Book SummaryWhat You Do Is Who You Are, by Ben Horowitz

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of What You Do Is Who You Are

CEO and venture capitalist Ben Horowitz argues that culture is the way employees make decisions and act based on their perception of underlying premises and shared beliefs. Culture derives from what leaders state explicitly and also what they enforce implicitly by example and through the organization’s incentive structure. Leaders’ actions and messaging inform employees’ behavior. Therefore, Horowitz argues that it’s important to be intentional about the culture you’re designing. If you’re not intentional in shaping your culture, your employees will shape it in ways you might not like.

What You Do Is Who You Are cites four unique historical cultures to show how to translate your beliefs into action—that is, how to create the culture you want and sustain it over time. In addition, we’ll consider how Horowitz’s advice compares to that of other culture experts and how the real-life business examples he shares measure up in the years after publication.

(Shortform note: Experts argue that if a strong cultural identity flows down from the top, it’s easier to get the entire company aligned. If not, siloed departments each start creating their own competing cultures, and there is no coherent identity binding the organization together.)

Why Culture Matters

Horowitz cites three reasons leaders should care about culture. First, an intentional culture serves the company’s vision by ensuring employees know what to do to move the company forward and consistently do it. (Shortform note: In Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras argue that culture helps leaders ensure every element of the business reinforces the others, instead of competing.)

Second, the right culture boosts performance by giving employees a sense of purpose. (Shortform note: In Measure What Matters, John Doerr says culture is, most of all, a shared sense of purpose, and a cohesive company culture where everyone understands their purpose helps employees make decisions quickly and reliably.)

Finally, Horowitz says a great culture plus a great product or service is powerful—it can disrupt an industry and an entire system. If an organization develops effective new behaviors to deal with challenges, and the company is successful, other companies copy the culture in the hopes of being equally successful.

(Shortform note: One of Horowitz’s examples of a great culture plus a great product disrupting an industry is hip-hop. But while hip-hop culture disrupted the music world, its influence extended even further. It also disrupted the way companies in other industries did business. For example, executives at Cristal, a champagne brand hip-hop artists showcased in their music videos, openly rejected a connection to that community. Hip-hop artists responded by no longer using the brand in their videos, and Cristal’s market share dropped dramatically.)

Core Elements of Intentional Cultures

Horowitz says all intentional cultures share two core elements. First, the culture you design should reflect who you are as a leader, your strengths, and beliefs, rather than emulate what other leaders do. If you start from your strengths, the culture you design will be sustainable because you’ll be implementing a style that comes naturally to you. However, your culture shouldn’t reflect your weaknesses, or characteristics that won’t serve the organization’s vision. As the leader, your example sets the tone for the organization, so your weaknesses can permeate the culture as employees emulate your behavior. To keep them from infecting your culture, the author says you first need to become aware of your weaknesses, then immunize your culture against them by building in checks and balances.

(Shortform note: Experts argue that the founder is 80% of a company’s culture. The qualities and strengths that set the founder apart become competitive advantages for the company, but only if the founder builds them into the culture. Also, being aware of your weaknesses is essential in those first rounds of hiring. If the founder has certain weaknesses, she needs to hire people who can complement them with the strengths she’s lacking.)

The second core element of a successful culture is that it supports the organization’s strategy. Horowitz says your cultural features, such as policies, must encourage employees to act in ways that bring the company closer to its vision. (Shortform note: If you’re looking to change your organization’s existing culture, making sure the new culture supports your strategy is key. Experts who studied the cultures of top-performing companies identified matching culture to strategy as the number one principle to follow.)

Lessons From the Samurai Honor Code—Develop Virtues

Horowitz examines four successful cultures in history for lessons that business leaders can apply to developing their own cultures. The first is the samurai culture, which illustrates the importance of establishing clear, actionable values, or virtues.

The samurai were a military class that ruled pre-modern Japan from 1186 until 1868. Their virtues, expressed in an honor code or bushido, were so effective that they kept the samurai in power for nearly 700...

