Hi! My name is Georgiana. I am the CEO and founder of Beaglecat and soon you will be listening to Employer Branding: The Inside Podcast. In this podcast, I regularly talk to employer branding managers and acquisition managers, and human resources managers in tech companies in Germany, Romania, in the US. For more content on employer branding-related themes, go to employerbranding.tech or beaglecat.com. Stay tuned!
Overview
In episode 8 of our 5th season, we had an interesting conversation with Ebony Morczinek, CEO at @Marley Spoon Europe. We talked about dealing with unexpected company #growth during challenging times and measures leaders should take to maintain universal company values. Also, we touched on several other topics, such as the importance of transparency and open communication, and the way leadership impacts organizational #culture.
What you’ll learn by listening
- Tips for dealing with unexpected company growth during challenging times
- Measures that help maintain universal company values
- Transparency & open communication: the key to successful teamwork
- Leadership involvement in strengthening company culture: why it matters?
- Work environment, a reflection of company culture
- How does leadership impact organizational culture?
About Marley Spoon
Marley Spoon makes it easy to cook a delicious meal at home by sending tasty recipes and fresh ingredients directly to your door. With Marley Spoon, you’re in control—you decide what to eat, when to eat, and with how many. Leave behind the hassle of grocery shopping, say goodbye to food waste, and fall in love with cooking all over again!
Podcast link – Enjoy listening on Spotify!
Podcast transcription – Employer Branding T.I.P S05Ep.8
Georgiana:
Hi, everyone! This is Georgiana with a new episode of Employer Branding: The Inside Podcast. Today I’m talking to someone that I’ve been meaning to speak to for such a long time. Her name is Ebony Morczinek. Am I pronouncing correctly? She is the CEO of Marley Spoon Europe. Welcome, Ebony. It’s such an honor to meet you. And thank you so much for accepting to talk to us.
Ebony Morczinek:
Oh, it’s my pleasure to be here. I really enjoy the podcast. Thank you for inviting me.
Georgiana:
Thank you so much. Would you please tell us in a few words, what does a CEO do on a daily basis?
Ebony Morczinek:
My job is just to support the team in Europe. And for us, Europe includes the six countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, and Sweden. And when I say support, with strategy, with direction, leadership, providing a safe environment for them to do their jobs and to perform at their highest level.
Georgiana:
Got it. I’m really happy that you mentioned the word team from the very, very beginning. Because, as you know, this is an employer branding podcast. And via this podcast, what we try to do is to improve team communication and company culture and tech companies across Germany and Romania, where I’m from, and the US. And I’d like to start by asking you something related to company growth during COVID times.
I took a look at your LinkedIn page. And I’ve been following Marley Spoon for quite a while actually. And I saw that significant business growth was mentioned at that time. And I’m wondering, has that had any direct impact in terms of growing company employees or no changes in company vision or values?
Ebony Morczinek:
For us, the vision and values are our North Star. Those don’t really change? We have five values and 16 principles, which guide everything that we do at Marley Spoon. During COVID, we experienced explosive unexpected growth, it was from one day to the next. And, you know, in the three-digit percentage, right? So we were pushed to the limit of the organization. And we had to hire more resources to enable us to scale to meet the demand that we had all of a sudden, and in turn to ensure that we had happy customers, which is always our goal, it’s always our focus.
Georgiana:
Okay. And if we were to think about employer branding across the globe, for Marley Spoon, what would you say are three concrete measures that you take to ensure values are maintained universally, especially when everyone’s working remotely if I might add?
Ebony Morczinek:
Yeah, you’re right. We do have a hybrid. So not completely remote, we do try to get together often to create the glue, as we call it, but our employee value proposition or EVP is when you grow, we grow.
And so the focus really is on the team members and making sure that they are fulfilled because our belief is as long as they’re fulfilled, we will be fulfilled as well that our mission of growth is going to happen. All the things that we want will happen when your team members are satisfied. Another thing that we think is important is transparency. So open communication, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We do talk about things that happen in the workplace that relate to our principles and values. And then third, we have an employee advocacy program that makes our team members, the brand ambassadors online, so they are the ones engaging with content and sharing posts, as well as of course, word of mouth offline.
Georgiana:
And are you involved personally in getting to know your people? Of course, I know you guys have an employer branding manager, you have talent acquisition managers, but I know that in good organizations where company culture is thriving, their use usually is deep leadership involvement. And I’m curious how you do it personally.
Ebony Morczinek:
Absolutely. So one on ones are monthly meeting chats where we’re not talking about work or about tasks or about goals or things that we have to do, but we have one on ones mandatory at least once a month. So all of my direct reports, and I have regular conversations. Also every part as part of all our team meetings, we have icebreakers we check in weekly, again, around work. But the icebreaker is specifically just to talk about, you know, people say it’s a waste of time to talk about the weather, but it, it asks him, it is important it is it shows kind of where you are, we check in about mood, we have quarterly off sites for team building, and spend quite a bit of time just playing games or having fun.
And in the end, as I mentioned before, the objective is really to foster a safe and an encouraging environment, right? A warm, safe space where people feel like they can be their authentic selves, because it is a challenging environment. And so we do share the burden amongst our entire team.
