Gatekeeper Vision & Values

Updated: 31st December 2022

As with everything we do in Gatekeeper and in every way we seek to improve ourselves, our vision and values are a work in progress.

Vision

We are on a mission to make our customers’ working lives easier, more productive and highly valued by solving contract and vendor management problems that deliver demonstrable ROI.

Values

These are the values that a ‘Gatekeeper’ will feel naturally aligned to:

1. We are relentlessly focused on solving customer problems to deliver demonstrable ROI

   1. We are committed to understanding our customers' problems at the deepest level

   2. We showcase our users’ ROI through mutually-agreed, quantifiable success criteria

   3. We ask questions like ‘How can we enhance our users' value to their business?’ and ‘How can we maximise the ROI our customers receive from Gatekeeper?’ on a habitual basis, across the business, and are proactive with suggestions internally and externally.

   4. We strive to create raving fan customers; ambassadors for our company, people and processes.

2. We choose Calm

   1. We respect others' "zone time" to allow them to be most productive. We document items to discuss at once rather than cause multiple interruptions

   2. We chose creating an incredible place to work over arbitrary sales targets that drive bad decision making (product shortcuts, poor hires, bad fit customers)

   3. Focus makes us happier, more productive and gives us a sense of fulfilment from a day spent delivering at our best

   4. We have a 'no assholes' rule inside and outside the business

   5. When we are working we are focused on work. When we are not working we leave work alone

   6. We ‘single-task’ our way through the day

   7. Gatekeepers are self-disciplined, self-motivating, self-aware and self-improving

3. We keep our promises to each other, our customer and partners

   1. When we say we are going to do something in writing or verbally we get it done - not ‘progressed’, ‘looked at’ - ‘done’ means DONE. Done well today is better than perfect next week

   2. We ‘delegate with confidence’ safe in the knowledge work will get completed

   3. This underlying trust is fundamental to our growth and lets the team collaborate into something more than the sum of its parts

4. Exceptional results delivered as a result of exceptional systems

   1. The exceptional results we deliver for our clients are achieved through our relentless pursuit of 'systems excellence'.

   2. We document core processes to deliver the same way every time ensuring we meet the standards of excellence our customers expect of us every time

   3. We use the ‘5-Why’ approach to understand the root cause of any problems and resolve them permanently by improvements to our systems

   4. We support any change to any system at any time that improves the way we work, providing limitless flexibility within a controlled and measurable framework

5. We only hire ‘A Players’

   1. We only hire 'A Players' that enrich our company with their own skills and who live, breathe and act in harmony with our values and culture

   2. We invest heavily in our recruitment and training to ensure team members feel secure, supported and focused on ROI creation for our customers

   3. We pass on great people who could do a great job if they don’t align with our culture

   4. We are the best at what we do; we demand excellence in every aspect of our practice, communications and delivery, every day

6. We set ourselves up for success

   1. We are data-driven - we allow continual measurement, hypothesis and experimentation to drive the growth of the company

   2. We are selective about the markets & clients we target

   3. We only take on customers where we know we can deliver their desired outcome (success)

   4. We understand what success looks like upfront and agree this with our customers so we can focus on delivering it without ambiguity

   5. We value long-term relationships over short-term profit

7. Continuous and never-ending improvement

   1. We are committed individually and collectively to continuously improve every aspect of our product and service, it's in our DNA

   2. 'A Players' are self-learners and lifetime learners. We help develop our people by giving them whatever they need to develop themselves.

   3. We offer frank and open feedback and welcome the same from our colleagues to help us continually improve

8. Evolution not revolution

   1. We do not reinvent the wheel - everything we do has direct comparisons to work that has been done before

   2. We leverage the great work done by others in books, blogs and applications to vastly accelerate our progress

   3. We know when to reach for support from each other or company mentors to shortcut problems rather than fixate on solving them ourselves

   4. When building new functionality we look for comparative features from our peers inside and outside of the industry then select, refine and implement them into our core platform to efficiently deliver maximum value to our customers

   5. It is the art of the selection and refinement process that makes us unique

9. Communicate with clarity

   1. We understand the importance of concise, articulate verbal and written communication

   2. We chose the appropriate form of communication carefully to minimise interruptions (Basecamp = please take a look at this when you have time, Slack = this is important enough to interrupt you - please look at this now)

   3. We remain calm in stressful situations

   4. We treat people with respect at all times

10. We take responsibility

    1. We look for opportunities to pick up the buck not pass it

    2. We understand that there is no such thing as ‘it's not my job’ in a start-up

    3. We don’t play the blame game - analysing our mistakes is how we learn and improve

    4. We are each responsible for a positive culture in tune with our company values

    5. Gatekeeper policy on expenses, entertainment, gifts & travel is ‘Act in Gatekeeper’s best interest’ - no further policy required

    6. Our life, happiness and career is our responsibility

11. We respect and are grateful for each other's differences and choose positivity

    1. We understand that a team with unique perspectives and talents is required to drive our business growth and make us all successful

    2. An engineer needs a different approach to a salesperson or marketer and these approaches are mutually respected even if not fully understood

    3. We understand that negativity or ‘office politics’ of any kind is the antithesis to our core values and carcinogenic - and will be treated as such.

    4. We trust each other - we have each other's backs

    5. We are constantly on the look-out for talented individuals that are aligned with our culture to join the team

12. We are a Force for Good
    1. We are given the opportunity to leverage the company's resources to make positive changes in people's lives in our community and around the world
    2. We have an open voice to promote working practices that are kinder to the world around us

13. We do what makes us happy

    1. We live where we want to live - anywhere in the world

    2. We have flexible working hours to adapt to our ideal lifestyle

    3. We are disciplined in work hours so we can focus on enjoying the hours that we don’t