What You Do Is Who You Are Summary Shortform Introduction

In What You Do Is Who You Are, Ben Horowitz urges business leaders to take an intentional approach to designing and nurturing their organization’s culture. Because your culture is what you and your employees do, he argues that choosing and reinforcing the right beliefs and actions will allow employees to consistently behave in a way that aligns with what the company wants to be and achieve. He explores four unique historical models of leaders who designed successful cultures that supported their vision and strategy, and he extracts techniques that modern-day leaders can apply to their own culture-building.

About the Author

Ben Horowitz is an entrepreneur, investor, and bestselling author. He co-founded Opsware (formerly known as LoudCloud), which he then sold to Hewlett-Packard. He later co-founded a venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, with partner Marc Andreessen. In addition to What You Do Is Who You Are, he is the author of The Hard Thing About Hard Things, about his experience and advice on starting a business.

Connect with Ben Horowitz:

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What You Do Is Who You Are Summary Chapter 1: Understand Culture—The Basics

What You Do Is Who You Are offers lessons for leaders who want to design or improve their organization’s culture. Ben Horowitz wrote this book after learning as a CEO and venture capitalist how critical culture is to a business and how much leaders struggle to define and create it.

This guide organizes Horowitz’s lessons and examples, starting from understanding what culture is and why it matters, laying the foundations of your culture, making it inclusive, modeling and reinforcing it, and continuously improving it. Finally, we’ll explore Horowitz’s insights into why culture can be challenging.

To understand how to create an intentional culture, Horowitz studied four unique cultures in history and drew lessons from them:

• Samurai Warriors: Build your culture on strong tenets and have a method of translating them to action.
• Genghis Khan: Embrace inclusivity to strengthen your culture.
• Toussaint Louverture: Define, model, and reinforce your culture.
• Shaka Senghor: Evolve your culture to keep up with your strategy.

The four models span widely different contexts, but each exemplifies a culture that served the vision and strategy of its leader and...

Shortform Exercise: Reflect on Why Culture Matters

Culture is the way employees make decisions and act based on their perception of underlying premises and shared beliefs.

Consider the way employees make decisions and act at your company or organization. List some behaviors that characterize your organization and what each behavior says about the culture.

What You Do Is Who You Are Summary Chapter 2: Lessons From the Samurai—Develop Virtues

Now that we’ve discussed what culture is and why it matters, we’ll explore Horowitz’s advice for developing the core values of your culture. He draws lessons on how to develop your values from the first historical model he examines: samurai warriors.

The samurai were a military class that ruled pre-modern Japan from 1186 until 1868. Their virtues, expressed in an honor code or bushido, were so effective that they kept the samurai in power for nearly 700 years, and they’re still echoed in modern-day Japan. (Shortform note: In The Book of Five Rings, written in the 17th century, samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi reflects on bushido, emphasizing the importance of constant practice, achieving mental and physical equilibrium, and ways to defeat any enemy.)

Horowitz explains that the honor code established a common foundation for warriors consisting not only of values but also instructions for applying them in every situation. Bushido refers to these actionable values as “virtues.”

(Shortform note: As with the term culture, Horowitz applies to business...

Shortform Exercise: Apply the Samurai Approach to Virtues

Horowitz argues that organizations need a foundation of common virtues similar to that of the samurai.

Choose one of your organization’s virtues. Define it explicitly and clearly state its purpose. Identify which other virtue in your organization’s culture balances it out.

What You Do Is Who You Are Summary Chapter 3: Lessons From Genghis Khan—Be Inclusive

We’ve discussed Horowitz’s lessons from bushido for designing the foundations of your culture. Now, we’ll zoom in on one specific aspect to consider when designing your culture: including people different from you.

This chapter will explore Horowitz’s insights from the second of the four historical models in which he finds cultural lessons: Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire and the most successful military conqueror in history. At the height of his power, he held over 11 million miles of land across Eurasia with an army of only 100,000. He unified and reinvented Mongol culture to make it more meritocratic and inclusive—and from that new culture, he created a diverse army with a range of skills that allowed him to conquer immense territory while syncretizing additional cultures across Asia and Europe.

(Shortform note: Eleven million miles of land might be difficult to imagine, so another way to visualize Genghis Khan’s conquests is in comparison to other rulers: His territory was [more than twice that of any other conqueror—wide enough to bring Eastern and Western civilizations together under one mostly peaceful...

