"A company's operating system is like an air traffic controller," says Alison Elworthy, HubSpot's Vice President of Operations. "It's important to create a system that's efficient and effective in order to direct the planes in the right direction and prevent collisions."
Historically, businesses' operating systems have relied on hierarchical order: think Mad Men-style firms, where decisions come from the top and employees follow a set of rules and regulations regarding how they should complete their day-to-day work.
But just as the world of marketing is changing -- HubSpot has pioneered the rapidly growing field of inbound marketing -- the world of internal business operations is changing, too.
"We want to create an operating system that matches the way the modern human wants to work," Elworthy explains.
This approach has helped HubSpot grow from $255,000 in revenue in its first year to over $180 million less than ten years later.
Elworthy explains the central pillars of HubSpot's operating system, which reflects a stark departure from the kind of systems we see in Mad Men:
1. An emphasis on autonomy
Rather than micromanaging employees and teams, HubSpot emphasizes autonomy as crucial to their company culture.
Teams are given a clear idea of the company's mission and vision, but aren't explicitly told how to go about achieving those goals. Instead, HubSpot trusts that their teams will independently come up with the best ideas and solutions.
2. A dedication to transparency
"Transparency is key to developing a lightweight and flexible operating system that prevents against chaos across teams," notes Elworthy. To that end, HubSpot ensures that all teams are cognizant of what's going on not only in their particular team, but in other teams, too.
For instance, there's a highly active company wiki that all employees can access, so they can stay on top of internal operations and be sure that their goals as a team are aligning with the company's goals as a whole.
3. An obsession with data
To HubSpot, marketing is not an art, but rather a science -- and therefore, analysis of statistics and data are central to daily operations. Elworthy elaborates: "Any decision we make is backed by data."
HubSpot makes their financials available to all employees, so data and numbers are readily accessible to everyone rather than being privileged information. "This helps us make informed decisions, as well as promotes a culture of transparency," Elworthy says.
4. A no-tolerance policy towards BS
In many traditional business models, titles determine everything, and lower-ranking employees bow down to the head honchos.
HubSpot's operating system, on the other hand, is founded on the idea of a flat organization where everyone has equal say, regardless of rank.
"We want our employees, at all levels, to push back and express their opinions if they feel strongly," Elworthy remarks. "If an intern has good reason for disagreeing with the CEO, we want them to say something."
5. A strong foundation of trust
Ultimately, the goal of HubSpot's operating system is to build a culture of trust. But this trust is a two-way street: "We want our employees to trust the leadership and the decisions we're making, just as we want our leadership to trust our employees," Elworthy explains.
Rather than having a giant rulebook filled with do's and don'ts, HubSpot's focus on autonomy, transparency, and free access to data creates a foundation of trust that renders such rulebooks unnecessary.
To Elworthy -- who will give a presentation on the subject during INBOUND, hosted in Boston from November 8 to 11 -- HubSpot's operating system not only helps scale the company's growth, but attracts the kind of talent that's necessary for the company's success.
Indeed, the days of Mad Men are over. As businesses continue evolving and modernizing, it seems likely that we'll see a larger-scale shift from traditional operating systems to ones similar to HubSpot's.