“Culture is a strategy that brings performance to an organization.”

A leap forward to becoming a unicorn company with a corporate value of 1 trillion won.
It has become a super app with approximately 25 million monthly active users.
It experienced more than tenfold growth from 180 employees to approximately 3,000.
The Weapons of High-Performing Organizations: The First Organizational Culture Manager at Toss

In 2018, Toss became the first domestic fintech company to become a unicorn with a corporate value of approximately 1 trillion won.
Since then, it has continued to grow steadily, surpassing 24.8 million monthly active users (MAU) in 2024, and has become the largest financial app in Korea, surpassing Kakao Pay in just 10 years since the launch of Toss.
What is the reason that Toss, the "world's fastest-growing startup," was able to achieve such incredible growth?

Kim Hyung-jin, Toss' first organizational culture manager, finds the secret in Toss' unique organizational culture.
"Crazy Growth" is a book in which the author, who planned major cultural strategies such as Toss's Core Value 3.0, Core Value Internalization, Core Value Day, and Culture Fit Interview, and who, as an HRBP at Toss Securities, implemented personnel strategies that matched business goals, personally experienced the turning point of the organization's surplus and compressed growth, and summarized his personal insights.
It covers everything from the concept of organizational culture to its practical application.


Therefore, "Crazy Growth" contains all the know-how in areas that many leaders find difficult and curious, such as establishing core values, motivation, job design, and talent density management.
And we provide practical solutions that can be used right away in the workplace.
Furthermore, this book helps readers design a unique culture for their individual organizations based on their own realities and culture, rather than simply following the trendy cultures from innovative companies in Silicon Valley.
Reading this book means 1) building the foundation for "crazy growth," 2) custom-designing a culture that fits your organization, and 3) monitoring your organization to maintain that crazy growth.

I recommend this book to all leaders, including middle managers leading small teams, CEOs leading large organizations, and entrepreneurs running businesses.
We will help you take the first step towards ‘crazy growth’.

But what exactly are core values, and why are they so important? They are the set of principles that define a company's success.
It is a condensation of how the organization has achieved results so far.
It also includes principles that must be followed in order to survive in the future.
The goal of a company is to win in the market and achieve its vision.
That's good for shareholders, good for employees, and good for society.
Victory is achieved through intense strategic thinking, numerous executions, and growth through failure.
If products, marketing, and financing fall under the category of "management strategy," then core values, which are the means by which an organization produces results, fall under "cultural strategy."

--- p.29, from “Core Values: The Standard for All Decisions and the Equation for Creating Performance”

In June 2022, news broke that Netflix, famous for its "No Rules" show, was shifting to a "Rules" culture.
This was surprising news, as Netflix's existing culture is known for emphasizing autonomy and responsibility.
At the time, Netflix's stock price fell as its subscriber count declined for the first time in a decade.
Netflix's belief that "the best means of control is autonomy" has been called into question.
Subsequently, reports emerged that Netflix's internal cultural notes had actually been revised.
In a culture of autonomy and responsibility, the weight has shifted towards responsibility.
This case shows that trust is not based on unconditional belief.
It is also predictable that if we move towards eliminating procedures and then creating new ones, trust resources will actually be weakened.

--- p.76, from “Trust Resources: Strategic Resources for Increasing Organizational Speed ​​and Cohesion”

What motivations can we fulfill? This question is especially important when recruiting.
As mentioned earlier, motivation includes various factors such as compensation, personal growth, diverse job opportunities, and professional development.
What an individual values ​​most may be a motivation that our company and team cannot fulfill.
In cases like this, it is better not to hire them no matter how excellent their abilities are.
Because motivation must be good to have a positive impact on the team.
Companies and teams need to be aware of the types of motivation they can foster.
And if there is a motive that cannot be fulfilled, you should coldly give up on hiring.
Even if he is a famous person in the market.
--- p.95, from “Motivation - The driving force of key talents who do well on their own”

The survey titled "What Role Do You Expect from a Leader?" published by Hunet CEO in May 2025 is quite impressive.
The role that the so-called 'MZ Generation', the millennials and Generation Z, most expect from their leaders is 'problem solving and crisis management.'
This is a contrasting result to the baby boomer generation's choice to 'lead innovation and change.'
I think this is a result of the MZ generation's preference for clarity.
In my experience, these people tend to want to be told what they should do and what they can do to be considered good at it.
What's interesting is that older generation leaders, including Generation X, often feel that these people only want autonomy.
But autonomy without clarity is neglect.
Autonomy without process and principles is recklessness.
Neglect and neglect alone cannot create a culture that fosters organizational growth.

