Scaling Culture | Jason Kilar, former Hulu CEO

TL;DR

Jason Kilar defines culture as “how we act when no one is looking” and argues that scaling culture requires being explicit about values, walking the talk daily, and inventing mechanisms (repeatable processes) that replace good intentions as teams grow.

Key insights

• Culture is not the Webster definition; it is “how we act when no one is looking,” and for CEOs it is specifically how the founder acts when no one is looking because others model that over time.
• Disney succeeded at scale because Walt Disney was explicit about values, walked the talk (e.g., picking up litter himself), and created mechanisms such as Disney University—dedicated real estate where
• Good intentions work for a team of ~30 but become “a recipe for disaster” at a team of a thousand or more; mechanisms are the only way to scale culture.