10 highlights from an extensive, reflective report about drivers of organizational success
Can Your Corporate Culture Survive a Recession? Watch our webinar recording to get insight on how to lead your team through a potential recession, understand the culture of your business, and learn about unique aspects of culture at Volaris.
Culture is a key consideration to many organizations as they continue to scale and grow, as we are doing at Volaris. Year after year, our company culture evolves through ongoing acquisitions and continual improvements in the software businesses that we have already acquired. The Volaris group of companies is proud to maintain a “culture of cultures” in our portfolio, recognizing that the businesses under our umbrella are home to many local subcultures and a knowledge base of local business practices.
At the same time, we recognize the merit of acknowledging shared elements of our broader corporate culture. These cultural elements have stood the test of time and we believe they have helped us succeed.
A deeper look at how to sustain a strong culture
Understanding our culture helps us identify the glue that ties together our large, complex organization. That’s why in 2022, we commissioned a study from Lawrence A. Cunningham, Special Counsel at Mayer Brown LLP, where he advises on corporate culture and governance. He is also a board member of parent company Constellation Software. His resulting report not only confirmed a distinct culture among Volaris companies, it also helped us reflect on the following questions:
- What are the links between corporate culture and business performance?
- What does it mean for the Volaris corporate entity to have a culture when we are a mosaic of cultures?
- How has the culture across Volaris adapted after the pandemic, which has changed the way most of the world conducts business?
Below, we highlight some of the report’s findings. (Click on a link in the index below to skip to a section.)
- Performance-driven culture
- Autonomy is highly valued
- Decentralization minimizes bureaucracy
- Adept at operating internationally
- Empowering leadership styles
- A collegial peer network
- Career pathways and promotions
- Strategic and goal-oriented
- Focused businesses and small team accountability
- Flexible post-pandemic work environments
1. Performance-driven culture
The financial strength of being supported by Volaris is one part of why many software businesses choose to sell to Volaris. Many business leaders described Volaris as being performance-driven and numbers-oriented.
Other descriptions of the culture were: “data-driven” and “a culture of metrics.” One leader described Volaris as “an organization in a constant process of learning and improvement, in the pursuit of excellence.” Other descriptors of the company included: “focused,” “dynamic,” “experimental,” and “inspiring.”
2. Autonomy is highly valued
Autonomy is uniformly valued across Volaris, according to the study. The leader of a large business within Volaris explained why: “Those who know the business best (employees) are those who operate the business daily.”
Another business leader said: “Autonomy acknowledges and respects our expertise in our industry, and that it would be foolish for leaders outside it to second guess us on topics like [client needs] and related expectations and regulations.”
One portfolio-level view of autonomy underscores its relationship to diversity: “Cultures differ between portfolios, among business units, and across offices, as well as in different countries, regions and other geographic settings (urban to rural) and autonomy respects such differences.”
3. Decentralization minimizes bureaucracy
Volaris embraces decentralization in its organizational chart. What this means in practice is that some functions within the company are delegated to distribute decision-making at different levels of the organization, while other functions are retained at a centralized level.
“Ultimately, decentralization not only reduces bureaucracy and flattens hierarchy, but increases focus,” the report summarizes. “By riveting people on their business, they are better able to serve their customers and meet their needs.”
4. Adept at operating internationally
Volaris is a global company, and the report found its culture and personnel to be “thoroughly internationalist.” Volaris businesses are based in more than 40 countries, many Volaris businesses operate across multiple international borders. For example, one leader pointed out that his company sells software to customers “in 100 countries using 21 languages.”
Volaris leadership and personnel are globetrotters, pursuing opportunity anywhere it appears. Going global began early and continues today. A timeline of Modaxo, the people transportation portfolio, highlights international milestones dating back to an expansion into Europe and the UK, through to its more recent expansion into South America in 2018.
