"Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall." — Brian Chesky, Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb.
At Meesho, we're all about teamwork! We choose big-picture goals over solo victories, mix data with real conversations with our users to gather gold nuggets of insight, and race to solve problems faster than a tracer bullet. 🚀 This isn't just a rulebook; it's our Meesho DNA!
How you ask.
Our core values that we had for the past eight years, served us well. We accomplished many goals, served many users, got several recognitions, and scaled at an unbelievable rate. But now, as we step into year nine, our loftier vision and a bolder mission needed some impetus. And, to fulfill them, we also need to update and further optimise the way we approach work, live and breathe our culture and discover and tackle problems.
And so we went back to the drawing board, huddled together, and re-articulated them as 11 Mantras that would become the guiding light while making every decision. These values would help us work together towards our truth north: Enable 100M small businesses in India to succeed online!
Presenting to you Meesho’s updated mantras:
User First
What it means -
- Obsess over Users. Users are the greatest source of truth.
What it doesn’t mean -
- Ignoring data/trends and focusing only on user insights. Not doing market research and not thinking about competition.
What to do to get better -
- Frequently take user feedback, uncover insights and incorporate them in your roadmap.
User First has been a core value that’s been ingrained in Meesho since the very beginning. We even have a ‘Listen or Die’ programme, a Meesho ritual, to inculcate the habit of listening to users from day one. Through this programme, new joinees are required to call Meesho users and get feedback from them within the first 15 days of joining, and present their insights to a panel of senior leaders.
Think 10x Think Long Term
What it means -
- Build to scale. Revolutionary change over evolutionary change.
What it doesn’t mean -
- Ignore short term goals
What to do to get better -
- Take audacious goals and work backward to achieve short term targets
Meesho’s exponential growth over the last eight years is owing to the audacious goals we have set for ourselves at every turning point. Even as we celebrated our sixth anniversary in July 2021, we reminded ourselves how Thinking 10X and Thinking Longterm has served us well, and this reflects in our updated mission and vision as well. You can learn all about it here.
Problem-first Mindset
What it means -
- Nail the problem before jumping to solution
What it doesn’t mean -
- Re-inventing the wheel and not learning from the best-in-class
What to do to get better -
- Ask 'why' until you get to the core problem before solving it. Challenge the status quo and solve from first principles.
Hire & Grow Exceptional Talent
What it means -
- Raise the bar with every hire and promotion. Develop people and enable them to be the best version of themselves.
What it doesn’t mean -
- Only others are investing in your development, You ALSO need to invest in your OWN development.
What to do to get better -
- Hire the best. Have a strong culture and Values filter. Remove biases and learn from the best interviewers.
- Embrace giving and receiving feedback. Coach seriously and coach often. Build the habit of being 1% better, everyday.
“We have clearly defined hiring processes with set expectations to ensure that we only hire the best among the best for all roles big and small at Meesho. Simultaneously we are committed to ensuring that all our talented hires get the opportunity to grow and evolve throughout their time at Meesho. Everything from the Buddy programme that helps new joiners hit the ground running to the monthly fireside chat Meesho Speaker Series, where industry experts share their experiences and insights with Meeshoites are all designed with this goal in mind.” — Ashish Kumar Singh, CHRO
People-centric Workplace
What it means -
- Respect people, cultivate a culture of empathy and understanding
What it doesn’t mean -
- It is only the HR team's responsibility to create a great workplace
What to do to get better -
- Spread positivity and celebrate wins
Company > Team > Individual
What it means -
- Put company and team interests above your own
What it doesn’t mean -
- Individual interests don’t matter
What to do to get better -
- Display teamwork and collaboration, Ensure alignment and feedback, Disagree and commit
This Meesho Mantra will help align our individual goals to this macro goal and keep the spirit of collective ambition alive in all of us
LightSpeed
What it means -
- Light is the fastest thing in this universe and unless we move at the speed of light, we are not moving fast enough.
- Lightspeed personifies the need to move at the fastest level possible. The pursuit of Lightspeed always means that we can keep moving faster than what we think is possible today
What it doesn’t mean -
- Does not mean speed for the sake of speed without any impact orientation
What to do to get better -
- Start with an aggressive deadline, Always ask yourself “how can this be done in HALF the planned time”
- Prioritise high impact items first
- Always display swiftness in action and intent
Stand Up & Speak Your Mind
What it means -
- Ideas trump hierarchies, so do your homework
- Share opinions and feedback fearlessly
- Encourage dialogues
What it doesn’t mean -
- Be disrespectful or judgemental about differing opinions
What to do to get better -
- Do your homework well, form your POV(s) and express them freely in appropriate forums
As a company, Meesho aims to always listen to its community, be it users or our employees, and this Mantra is a constant reminder to us that speaking our mind is not just welcome at Meesho, but it is our obligation to do so. We have carved out a special role called Devil’s Advocate, which Meeshoites will get the opportunity to play in different meetings. The Devil’s Advocate will not only share their own hot take and differing opinions during meetings, but also encourage their colleagues to do so.
Extreme Ownership
What it means -
- You are all owners of Meesho
- You go beyond boundaries
- Go to extreme lengths to achieve goals
What it doesn’t mean -
- Overstepping and Micro-Managing someone else’s work in order to achieve your outcome
What to do to get better -
- Take ownership beyond your job description to achieve objectives
- Find ways to deliver results, regardless of boundaries
- Be accountable and adapt quickly to changing situations
Meesho’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) policy explains exactly how seriously we take this particular mantra. Unlike most other companies, Meeshoites across the hierarchies and functions who are performing well are rewarded with stock options. In a truly democratic process we are helping our employees become part owners of the company! You can learn all about what sets our ESOPs policy apart here.
Growth Mindset
What it means -
- Taking continuous effort towards org, self and team improvement
What it doesn’t mean -
- Learning without a business goal or objective
What to do to get better -
- Being imaginative, curious and open-minded to feedback and improvement
Meesho also stands by its mantra Problem First Mindset, and every action/initiative of growth and learning is tied to a broader problem statement/business goal or objective.
Bold Experimentation
What it means -
- Empower innovation through experimentation and calculated risk-taking by testing multiple ideas and hypotheses
What it doesn’t mean -
- Losing focus on impact and take non-10x bets
- Running experiments with damaging second-order impacts
What to do to get better -
- Think outside the box, quickly iterate and learn
- Design easy to implement experiments and look for clear insights
What Meesho core values do you resonate with the most? Let us know in the comments.
Meesho turns 6: Leaders share birthday wishes and audacious goals for the future
