Culture is not a poster on the wall. It is the operating system that determines whether your strategy, processes, and talent actually produce results. In my conversation with Mike Chaput, CEO of Endsight, we unpacked how a deliberately designed and relentlessly reinforced culture drives operational excellence, sustainable margins, and long-term resilience.
What makes a value system executable?
Mike shared a simple framework that explains why most core values fail: they are either forgettable, vague, or misaligned with the company mission. To be useful a value system must be memorable, clear, deep, aligned, and complete.
Memorable: Use branding and imagery—an acronym or icon helps people recall and repeat the values. Mike uses RSVP as an easy mnemonic.
Clear: Each value should be explained in plain language. Two-word labels plus clarifying belief statements work well.
Deep: Provide layered source material—belief statements, detailed descriptions, and recommended reading—for leaders who must live the values.
Aligned: Values must manifest the mission. If living your values does not move you toward the vision, change one or the other.
Complete: The set should be balanced; missing levers create blind spots and behavioral drift.
Example: RSVP stands for Respect & Connect, Servant’s Heart, Value (customer value), Progress over Comfort. Each letter has two-word labels, an icon, four belief statements, and deeper material for leaders. That combination makes values memorable, usable, and teachable.
Core values are constraining behaviors
Constraint gets a bad rap. But constraints create meaning and enable teamwork. A value system tells people what to do and what not to do so they can cooperate without constant negotiation.
“If you want to act disrespectfully, you might be free to do that—but then everyone else is free to act disrespectfully too. The constraint has to apply to the whole culture.” — Mike Chaput
Constraining behaviors are not oppression; they are the rules of the game that make the game worth playing. People often want freedom, but they thrive when constraints align with their own ideals.
Hire for culture first, skills second
Hiring is the most important lever when building a culture. Mike explained the practical approach Endsight uses to prioritize cultural fit without neglecting skill.
Interview for story and beliefs: Candidates map a life timeline—highs and lows—and tell that story. The goal is not therapy but evidence of values, resilience, and fit.
If you do not share your story, you fail the interview: Cultural fit comes before technical assessment. Candidates who are unwilling to share personal context rarely fit.
Skills come next: After cultural alignment, move candidates through a lab or skills-based interview. Pass both and you extend an offer.
The result: an exceptionally high offer-acceptance ratio and new hires who feel like they already belong.
Onboarding and rituals that keep values alive
Values are not alive because they are printed. They live because they are practiced, rewarded, and taught.
Two‑hour cultural cohort with the CEO: Every new hire sits down to read and discuss each belief statement, ask questions, and learn the sources behind the values.
Regular rhythms: Quarterly company meetings, town halls, weekly manager meetings—all start with value recognition and end with value stories.
Public recognition: A “wheel of awesome” or similar ritual celebrates people who exemplify values and makes behaviors visible.
Manager routines: Start manager meetings with good news and value-based shout-outs so leaders model what matters.
Operationalizing excellence: processes, tools, and culture
Great people need great tools—and great processes. But Mike emphasized an important truth:
“It’s better to have a mediocre process that’s followed relentlessly than a great process that’s never followed.”
Operationalizing excellence is detail work and cultural work combined. Practical steps to make it real:
One-on-ones as the primary place for coaching and problem solving.
Gemba—managers must observe work where it happens so they understand real problems.
Problem registers to capture persistent issues, prioritize them, and harvest strategic objectives from them.
Lean tools such as A3 problem reports to force clarity, root cause thinking, and owner-driven solutions.
Continuous improvement or Kaizen: small iterative changes driven by teams who care about outcomes.
Operational success requires people who want to follow process, the discipline to make processes stick, and the mechanisms to improve them over time.
Why margins matter
Endsight runs at approximately 20% EBITDA, which is well above the typical MSP market average. That margin is not an ego metric—it is the fuel for strategic investment.
Margins allow a company to:
Invest in better tools and technology for high-performing teams.
Build new practices like cybersecurity, business intelligence, and AI consulting.
Protect the business during downturns and retain employee confidence.
Without healthy margins, growth becomes fragile. Private capital can extract short-term gains while eroding culture; sustainable margins let you keep investing in value for customers and employees.
One non-negotiable: culture (but iterate thoughtfully)
When I asked Mike what he would never allow a successor to change, his answer was surprisingly straightforward: culture. But he also emphasized a key nuance—iterate early, hold steady when it works.
When you are discovering product-market fit and organizational identity, keep culture malleable. When culture begins to consistently manifest the results you want, protect it. If a new inflection—such as AI—requires cultural shifts, make careful, evidence-based adjustments rather than sweeping rewrites.
AI: disruption and opportunity
Mike believes AI will be more disruptive than broadband internet. That does not mean instant replacement of jobs, but it does mean a redefinition of the problems organizations can solve.
How Endsight is positioning for that future:
Rolling out enterprise AI tools internally and training employees to invent with them.
Creating an AI practice to help customers implement AI responsibly and effectively.
Using AI to move up the value chain—shifting from break/fix support to strategic outcomes for clients.
The future belongs to companies that combine human judgment with machine scale. Those that resist will be disrupted; those that lead will create outsized customer value.
Resilience: surviving the dark moments
Entrepreneurship is full of gut punches. Mike shared moments that tested his resolve: bankruptcy caused by partner theft, employee sabotage aimed at stealing customers, and a long-term controller who embezzled funds. Each event could have become a reason to harden, withdraw trust, or go defensive.
Instead the response was radical honesty and recommitment. A letter to the company announced one simple decision: double down on trust. That choice accepts the risk of being taken advantage of again in exchange for preserving an identity that made the company successful in the first place.
Staying grounded: practices that restore balance
Mike’s day-to-day resilience practices are practical and instructive:
Music: playing instruments creates flow and a break from executive thinking.
Somatic work: body-focused routines, foam rolling, and deliberate attention to physical sensation clear the mind.
Family and close friendships provide perspective and consistent emotional support.
These practices are reminders that leadership is embodied and sustained by regular restorative rituals, not simply mental toughness.
Practical takeaways you can apply today
Create a memorable, branded value system. Use icons, an acronym, belief statements, and source material.
Interview for culture first. Use life stories to surface values and alignment before testing technical skills.
Onboard new hires into the value system with cohort sessions and CEO-led explanations.
Make processes simple and enforceable. Prioritize follow-through over perfection and use Kaizen to improve.
Track problems in a register, assign owners, and convert the biggest issues into quarterly objectives.
Protect margins so you can invest in tools, talent, and new practices such as AI.
When crisis arrives, consider the long-term identity of the company before choosing fear-driven reactions.
Final words
Culture is the sustaining architecture of any company that wants to last. It shapes hiring, operations, product quality, and financial health. Build values that are memorable and actionable. Hire slowly for fit and then validate skills. Operationalize through discipline, observation, and continuous improvement. Protect margins so you can invest in the future. And when the inevitable hard moments come, lead with honesty and a commitment to the identity you want to preserve.
“Freedom through discipline. That’s where the creativity and the joy show up.” — Mike Chaput
If you want to continue the conversation, Mike is active on LinkedIn and publishes thought leadership regularly. Engage with these ideas, test them in your organization, and share what works and what doesn’t. Great cultures are built by iterations, not declarations.
Get In Touch With Mike Chaput
Mike can be reached through his Linkedin account. To find out more about Endsight, visit their website.
This article was created from the video “Can You Scale Revenue Without Sacrificing Values? (Lessons from a CEO)” with the help of AI.
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