Culture Doctrine

The record

1. 1995

   Toyota

   Held

   Whether to chase 15% global market share by nearly doubling headcount faster than its apprenticeship culture could teach new hires

   • Scale headcount for share — Nearly double workforce to chase 15% global market sharechose this
   • Grow at teaching pace — Limit hiring to what apprenticeship can socialize into the culture

   Stated reasonThe growth strategy targeted 15% of the global car market

   What happened

   • 2010 recalls: recalled nearly eight million vehicles in the United States
   • 2014-03 criminal penalty: signed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement and paid a $1.2 billion penalty, admitting it deceived consumers and the regulator
   • 2023 global sales: sold 11,233,039 vehicles worldwide, fourth straight year as best-selling automaker
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2. 2010

   P&G

   Held

   How to launch a campaign for a brand P&G was ready to kill: pay for the Super Bowl or skip it and post online early

   • Buy a Super Bowl slot — Pay for a broadcast spot during the game
   • Post online early — Launch on YouTube three days before, air on TV Monday afterchose this

   Stated reasonThe brand was a divestiture candidate with little at stake, so it could take a reckless swing and capture the Super Bowl's cultural halo without paying for a slot

   What happened

   • 2010-07 Red Zone body wash sales year-on-year: up 125% year-on-year per Nielsen, an all-time high
   • 2010 US men's body wash ranking: Old Spice became the #1 selling men's body wash brand in the United States
   • 2010 awards: won a Cannes Grand Prix for Film and a Primetime Emmy
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3. 2010

   P&G

   Held

   Whether to aim the men's body wash campaign at the male user or at the female buyer who makes most purchases

   • Outspend, target men — Buy a Super Bowl spot and talk to men about being men
   • Target female buyer — Aim the message at the woman who buys and let men overhearchose this

   Stated reasonResearch showed women made about 60% of all men's body wash purchases, so the buyer, not the user, was the real customer

   What happened

   • 2010-05 Red Zone body wash sales year-on-year: up 60% from the prior year, four times the 15% target
   • 2010-07 body wash sales: Red Zone sales had doubled from the prior year; response effort pushed sales to 125% year-on-year
   • 2010 market position: Old Spice became the number one men's body wash brand in the United States
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4. 2023

   Salesforce

   Held

   Whether to protect the 'Ohana family framing or cut headcount when the cycle turned

   • Honor family framing, protect jobs — Treat employees as family bound together and responsible for one another
   • Cut headcount to the cycle — Lay off thousands citing overhiring while keeping the doctrine as brandingchose this

   Stated reasonThe company cited pandemic-era overhiring for the cuts

   What happened

   • 2024 'Ohana in governance docs: the 2024 proxy statement describes culture without using the word 'Ohana' at all
   • 2025 total layoffs: an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 people cut
   • 2025 Benioff on 2023 layoffs: Benioff described the layoffs as a 'complete dumpster fire'
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5. 2023

   Reddit

   Held

   Whether to charge for previously-free API access despite protecting volunteer-built communities

   • Charge for API access — Monetize high-volume API access as an owned assetchose this
   • Keep API free — Leave access open and free as since 2008

   Stated reasonA valuable feed was being pulled in enormous quantities for free and needed to be monetized

   What happened

   • 2024 revenue: revenue climbed to $1.3 billion in 2024 — up about 61.5%
   • 2024 net GAAP loss: net GAAP loss of $484 million — more than five times the prior year's loss
   • 2023-06-12 subreddits gone dark in protest: more than 8,800 subreddits went private
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6. 2023

   Unilever

   Held in part

   Whether to keep force-fitting 'brands with purpose' onto every brand or narrow it to brands where it fits

   • Keep purpose on every brand — Maintain the portfolio-wide mandate that all brands must have a purpose
   • Narrow purpose to brands that fit — Stop force fitting purpose and apply it only where it fits, keeping the Compasschose this
   • Walk away from sustainability — Abandon the purpose framework entirely

   Stated reasonNot all 400 brands need a social or environmental purpose in the way Dove does, so force fitting was the flaw

   What happened

   • 2025-03-01 CEO tenure / leadership change: Schumacher stepped down after about 18 months, succeeded by Fernandez on 1 March 2025
   • 2026-02 new portfolio-wide doctrine: Fernandez introduced a creator-first 'social pivot' declaring mass advertising 'dead'
   • 2024 underlying return on invested capital: improved 190 basis points to 18.1%
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7. 1977

