Automattic, the company that built Wordpress, has a company creed, something that they write down that codifies their culture and their values as a company.

We've been around since 2007, and we've gone through a few cycles of products and even a brand change, (this, this, this, this, and this) but our people, how we treat each other and who we are when we're at work change more slowly and adheres to a certain character.

In the end, this is the core or the so-called DNA of the company. But, unlike Automattic, we did not write it down, and I think it's about time we do.

The aim is to put our culture and values in writing, codify, and publicize them as a group of people in a company working towards a particular goal. The creed doesn’t identify us with our products per se, but identifies on the philosophies and attitudes that we constantly and consciously follow and take while we carry on with our jobs and serve our customers.

So after reflecting on the years we’ve been in business and the qualities that we've naturally pursued, we've decided on our own company creed. Some of them are similar to Automattic, as we feel that the values and their culture are similar to ours (a distributed and remote team where communication is important).

I present to you our Company Creed:-

  • I will always be curious and I will never stop learning.
  • I value progress over perfection.
  • I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far our goal is, I will reach it one step at a time, one day at a time.
  • I will not shy away from sharing responsibility with my colleagues and working together towards solutions. Their problem is my problem.
  • I will challenge the best of my ability to solve problems that we face, because that is why we are here.
  • I empower my colleagues, our customers and our community, and, likewise, I'm empowered by them.
  • I will communicate as much as possible, because this is the first step of empowerment as a distributed company.
  • I will invest heavily in building tools: tools to make us work better, and tools to make the customer happier since these are the means to empower.

Although we change at a much slower pace than our products do, we humans as living beings grow, change and adapt to the circumstances around us. The creed is also a living thing, and will keep evolving just as we do.

Our Company Creed will be included in our hiring contracts going forward.

Iqbal Abdullah

Iqbal Abdullah

COO

Iqbal came to Japan in 1997, and graduated from the Engineering faculty of Saga University. After working through companies like Yahoo! Japan and Amazon, Iqbal founded MARIMORE Inc. in 2007 which was the previous version of Xoxzo Inc. CEO of LaLoka Labs LLC.