Culture Crash: How CrowdStrike’s Culture Elevated Risks
Widespread, large-scale outages caused by a technical problem in a CrowdStrike software update on Friday paralyzed operations across the world, prompting an array of questions about the company’s operational capacity. How was such a catastrophically consequential issue seemingly overlooked? As it turns out, the answer is easily found simply by listening to CrowdStrike employees, who describe rapid growth challenges, process and structure issues, workplace stress, a fear of retaliation and a lack of reporting avenues for workplace concerns.
At Aniline, we’ve seen time and again that culture ultimately drives risk, and when stakeholders keep their finger on the cultural pulse of an organization, they can anticipate and mitigate critical risks.
In the case of CrowdStrike, we used Aniline’s AI reporting feature, Smart Briefs, to generate tailored risk assessments of the organization, zeroing in on the most likely cultural culprits for this massive misstep. These detailed reports identify several underlying conditions that likely laid the foundation for this massive misstep. Here are some report excerpts identifying critical issues:
Challenges with Rapid Growth: Several comments indicate that Crowdstrike's rapid expansion has led to growing pains, including stretched teams and a need for better processes. The rapid growth of the company has led to disorganization, with unclear processes and ownership, contributing to a sense of chaos and frustration.
Process and Structure Issues: Employees have noted issues related to internal processes, compliance policies, and organizational changes. These factors can create inefficiencies and slow down operations, especially in a fast-paced industry where agility is key.
“The processes are fundamentally broken, advancement is unachievable for most, we have more work than anyone should realistically expect, and ultimately the customers pay the price.” - Employee review
Workplace Stress: Multiple employee perceptions highlight a high-pressure environment, with references to the need to "get used to the pressure" and instances of burnout. This suggests that workplace stress could be a significant issue, potentially leading to health problems for employees if not adequately managed.
Fear of Retaliation and Lack of Reporting Avenues: The fear of retaliation and the perceived lack of safe avenues for reporting security or privacy concerns could hinder the company's ability to detect and address vulnerabilities promptly.
“As far as I'm aware, there's no other avenues for reporting events like [mistreatment of employees] that don't involve me risking my job any further.” - Employee review
In today's complex business environment, proactively cultivating a keen awareness of organizational dynamics is a strategic imperative. By embedding a cultural lens into risk assessment processes, companies can pinpoint potential pitfalls and foster an environment conducive to proactive risk management and resilient operations.
Learn how Aniline’s platform enables risk assessment through a cultural lens. Check out CrowdStrike’s Internal Risk Assessment or its Vendor Risk Assessment to read the full reports in detail.
