the short version
- Small firms usually stop growing at the size the owner can see every day. Past that, staff stop knowing what the boss is thinking.
- Anthropic hit the same wall. Its answer was to write the boss’s thinking down and share it on a fixed rhythm, with an open channel for questions.
- An SME can copy the habits. It can’t copy the money, the pay or the market, so don’t try.
what he does
From a Fortune piece on Dario Amodei, who started Anthropic in 2021 with a small group who had worked together before. His sister Daniela runs the company day to day as President.
- his time
“A third, maybe 40%” goes to culture
As the company grew he stopped weighing in on every technical and product call. His job became keeping people pointed the same way.
- every 2 weeks
He reads out a document he wrote
About an hour, from three or four pages: strategy, the industry, what worries him. Then questions. Staff call it “DVQ”, short for Dario Vision Quest.
- all week
He answers questions in writing
An open channel on Slack where anyone can ask, and where he shares his thinking between the big sessions.
- how he talks
Plain words, real problems
No “corpo speak”. Staff hear what is going wrong as well as what is going right.
- who he hires
People he can trust
Trust is what lets leaders say what they think without filtering it.
- his test
Three questions
Do people want to work here? Are the mission and values clear? Is everyone pulling the same way, or against each other?
why small firms stall
- the owner holds it all
A study of Singapore SMEs (Wee and Chua, 2013) found the owner is usually the main source of the company’s know-how and the only person who keeps it moving.
- the boss is also HR
Staff in a CNA report (Feb 2026) described no HR channel, job scope that kept growing and pay rises at the boss’s discretion. SME groups say firms skip formal HR to stay quick and save cash.
- trust runs on proximity
In a small team everyone sits close and covers for each other. Grow past what the owner can see, and that stops working. Nothing replaces it.
- handovers
Family-business research often cited in Singapore says about 30% of family firms reach the second generation and about 12% the third.
Where the two meet. Anthropic’s document and open channel stand in for the daily contact a founder can no longer give everyone. Most SMEs never build that stand-in, so the company stays the size of the owner’s reach.
five habits to copy
-
1 · your time
Move from doing the work to keeping people aligned
- at Anthropic
- Up to 40% of the CEO’s time.
- your version
- Half a day a week, blocked out, for people and not operations.
- watch out
- That half day is the first thing a busy week eats. Put it in the calendar like a customer meeting.
-
2 · write it down
Put your thinking on one page
- at Anthropic
- Three or four pages, read out every two weeks.
- your version
- One page a month: where we are, what’s hard, what’s next. Read it at the monthly meeting, in Mandarin, Malay or Bahasa too if your team needs it.
- watch out
- What lives only in your head leaves when you’re not in the room.
-
3 · tell the truth
Share the real numbers and your own mistakes
- at Anthropic
- Staff hear about direction and problems, unfiltered.
- your version
- Share the order book, the customer you lost, the tight month. Own up to a mistake before you ask anyone else to.
- watch out
- Blunt talk misfires in a team that values face and seniority. Talk about the problem, never the person. Give staff a way to raise things that is truly anonymous; the CNA report has a worker asked to leave after a low rating on an “anonymous” survey.
-
4 · trust, then hand over
Write down what staff can decide without you
- at Anthropic
- Hire people you trust, so you can step back from day-to-day calls.
- your version
- SMEs already hire on trust: relatives, old colleagues. Then every quote and purchase order still goes through the boss. List the decisions staff can make alone, with a limit on each.
- watch out
- Trust you never use doesn’t free up any of your time.
-
5 · values that bite
Three values, each tested on a hard case
- at Anthropic
- A clear mission everyone can repeat.
- your version
- Test each value with one question: what do we do if our biggest customer asks us to cut a corner?
- watch out
- Values get tested when money is on the line. Anthropic itself dropped a safety pledge this year, citing competition.
the team to build
- a real #2
Someone who runs operations with real authority, the way Daniela Amodei runs Anthropic. In a family firm this is often the first manager from outside the family.
- split the hats
One owner each for finance, people, operations and sales. A firm in the CNA report has five co-founders who each own an area, so staff know which boss to go to.
- supervisors who teach
Team leads who show new staff how the work is done and check in on them, not just hand out tasks.
- one open channel
A WhatsApp or Teams group where you answer questions in writing. The answer is still there next month for the person who joins after.
what doesn’t carry over, and what to doubt
- Anthropic had billions in funding, very well paid researchers and a market growing faster than almost any other. Copy the habits, not the scale.
- The culture claims are the CEO’s own view of his company. The article has no proof that culture caused the growth. A strong product and good timing may explain more of it.
- This is one very successful company. Plenty of firms hold all-hands meetings and still fail.
Source: “Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei spends 40% of his time on culture, not AI”, Fortune ↗ (interview from Feb 2026, republished 17 Oct 2026). SME findings from Wee and Chua (2013) and CNA, Feb 2026 ↗.
I use Anthropic’s Claude every day and shaped this page with it. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic, Fortune or CNA.