What the Hell is Accountability?

This is the Chapter 16 of my e-book Silicon Valley for Foreigners, that can be downloaded for free on www.siliconvalleybook.com or purchased for $2.99 on the iBookStore and Kindle. A new chapter will be posted on this blog every week.

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It may sound shocking for readers from developed countries, but the term accountability is virtually unknown in many cultures. In emerging countries, maybe due to the influence of ineffective legal systems, people are not used to being held accountable for their actions if something goes wrong or has an unexpected outcome.

Accountability, as evidence shows, is a great tool to curb corruption and malpractices in governments, organizations, and businesses as it leads to a better corporate governance and improved processes. Accountability and meritocracy usually go hand in hand.

In my experience, no culture takes accountability more seriously in the business setting than Americans (in politics, it is a different story). The concept is built into the fabric of society and, from a young age, kids learn their actions have consequences, and the faster they take responsibility and fix their mistakes, the better the outcome will be.

In Silicon Valley, accountability is fundamental to any startup’s survival as it helps founders to save companies from near death moments more efficiently. It is a common sight to witness entrepreneurs reaching out to their customers, apologizing for blunders or promising changes in their products. Accountability is useful to avoid repeating the same mistake twice and for building a relationship of trust with customers.

There are many examples where this ingrained behavior saved a startup from a death spiral. One of the most interesting cases happened in 2011 with Airbnb, when the startup was crucified by the media after some hosts had their homes vandalized by guests.

Instead of deflecting responsibility and blaming someone else, CEO Brian Chesky took action, apologized to the hosts, paid for the damages, and instituted a complimentary insurance of $1 million dollars to cover any possible future damage by guests. The move was seen as a mature and adequate response that built trust for the Airbnb brand and elevated the reputation of the young CEO. The startup, which is disrupting the hospitality industry, was worth more than $30 billion as of May 2017.

Even CEOs and founders of large tech corporation such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are held to account by their stakeholders from time to time, publicly apologizing to their customers and implementing changes learned from past mishaps. In the worst cases, they might be even removed from power, as happened with Steve Ballmer from Microsoft.

Accountability is not just a cultural trait but also a system devised to make businesses more efficient, dynamic, transparent, and fair. This is one of the best practices from Silicon Valley that any entrepreneur or leader can learn and implement in their internal culture, no matter where in the world they are.