The Gelato culture deck

Innovative

Innovation has always been the core of Gelato. Our eagerness to constantly develop our platform, our network and products helps empower human beings, creators, entrepreneurs and organizations. Our tools bring creativity to life – and into business. Innovation originates from a desire to do better, but also from the fact that time is running out.

We are convinced that most of us want to change the way we consume. Products produced locally, in the amount needed, when they’re needed. This represents the change characterizing the next generation of manufacturing. To drive this transformation, we are problem-solvers. We are executional ninjas. Because we know that change will only come after sharp focus and hard work.

The way we live

At Gelato we enable local, on-demand production on a global scale. So that local communities can produce what local communities need when they need it. That’s the core of what we do.

We represent the world’s largest network for production on-demand. By producing personalized products locally across the globe, reaching billions of people, we take an active part in making the world a slightly better place.

To make this happen, we need a rare breed of people. The kind of people who truly want to win. People that think making a positive change is worth the extra effort. People that want to reach the top while at the same time ensuring strong collaboration with others in the team. Always reminding themselves that reaching the summit is only one milestone on the journey.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the way to do great work is to love what you do. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.

By joining Gelato you make an active choice. A choice that means – for you – the journey is the reward. Together we build a global marketplace with services that other people feel good when using. Services that bring creativity to life – and into business.

We wanted to put into words how we work together and operate in this company, what this team and our mentality are about. In this culture deck, you will read about what we believe are important aspects of Gelato and our culture. How we win and fail as a team. Both are inseparable in the pursuit of change.

Welcome to Gelato!

Travelling like nomadic people

We don’t believe in the lifestyle of settlers. We don’t want to own land or property. We never stay to protect a piece of land that’s no longer fertile. We quickly gather our belongings and move on. We know that we get along by getting along. This is also the reason why we call our suppliers ‘partners’, not suppliers.  

Just like nomadic people, we travel light and fast.  

And just like them, we collaborate and build relationships. Undertaking the nomadic way of life means accepting a level of constant change.  

We seek to constantly evolve. We do not seek the security that society wants us to believe in. You know the “stuff” that many of our teachers and some of our parents told us when we grow up. We are not saying that’s right; we are simply saying that’s how we think.  

These are all reasons for why we do not believe in owning fixed assets.  

Time is our scarcest resource

The feeling of comfort is often an illusion and a consequence of mediocre goals.  

If you want to change the world, you need to set your own rules. You need to accept being misunderstood for a long period of time.  

If our ambition is to rethink production at a global scale,  thereby empowering local communities to produce what they consume… we have a lot of work ahead of us! 

Making this world a bit of a better place takes time. In order to deliver on our vision, we therefore have to ‘bend’ the concept of time.  

To guide us after we set aggressive goals, we are guided by our ‘3Ds’. They are: Discipline, Details, and Deadlines. All three words sit at the heart of how we operate.  

With clear deadlines we naturally upgrade our discipline. We do our best work when we are in the moment and focused. With clear deadlines our focus is translated into discipline. Discipline completes plans. 

With deadlines combined with the necessary discipline, all the necessary details will surface. When we combine the 3Ds, we move fast. We tend to move faster than most other companies you have experienced or operated in.  

We know that time is our scarcest resource. Therefore, we need to work smart. We need to seek access to existing knowledge and experience. By not having to reinvent the wheel, we are able to move faster. We can scale faster.  

The speed we gain and the pain we avoid by connecting to the outside world continues to feed our curiosity. Our curiosity leads us to constantly seek and find the latest knowledge and connect to the most relevant and valuable experience. 

The power of deadlines

We have already touched upon our 3Ds. But the importance of deadlines stands out. Here’s why. 

If you dread deadlines, you’re thinking about them all wrong. Deadlines are there so that you can prioritize effectively. Deadlines will help you navigate to the most important. Deadlines will naturally establish focus. Deadlines can make it easier for all of us to assess workload and link it to available resources. Deadlines will remove ‘fuzz’.  

Many teams and organizations feel good about their progress because they subjectively believe they are moving fast. That assessment of speed is an illusion. The outside world defines speed. 

When you’re not understanding what is happening around you – in Shanghai, in Mumbai, in São Paulo, in Tokyo, and in other important clusters around the world – you are easily fooled into believing that you’re much faster than you truly are. (Another reason why connecting to the outside world is so important.) 

In short, we always push to move faster and faster and with greater and greater accuracy.  

Conclusion: we are not the definition of speed of innovation. We are a consequence of it. 

Customers will always be eager to access better and more sustainable alternatives. Thus, operating under a strict time regime is necessary in order to earn the trust and loyalty of customers, the market, our investors – and ourselves. In the end, it’s the customer who decides on the winner.  

Deadlines that are clearly articulated have a funny way of instilling discipline and nurturing our ability to say no. Clear deadlines support the organization in building what doesn’t exist today. Clear deadlines make us complete things, not just start them. Clear deadlines make it evident to everyone involved that you can’t go for perfection. 

In the world of the innovator, perfection doesn’t exist. Deadlines help you see this.

The three fundamentals of leadership in Gelato

There are three signs of great leadership and teamwork.

1. If you do not know – raise your hand and say, “I do not know.”

2. If you make a mistake – raise your hand. and say, “I am sorry, but I made a mistake.”

3. If you need help – raise your hand and say, “I need your help.”

It’s perfectly fine not to know something. No one expects you to know everything. If they do, then they need to be much more realistic in their expectation of people’s skills and knowledge. How you deal with lack of knowledge is what will define you. In our world, admitting you do not know is a sign of strength.

Apologizing is often considered embarrassing – a confession that you made a mistake. We disagree. Saying you’re sorry can save a huge amount of time and frustration and build momentum both inside our company as well as towards our customers.

Few of us enjoy asking for help. Research in neuroscience shows that asking for help activates the same brain regions that physical pain does. However, it’s virtually impossible to advance in modern organizations without assistance from others.

In the late 90s, Sugata Mitra made a hole in the wall of his office building in New Delhi. With only a computer screen and mousepad for use by local slum kids. A few months afterwards the children solved complicated physics and explained
 Photosynthesis.