CORPERATE LEARNING CULTURE AT CRAY RESEARCH
One company that has carefully spelled out its learning culture is Cray Research. Let’s examine the
company’s corporate culture:
At Cray Research, we take what we do very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
There is a sense of pride at Cray Research. Professionalism is important. People are treated like and act like professionals. But people are professional without being stuffy.
Cray Research people trust each other to do their jobs well and with the highest ethical standards. We take each other very seriously.
We have a strong sense of quality-quality in our products and services, of course, but also in our financial results and our working environment, and in the people we work with, in the tools we use to do our work, and the components we choose to make what we make.
Economy comes from high value, not from low cost. Aesthetics are part of quality.
We look first to our customers to define Cray Research quality and we do our best every day to deliver it.
The effort to create quality extends to our shareholders, who invest in us to see a significant return, and to the communities in which we work and live.
The Cray Research approach is informal and non-bureaucratic, but thorough. People are accessible at all levels.
Communication is key. We stop by or call if we can. Keeping people informed is part of everyone’s job. People also have fun working at Cray Research. There is laughing in the halls, as well as serious discussion. More than anything else, the organization is personable and approachable, but still dedicated to getting the job done. With informality, however, there is a sense of confidence. Cray Research people feel that they are on the winning side. They feel successful, are they are. It is this sense of confidence that generate the attitude, “Go ahead and try it; we will make it work.”
Cray Research people like taking responsibility for what they do and thinking for themselves. At the same time, we work together and are proud to share a single mission-to create the most powerful and highest-quality computational tools to solve the world’s most challenging scientific and industrial problems.
Because the individual is key at Cray Research, there is a real diversity in the view of what we really are. In fact, Cray Research is many things to many people. Consistency comes in providing those diverse people with the opportunity to fulfil themselves and experience achievementindividually and as part of the Cray Research team.
The creativity, then, that emerges from the company comes from the many ideas of individuals who are here and from the teams of Cray Research people who make these ideas into quality products for our customers. And that is the real strength of Cray Research.