--- p.130, from “Clarity _ Don’t Expect Autonomy Without Principles”

My perspective on trends in organizational culture is similar to my perspective on trends in clothing.
Following trends wastes more of your company's budget and forces you to constantly compare yourself to other companies you're benchmarking against.
Organizational culture trends change rapidly whenever the larger macro environment changes.
At this time, the organization's ability to respond greatly depends on whether or not the company truly defines and pursues its own unique culture.
If you value uniqueness, it is easy to flexibly change your culture to suit changes in the external environment.
However, if you blindly follow the culture of other organizations without developing your own unique culture, you have no choice but to wait and see how the companies you benchmark against will respond.
Not only will you be late in responding, you may also miss the golden time to change and manage the culture internally.
--- p.168, from “Uniqueness _ Don’t follow the trendy culture”

How can we boost team morale after a key player leaves? Rather than doing anything special, it's better to faithfully implement the steps discussed above.
First, convey your sincerity to key talent through exit interviews and conduct appropriate events to ensure that offboarding remains a positive memory.
So that the negative impact that the person leaving can have on the team can be minimized.
From now on, it's all ours.
The important thing is communication with your team members.
Continue to recognize the importance of key personnel even after they leave.
Thanks to him, the team's performance was good, and it's a shame to see him leave.
The behavior to avoid the most at this time is to react awkwardly and coolly, such as saying, "Those who want to leave, leave, and those who are left will do their work" or "I don't really care."

--- p.214, from “Onboarding and Offboarding _ A simple welcome, a warm farewell”

Do you think that all groups can, or should, have the same purpose? I believe that each group should have a different purpose.
To explain why, I'd like to look at the purpose of coaching and training and the differences between them.
First of all, the etymology of training, 'Train', means train.
Coaching's 'Coach' is probably well known as a bag brand name, and if you look at its logo, you can see a picture of a carriage.
In the end, you just have to think about the difference between a train and a carriage.
Trains have a set destination because the tracks are already laid along the way, but for carriages, the destination is determined by the customer.
Therefore, training is about making team members perfectly fit into the area where there is an answer key, and coaching is about helping team members find the answer on their own.

--- p.239, from “Leadership _ The Practice of Leadership is People”

In my experience, growth has been the most important factor influencing work engagement.
This tendency is especially strong in startups, as they have less to offer their employees in terms of branding, compensation, and stability compared to large corporations.
Especially with the advent of the AI ​​era, individuals are increasingly required to take on challenging and creative tasks.
In the past, I felt like I had grown simply by performing repetitive, operational tasks well for a long period of time, but now I don't have that opportunity, and I feel like I have to excel at creative tasks to grow.
As such, the growth of members is changing in a direction that is increasingly difficult to achieve.
--- p.269, from “Work Engagement _ Accurately Measure and Manage in Detail”

Research conducted by Google, McKinsey, and others shows that no matter how long and elaborate the interview process is, the accuracy of evaluating candidates is unlikely to exceed 50 percent.
Half of the time, it's bad hiring.
These people may not fit in with the company and may need to go through a process of improvement or even break up.
Because of this, the HR team spends more time than expected preparing and executing member improvement and separation.
This also applies to leaders.
And because of the Ringelmann effect we discussed earlier, one in ten people will inevitably be a bad hire.
You can't say that one person isn't a harmful person.
You might ask, since hiring can never be 100% successful, why not think about it after you've chosen the candidate?
“Absolutely not” is my answer.
Even if we can't be 100 percent accurate, we should always try our best.
Every single detail of effort ensures the growth of the organization.
--- p.289, from “Talent Density _ Minimize Low Performers”

Organizational culture is also a product.
And employees are customers who consume and create this organizational culture together.
Their experience with organizational culture is directly linked to their satisfaction with the organization and the company's performance.
The organizational culture I've been talking about, as a practice rather than a theory, can be achieved through the following experience design.
Only by designing these experiences can we truly meet the requirements for a great organizational culture.
Adding a great business strategy to this will position your organization as a high-performing force in its field.

--- p.305, from “Conclusion: A leader is someone who designs organizational culture”