everything they can to help them solve those issues. They also are very serious about treating each client according to the same values they live by on the corporate level.
3. Always think beyond ourselves. The vision of the owners goes beyond the profit and loss. Everyone is encouraged and expected to be vision-driven and have an influence on the community and culture at large. Team members enjoy the privilege of taking paid time away from work for humanitarian or philanthropic trips that do not count against their regular vacation time. In addition, the company invests in the local community by doing a certain amount of pro-bono work and sponsoring events that are close to their hearts. Serving their community is not an afterthought but is at the front of their minds and considered a privilege. Being heavily involved with Creative Mornings/Orlando is just one way they invest in the local community.
To Maven, success means growth and relationships between both team members and clients. This success, though, comes with a certain sacrifice. It can be a bit “messy” at times simply due to the fact that their business is heavily relational and deals with all the diversity that comes with having different people on the team. However, in the end, the investment in creating and maintaining this kind of culture is worth every minute (visit mavencreative.com).
