Every company has a culture, whether it has deliberately built one or not.
You see it in how people communicate when things are going well, but especially when they are not. In the decisions made when nobody is watching. In how someone new is welcomed, how knowledge is shared and what happens when a colleague needs help. At Managing Composites our culture has grown alongside the company: across teams, locations, engineering disciplines and increasingly ambitious projects. We wanted a simple way to explain what holds all of that together. And because we are an engineering company and apparently cannot resist building things, we turned it into a house. We call it OUR CULTURE HOUSE.
MC Culture House
Built from the ground up.
Like any structure worth building, our Culture House needs more than a good-looking design. The MC Culture House is a simple model for explaining what our company is built on: our values, our mission and vision, the way we work and the ambition we share.
Foundations are our values.
they may not always be visible, but they support everything that comes afterwards. They guide the choices we make and help the house stay standing through pressure, change and growth.
Floors are our mission and vision. They give us common ground and help us understand what we are building together, where we want to take it and why it matters.
Columns represent how we work. How we communicate, collaborate, challenge ideas, ask for support, share knowledge and respond when things get difficult. They are the behaviours that turn good intentions into something real… And the roof is our dream, the company we want MC to become and the ambition that keeps us looking ahead.
It is a useful image, but the drawing is not the important part. Because culture is not built by HR, it is built by all of us, every day. Culture is what happens when nobody calls it culture.Talking about company culture is easy. Making it visible in how a company actually behaves is much harder. No policy can create genuine care between people. HR can provide tools, design processes, listen and support. But the most important part of culture is created in the relationships we build with one another.
Managing Composites team members during the annual Casa Rural.
Why the Casa Rural matters
Most of our collaboration happens remotely. That allows us to work across different locations, bring together people with different experiences and give our teams more flexibility in how they organise their working lives. It also means that many of our daily interactions have a clear purpose. We join a call to discuss a project, solve a problem, make a decision or agree on the next steps. Then the call finishes and everyone returns to their own corner of MC. Efficient? Absolutely. Soulless? No Thanks!
That is one of the reasons behind our annual Casa Rural. It gives us space to step away from our usual routines and spend time with people from different teams, offices and parts of the business. Colleagues who normally meet through scheduled calls or email threads can have conversations without an agenda and discover more about the person behind the role.
For those who have recently joined, it is a chance to understand MC beyond an onboarding presentation.
For those who have been part of the journey for longer, it is an opportunity to reconnect, meet the people who are shaping the next chapter and see how the company is evolving.
And for everyone, it is a reminder that we are not working on separate islands. Different roles, projects and locations are all contributing to the same thing.
Astronomy class during the MC Casa Rural retreat
Connection matters. Context does too.
Being together matters, but the Casa Rural IS NOT ONLY about creating personal connections. If we want people to feel genuinely part of MC, we need to understand the bigger picture: where the company stands, what challenges we are facing, what decisions are being made and what we are trying to achieve next.
That means talking honestly about progress, priorities and uncertainty. And it means making space for questions, including the uncomfortable ones. This is another essential part of our Culture House.
Trust cannot be announced or added to a list of values. It grows when people have access to real context, feel able to speak openly and know their questions will be taken seriously. Not every answer will be simple. Sometimes we will not have the answer yet. But building something together requires the confidence to talk about the parts that are still unfinished.
Managing Composites team together at the annual Casa Rural
Growing without becoming ordinary
MC is growing, and growth inevitably brings change. The goal is not to protect the past or expect everything to remain exactly as it was. Growth should change us. New colleagues bring different experiences, perspectives and ideas that can make MC better. The challenge is to grow without becoming ordinary, predictable or beige.
OUR CULTURE HOUSE IS THEREFORE NOT A FINISHED BUILDING. There will always be something that needs attention. Some parts will have to change as the company does. New rooms will be needed; old assumptions will be challenged. We want to keep growing. We want to take on more ambitious challenges; build things we are proud of and keep proving what our teams can do. And we also want MC to remain a place where people know they matter, understand what they are contributing to and feel that the project belongs, at least partly, to them.
The house is not finished. Good.
Finished would mean standing still… And that has never really been our thing.
We do cool sh*t, together.