Shortform Exercise: Apply Genghis Khan’s Approach to Inclusivity

Horowitz believes that most companies begin to mirror the characteristics of their leaders, which leads to a lack of diversity and inclusion.

Observe your organization with a critical eye. What words would you use to describe the backgrounds and demographics of leaders and managers? What words would you use to describe the backgrounds and demographics of the employees who work for them? Is there significant overlap between both descriptions?

What You Do Is Who You Are Summary Chapter 4: Lessons From Toussaint Louverture—Model and Reinforce the Culture You Want

After laying down strong foundational virtues for your culture and incorporating inclusive practices, you must model and reinforce them so they become ingrained in your organization’s culture. This chapter will explore Horowitz’s insights from the third of the four historical models he examines—Toussaint Louverture, who led the military and diplomatic campaign that liberated enslaved people in Haiti and set the stage for its independence from France.

According to Horowitz, Louverture’s military and cultural leadership elevated the Haitian revolution from slave revolt to strategic military and diplomatic action. Under his leadership, they defeated Spain and England and improved their relationship with France. A decade after the insurrection began, he became governor of the island. He proclaimed a new constitution that abolished slavery and ensured people of all races could have access to any job.

(Shortform note: Although Haiti didn’t declare its independence from France until 1804, almost a year after Louverture’s death, [his actions made independence...

Shortform Exercise: Apply Toussaint Louverture’s Approach to Cultural Leadership

Horowitz argues that Louverture’s cultural leadership elevated the Haitian revolution from revolt to strategic action, and that business leaders can assert their own cultural leadership to elevate their organizations.

List at least three of your employees’ or colleagues’ strengths. Next to each, write down whether those strengths are already recognized as part of the organization’s culture. If they’re not, consider how they might be incorporated.

What You Do Is Who You Are Summary Chapter 5: Lessons From Shaka Senghor—Never Stop Improving Your Culture

After designing and teaching your culture, Horowitz says you must keep assessing and improving it to ensure that it continues to serve your organization’s vision. This chapter will explore Horowitz’s insights from the last of the four historical models he examines—Shaka Senghor’s story.

Detroit-native Senghor’s path to cultural leadership began the day he arrived at prison for committing murder in a street conflict. Ultimately, he became a force for good inside the prison system by continuously assessing and improving the culture of the squad, or gang, he belonged to. He did this by reading and educating himself and squad members on self-improvement and Black leadership. He also became a leading criminal justice reformer after his release.

(Shortform note: Senghor’s path is an example of servant leadership, a model in which the leader puts the well-being of followers first. To become a...

Shortform Exercise: Observe Your Company’s Vital Signs

Horowitz believes that simply asking employees how they feel about the culture won’t give you useful insights. Instead, he argues you should keep an eye on certain vital signs.

Reflect on the last three employees or colleagues who quit the team. Were they good cultural fits? Why wasn’t the organization able to keep them?

What You Do Is Who You Are Summary Chapter 6: Understand the Challenges of Culture

In this final chapter, we’ll explore some of the factors that Horowitz believes make it challenging for leaders to leverage culture to support their organization’s vision and make it an attractive place to work.

Cultures Have Built-In Challenges

Horowitz describes three characteristics inherent in culture that will challenge you as you design and implement your culture:

Challenge #1: Culture Is Both Aspirational and Actionable

The first challenging feature of culture is that you must balance acknowledgment that it’s an unattainable ideal with taking action to get as close as possible. Culture reflects what the organization hopes to become. But Horowitz makes clear that you can’t expect complete compliance with the culture. To get as close as possible to that ideal culture you’ve designed, you must consistently take actions that are in line with the culture. At the same time, the needs of the business will sometimes take precedence over culture, and you might find yourself temporarily breaking a cultural rule because it’s not helpful to the organization’s short-term objectives.

(Shortform note: In _[Start With...

Shortform Exercise: Reflect on Your Approach to Decision-Making

Horowitz argues that leaders make several choices regarding how to make decisions: autocracy versus democracy, speed versus accuracy, and top-down versus bottom-up.

Think of the last major decision that your organization made. Which approach did you take: autocracy, democracy, or consensus-building? How did the approach affect the outcome of the decision? For example, maybe not enough people were involved so some key information was unavailable.