Culture Club #7 -Culture: The Most Underrated Metric in Your Business

It’s not just about values on a wall.

Today we’re talking about culture shapes decisions, drives retention, and deserves a place on your KPI dashboard.

🏝️ We’re away on a summer break, recharging our batteries and gearing up for a busy Autumn so no highlights this week.

Let’s be honest. Most founders don’t start with culture.

They start with product. Or revenue. Or their beautifully colour-coded roadmap that will definitely hit £1m ARR by Q3.

Culture? That comes later. Usually when someone in HR pipes up about values or engagement surveys, or when you hire your first person who actually enjoys Slack emojis.

But that’s backwards.

Culture isn’t the seasoning you sprinkle on top once your business is cooking. It’s the heat. It’s the method. It’s what determines whether you’ve made a Michelin-starred meal… or something a bit underdone and potentially hazardous to staff morale.

Culture IS the system

Most visionary CEOs are driven by numbers. Metrics, growth rates, conversion targets. The stuff you can measure and dashboard. But culture is the system that determines how those numbers are achieved, and whether anyone sticks around long enough to celebrate them.

It shows up in the choices you make when things are hard.

It’s there in how you treat people when no one’s watching.

It’s why certain candidates are drawn to your business.

It’s why others… quietly disappear after the first interview.

And if you’re not building it with intention, it’s still being built. Just probably not in your favour.

When your team is small, it’s easy to be across everything. But once you scale, culture is how decisions get made when you’re not in the room. And that’s either a terrifying thought, or a reassuring one—depending on how much time you’ve spent on it.

A strong culture isn’t just good for people. It’s good for business. It reduces churn. Builds trust. Speeds up hiring. Wins customers. Keeps the soul of the business intact, even as you grow.

And yes, you can measure it.

At Trove, we’ve built our CORE Operating System to help founders do exactly that. Codify what matters. Track it. And make culture a visible part of your leadership toolkit—not some vague, woolly add-on.

Culture should absolutely be one of your KPIs. If you’re not measuring it, you’re not managing it. And if you’re not managing it, it’s probably managing you.

Want to see how your culture stacks up?

Take our free Culture Scorecard and get a snapshot of where you stand—and where to focus next.

See you same time next week.

Carl.