   Trader Joe's

   Held

   Whether to run a lean private-label, no-frills grocery model with well-paid multi-skilled crew instead of a conventional supermarket

   • Lean private-label model — Cut SKUs, drop basics, pivot to private label with well-paid rotating crewchose this
   • Conventional supermarket — Carry 40,000+ SKUs with coupons, loyalty, circulars, and narrow roles

   Stated reasonCoulombe built the store for a specific overeducated, underpaid customer who wanted interesting food, honest prices, and conversation, not a warehouse or coupons

   What happened

   • 2024 sales per square foot: around $2,100 in sales per square foot, roughly double Whole Foods
   • 2024-11-08 NLRB labor finding: an NLRB administrative law judge ruled Trader Joe's unlawfully barred union insignia and gave union workers worse retirement benefits
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8. 2007

   Circuit City

   Held

   Whether to fire veteran staff paid above market salary range and rehire at lower wages

   • Fire the overpaid veterans — Cut 3,400 above-market workers, invite reapplication at lower wageschose this
   • Keep expert staff — Retain veterans and the product knowledge justifying store premium

   Stated reasonThe company framed it as a cost move to strengthen Circuit City for the long term

   What happened

   • 2008-11-10 corporate solvency: Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Richmond with $3.4 billion in assets against $2.32 billion in debt
   • 2008-09 CEO tenure: Schoonover resigned, seven weeks before the bankruptcy filing
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9. 2012

   Red Bull

   Held

   Whether to buy rented ad slots or build and own the content people watch

   • Buy ad slots — Rent attention on broadcasters and platforms
   • Build owned content — Finance events and media the brand owns foreverchose this

   Stated reasonOwned content is an asset that can be sold, licensed, and syndicated, so the spend partly finances itself, whereas an ad is pure expense that evaporates

   Committedabout $27 million (Red Bull Stratos project total cost)

   What happened

   • 2024 net sales: net sales rose to €11.2 billion in 2024 on 12.7 billion cans sold
   • 2012 live viewership: More than 8 million people watched it live on YouTube - a record at the time
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10. 2014

    Ryanair

    Held

    After two 2013 profit warnings and a worst-brand survey, should Ryanair double down on its abrasive brand or reverse and spend to restore customer comfort?

    • Double down on rudeness — Keep treating customer comfort as a cost to strip away
    • Reverse and restore comfort — Cut fees, add allocated seating, simplify booking flowchose this

    Stated reasonIn late 2013 two profit warnings and a worst-brand survey showed the abrasion had become a liability rather than earning its keep.

    What happened

    • 2024 profit after tax: profit after tax rose 34% to €1.92bn on 183.7 million passengers
    • 2025 profit after tax: profit fell 16% to €1.61bn on a record 200 million passengers as average fares dropped 7%
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11. 2014

    Meta

    Held

    Whether to keep 'move fast and break things' as Meta's operating maxim at scale

    • Keep breaking things — Retain the velocity-over-perfection maxim from startup days
    • Adopt stable infrastructure — Replace the maxim with one optimizing for reliability at scalechose this

    Stated reasonThe demands placed on a massive, publicly traded company where a broken page becomes a liability at scale

    What happened

    • 2023-03-14 Year of Efficiency banner: Zuckerberg announced 'Year of Efficiency' via an SEC 8-K filing with the stated goal of improving organizational efficiency in 'a difficult environment'
    • 2026-05 workforce reductions: Meta has cut more than 30,000 employees since 2022
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12. 2022

    Patagonia

    Held

    How to exit ownership of Patagonia while funding the climate mission and preventing dilution

    • Sell to a strategic buyer — Sell the company outright, triggering capital-gains tax and outside owners.
    • Hold until death — Keep the company until death, forcing an estate-tax fire sale.
    • Split cash flow from control — Donate nonvoting stock to a (c)(4), keep voting stock in a family trust.chose this

    Stated reasonFree up financial value for climate work while preventing outside owners from diluting the mission and avoiding a tax bill that would force a stock sale

    What happened

    • 2024 annual grants distributed: roughly $40.7 million in grants distributed in 2024
    • 2025-11 cumulative giving to Holdfast Collective: $180 million given since the 2022 restructuring
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