Exceptional Culture
How Don Alfaro Built a Creative Ecosystem Where Humanity, Rigor, and Honor Are the Brief
An independent agency from Ecuador proves that culture is not a benefit you offer—it is the standard you hold, every day, in leadership, in collaboration, and in the work itself.
Company
Don Alfaro
Contact
Sime Grzunov, CEO
Industry
Creative Marketing
Location
Quito, Ecuador
Overview
Freedom and Structure, Side by Side
At Don Alfaro, culture is not a perk—it is a philosophy. For CEO Sime Grzunov, a good culture balances humanity, rigor, and honor. It is a culture where people feel heard, respected, and supported, but also challenged to grow and deliver their best work.
For a creative agency, that balance is especially critical. Great ideas need both freedom and structure—and culture is what holds those two forces in productive tension. A strong culture is not just about how people feel inside the agency; it is about how those values show up in the work, in leadership, and in the way people treat each other every day.
Why Agency Workplaces
An Objective Mirror for a Creative Team
Don Alfaro partnered with Agency Workplaces because they want to keep building a stronger, healthier, and more intentional culture. As a creative agency, their greatest value comes from their people—their ideas, their collaboration, and their energy. The program offered an objective way to listen to the team, understand where the agency stands today, and identify what needs to improve.
For Grzunov and the Don Alfaro team, this was never only about certification. It was about strengthening a creative ecosystem guided by humanity, rigor, and honor—one where people can grow and great work can thrive.
What We Learned
Strong Foundation, Intentional Care Required
The program confirmed what Don Alfaro believed about itself: the agency has a powerful creative spirit, a committed team, and a real sense of purpose. But it also surfaced something equally important—that a good culture requires active, ongoing care. Clearer communication, stronger structure, better feedback loops, and consistent leadership habits don’t just happen. They are built, deliberately.
The biggest learning was that a healthy creative culture needs both freedom and clarity. People need space to create, but they also need alignment and support to do their best work. The tension between those two things is not a problem to solve—it is a dynamic to manage, intentionally, every day.
What's Next
Turning Feedback Into Concrete Action
1 | Analyze the program data carefully and use it as the foundation for concrete decisions—not a report to file away. |
2 | Connect more deeply with collaborators to understand their experience and identify specific areas for improvement. |
3 | Translate feedback into better leadership practices and culture initiatives that strengthen the creative ecosystem. |
4 | Treat this process as the beginning of a more intentional approach to listening and improving—not the end of a certification cycle. |
Tips for Building Great Culture
Lessons From the Trenches
Build culture intentionally, every day. It does not happen on its own—it is the result of consistent decisions made at every level of the agency.
• Start with listening. Good culture begins with genuinely hearing the team and having the discipline to turn that feedback into action.
• Make your values tangible. Collaboration, respect, rigor, and care should show up in how you communicate, how you give feedback, and how you make decisions—not just in what you say you believe.
• Balance high standards with human care. People should feel challenged to do great work, but also supported, respected, and part of something meaningful.
• Creativity needs freedom, but it also needs clarity and structure. Culture is what holds those forces in productive tension.
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