5. Empowering leadership styles
As an organization that is large, diverse, and constantly evolving due to frequent new acquisitions, Volaris is home to a variety of leadership styles. The report found that Volaris culture veers heavily towards a leadership style associated with coaching and delegation.
To illustrate, leaders described their styles in these ways:
- “Setting clear expectations, providing training to meet them.”
- “Leadership by empowerment.”
- “We seek to achieve outcomes through influencing rather than direction.”
- “Hiring smart people and letting them be.”
- “My job is to enable them to do their job.”
- “I shape culture, not as dictator or patriarch but by leadership, consultation, and strategic direction.”
Leaders of Volaris businesses tend to favor collaborative, team-based leadership, sometimes called democratic leadership. The approach is congenial to small businesses, where leaders described themselves as being open, non-hierarchical, and transparent, with a preference for involving employees in decisions on any major changes.
6. A collegial peer network
Several business leaders interviewed for the Volaris culture study noted how valuable a large peer network is to a small business. Seasoned business leaders report receiving frequent and regular calls from colleagues across Volaris for advice on areas where they have strong reputations. Questions can range from how to increase sales, to improving financial or growth metrics.
A spirit of camaraderie describes the network of colleagues at Volaris. Many leaders said it is easy to ask for advice from peers, who are eager to share best practices. Employees said:
- “People are always generous when you ask, and no one is afraid to ask.”
- “The collegial environment at Volaris, driven by Mark Miller, is what keeps me here, despite headhunters calling.”
Many referred to Volaris Group’s reinforcement of this network through its emphasis on talent development and the many formal training programs offered. One business unit leader noted: “Those events help cement the relationships, offer role models of what I can aspire to and where I provide role models for others.”
7. Career pathways and promotions
A theme of the study is that employees can build long careers at Volaris. “A consensus appeared that management prefers to promote from within when possible,” says the report. It found that significant numbers of today’s distinguished Volaris business unit leaders were promoted internally from various functional roles, and equally impressive numbers of today’s group leaders were promoted from Volaris business unit leader.
One leader described Volaris as offering “limitless opportunities.” Another seasoned portfolio team member explained: “Go to a Volaris event and interview everyone in the room about their careers. No one will say they have been doing the same role or job for three years.”
8. Strategic and goal-oriented
When discussing strategy, many referenced BHAG, which refers to having a “big, hairy, audacious goal.” The term was coined in the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, and the concept has spread widely throughout Volaris.
When developing strategy, leaders stressed that strategy is determined based on industry conditions facing customers. Other leaders said:
- Volaris and the portfolio “give us space to decide strategy.”
- “Strategy formulation is all coming from, within not from above.”
9. Focused businesses and small team accountability
Volaris businesses are encouraged to pursue focus, says the report. Two techniques that Volaris uses to drive focus are encouraging smaller teams and a belief that smaller business units can enable the full development of sub-specialties. “The result is a much-hailed feature of the Volaris culture: ‘Volaris offers small company informalities with big company backing,’” reads the study.
In addition to providing focus for products and customers, businesses that choose to split can increase the number of leadership opportunities open for leaders and other managers. Businesses that choose to split can create new opportunities needed to sustain growth.
Notably, the attitude at Volaris towards splitting businesses is contrary to dominant cultural norms at many other large companies. As one portfolio team member explained: “Volaris is different. Volaris personnel seem to believe in cultural credos such as ‘small is better’ or ‘to get bigger, first get smaller.’”
10. Flexible post-pandemic work environments
Across Volaris, business units represent diverse working environments that make an effort to preserve local employment cultures in different geographies. Volaris does not impose decisions about the working environment and leaves those up to the leaders of each respective unit.
Hybrid offices and working from home are common among Volaris businesses, and the trend preceded the pandemic in some cases, especially among teams where employees are based in different cities and time zones.
Can Your Corporate Culture Survive a Recession? Watch our webinar recording to get insight on how to lead your team through a potential recession, understand the culture of your business, and learn about unique aspects of culture at Volaris.