Georgiana:
I’m wondering, does your working environment reflects the company culture and if so, in what way?
Ebony Morczinek:
I do think our working environment reflects the company culture. So there are a few things that we’ve done as a hybrid company, there is an office in our major locations, both in the Netherlands and in Berlin. And we do have the three C’s: creativity, collaboration, and connection are the objective of coming to the office. And we give people autonomy, the freedom, we trust them enough to know when they should be in the office and when they need to focus on work at home.
But we expect that everyone will work on creating glue within their teams. Pre COVID, office life was crucial. And it is something that is crucial to building the strong culture that we have. We’re a food company. And so you know, if you come to any one of our offices, something is cooking, you smell food in the air, there’s free food around both cooked and ingredients. In the end, it’s all about the people in the office. And so of course our culture reflects that.
Georgiana:
For a minute there, I was thinking was so cool to have this diverse food in the office and who can win that, but then I remember what you guys do. So I said, Ha, that’s a nice intersection between employer branding and then product marketing.
Ebony Morczinek:
We tend to attract foodies, right? We’re really not surprised.
Georgiana:
And I think you guys are doing a terrific job. I’ve been a customer for at least one year and a half if not to even before. And I’m always impressed by how the deliverables I get are improving all the time, the instructions on the pieces of paper that I have to use, and then the packaging for the ingredients, which gets more and more sustainable. I think it’s it’s really you’re doing a really good job.
Ebony Morczinek:
Strive to always, you know, delight the customer. That makes me happy. Sometimes we don’t meet that mark. But I’m happy to hear that in your case. We’ve been good.
Georgiana:
Yes, I am a happy customer. And I understand for sure. I’m getting back to leadership and management style in the organization or within the organization. Does it reflect the company culture? In what way?
Ebony Morczinek:
Absolutely. The leadership has to, right? I think we all know the saying or at least it might be just a Caribbean one. So correct me, but the fish rots from the head. I think if we didn’t reflect the company culture, then the company culture wouldn’t exist. It wouldn’t be real, it would be fake. And so, you know, for our leadership, we have no egos. It’s a very flat structure, open communication.
Anyone can talk to any one of the leadership team and anytime we actually encourage and amplify challenging voices, whether it’s face to face or, or via anonymous reporting of things that people don’t like, even now our five-year strategy document is an open document you can find in the Marley’s Food Network. Anybody can open it up and type in feedback, and change things. And so, this to me is us living our company values.
Georgiana:
Very nice. Ebony, what do you expect from this year professionally? What is the number one business goal this year?
Ebony Morczinek:
We touched on it a little while ago to perfect the product for the customers. I think we, as long as we continue to improve, and really, the customer should feel like we are trying to earn their money, we are in a world full of macroeconomic challenges. Money is more and more precious. It’s tight, it’s hard to come by. And I think for us, it is pushing us to innovate.
And to go into new business verticals like the market. So we’re moving away from you have to have a meal kit. In order to order from us, we have a market where you can go and choose individual products versus recipes. You can buy it. We have new business lines for pets, and getting into home care. And so I think that is for us, we really want to capture our customers and make them fall in love with Marley spoon.
Georgiana:
Oh, that’s very, very bold, of course. But I did not expect any less, of course. Since we’re approaching the end of this discussion, which has been very useful. And I’m, again, taking notes on all the strategies that you’re mentioning, I think we all have a lot to learn from what we’ve been saying here. I’m wondering if you were to name one resource that’s been significant in your career so far, what would that be?
Ebony Morczinek:
The internet has been an equalizer. And when I say an equalizer, I come from a marginalized group of people. I am I didn’t grow up rich, I didn’t grow up even in Europe. And so for me, it has been a resource, a democratic resource that I could go to, even if I don’t have the right father and the right business, or I didn’t go to the right school. I could find things out. I could know what’s happening based on the internet. And so it opened up worlds for me to be able to find this information without necessarily having to leave my own home. And having that access has been really precious for me in my career. So I would say the internet.
Georgiana:
I think you are 100% right. And it has been my personal situation or cases well, because when I started doing digital and content marketing, about 10 years ago. There was nothing written on the topic. I mean, I’ve done also Ph.D. in communication, but you know what, it’s like PhDs are partially theoretical. When you get down to business, you cannot do much. And actually, over the internet is how I learned to do content marketing, by reading blogs and getting in touch with people who’ve been doing it in the States for a very long time. So I have to agree 100%. ,
Ebony Morczinek:
YouTube. You can learn a lot on YouTube.
Georgiana:
Yes, and then there’s Udemy and all these other channels, skills, and programming or what not. It’s unbelievable. It’s so simple. And yet so complex. I love this answer. Well, Ebony, we have been very concise, I would say we managed to squeeze all this valuable input into less than 15 minutes.
Ebony Morczinek:
Because we know that the attention span is dwindling.
Georgiana:
Exactly. And I know you’re extremely busy. And once again, I thank you so much for taking the time today. And I wish you the best of luck personally, professionally, in any way possible. I really enjoyed meeting you.
Ebony Morczinek:
It was a pleasure to meet you too. Thanks for having me. It really was worth it.
Georgiana:
Thank you so much everyone you take care and I’ll be in touch. Thank you.
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