Rakuten's Synchronized Cleaning
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Sam Parr shares a story about Rakuten's unique company culture and cleaning ritual.
"Rakuten is like Amazon in Japan - 32,000 employees, $14 billion in revenue, this huge thing. I got hold of their employee handbook a few years ago, and in Chapter 0, they outline how their offices don't have any janitors.
Every Tuesday at 4 o'clock, they have an hour of clean time. No janitors come by - everyone at Rakuten, from the CEO to the lowest level staff, cleans their workspace. They take out rags and spray bottles, clean off their surfaces, pick up trash, and get on their hands and knees to polish the legs of the chairs.
It's been part of the company culture since the beginning. The purpose is to foster a sense of ownership. Their CEO says, 'We do this activity to remind ourselves that everything the company does is relevant to each and every one of us, to keep a sense of direct involvement top of mind. It's also an opportunity to reaffirm that the entire company is a team by having everyone, regardless of position, work together on the same task.'
When I was leading The Hustle, I tried to make that a thing, but it didn't work - no one got into it."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.