Building a Corporate Culture from the Ground Up with Pete Miles of Miles Performance Consulting

The culture of a company is like its emotional lifeblood. It is an unseen force which guides and influences the key interactions between the people who keep a business running. The tone and temperature of those interactions fuel the productivity of the employees, and thus the success of the company. Good chemistry and culture can bring great results to the bottom line, while a toxic environment can sink even the biggest company.

Pete Miles is no stranger to this fact. As an executive for Visionary Automotive Group, he sees this fact in motion every day, but the impact of Corporate Culture is something he has witnessed throughout his career. Before his current position at Visionary Automotive Group, Pete held executive positions at BMW, Rolls Royce, and Land Rover North America, in addition to his time at Miles Performance Coaching & Consulting.

Join Will Scott as he sits down with Pete to discuss where he learned the real-world lessons about the importance of Corporate Culture, its effects on the bottom line of a company, and when it is appropriate to take your company’s values downstream to the customer. Pete also shares some memorable experiences from his life and career which shaped his opinions about how to maintain a strong culture in the workplace.

 
 

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In this episode, you will learn:

  • [01:40] Some background on Pete and his career

  • [03:10] What does Corporate Culture mean to Pete?

  • [04:15] The role of Feelings in the culture of a company

  • [05:42] Why Corporate Culture is important, and how it affects your bottom line

  • [07:30] How Land Rover North America helped shape Pete’s views on the importance of Culture in the success of a business

  • [12:29] When it is appropriate to apply Corporate Culture to customers

  • [15:30] Applying the Core Values of a company to every aspect of its operations

  • [18:00] The importance of remembering Core Values in the act of customer service

  • [22:45] How to implement Core Values in the early stages of a company

  • [24:35] The investment into making Core Values is small, but the ROI can have far-reaching impacts

  • [26:15] The pitfalls of ignoring the culture of a company


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Episode Transcript:

Speaker 1:           From core values to valued culture, here is your host, Will Scott, interviewing another CEO about leading culture in their company.

Will Scott:           Welcome everybody, to another of our CEO interviews, where we interview CEOs about their corporate culture. Here at Culture Czars, we want to help employees feel like they make a meaningful contribution to the work they do, and feel valued. We do this by encouraging companies to not just have core values, but to truly have a valued culture.

Will Scott:           We're en route to creating 2020 Czars by 2020, and today we're interviewing Culture Czar Pete Miles of Miles Performance Consulting. He and I are friends, known each other for a long time, actually went to college together a long time ago, didn't we, Pete? In the UK.

Will Scott:           So I'm going to let Pete go ahead and introduce himself, and his illustrious career in the automotive industry, with brands like BMW and Rolls Royce. Really excited to get Pete's insight on culture today, he's worked at big and small. And Pete, go ahead and tell us a little bit about your career, and how you got to where you are today.

Pete Miles:         Hi, Will. By the way, it's good to be here, and good to talk to you again. And as you mentioned, we started off, hate to mention it, 35 years ago.

Will Scott:           You did, you had to mention it, didn't you?

Pete Miles:         (laughter)

Will Scott:           Cheers, mate.

Pete Miles:         I had to mention it. Retired at the grand old age of 55, and started a new venture in what I call Modern Automotive Retailing, under the umbrella Visionary Automotive Group, which is a private capital company that's investing in automotive retail from the ground up. So we're involved in investing in new add point premium franchises, and very importantly, setting a new standard for the culture in those organizations, and the operations away from the traditional automotive retail model.

Pete Miles:         So a long way from John Deere tractors, these days.

Will Scott:           So everything from commercial equipment, agriculture equipment, you've done a startup in Africa, you have a pilot's license, and you worked ... you mentioned Ford, Land Rover, BMW, and Rolls Royce. So pretty breadth there, and you've probably seen all kinds of corporate cultures in doing that.

Will Scott:           But ... so as you kind of go into ... Thanks very much for the introduction. What, when we talk about corporate culture, what does that mean to you?

Pete Miles:         I wouldn't say I started off having a particular perspective on this. It means why people are here, in your company of people, and how they will do, what they will do, because really that culture affects the feeling that people have. Whether it's within the company, or the people that they interact with from a consumer perspective, or B to B.

Pete Miles:         So in that sense, it's the why, how, and what engine room of, I would say of any business.

Will Scott:           Yeah, interesting that you should use the word 'feeling.' I had an interview just like this with a different CEO earlier today, and she also talked early on about, it's a feeling. And do you think CEO's and leaders of companies pay enough attention to feelings, and the way the employees feel? And then they are born to that, or the softer side of business, or is it all about, you know, the bottom line?

Pete Miles:         Well I think the answer to that question is as diverse as the industry or the leader of that corporation that exists. So I think it's everything from one end to the other. I think culture is, corporate culture is extremely important to some companies, and I think a lot of time when you have mature companies they can fall into two camps, too. It can be a very strong culture that they refer to because they recognize it as leading to the success of their business. Or it could be much weaker because the company generally feels that their products speak for themselves, and it's less about how they do, what they do, than just the desire for the products.

Pete Miles:         So I think really the range varies. But I think the value of very well defined and leveraged core values or corporate culture is extremely powerful to being, to outperforming your competition.

Will Scott:           Yeah. Would you say that managing your culture is as important as managing the brand, or the product strategy? I mean will you rank managing culture with managing, say, product strategy or brand management? I mean, how important is it?

Pete Miles:         Well I think it's ... to me, it's one of, if not the most important thing, because it's sort of the fabric, the prioritization, and the context behind which you do everything. Like inside the check and balance for how you do things. There's an expression, there's 101 ways to skin a cat, maybe that isn't the best one to use in America. But there's always a different way of doing things. The way that's most effective is the one the one that's getting you compound interest. Like on everything you're doing, or the bigger the organization the more important it becomes, so there's a sort of consistency to the way you do things that is consistent with your product, whether it's a service or otherwise.

Pete Miles:         So I think, certainly my experience, culture or core values or company values are not always at the top of the priority in terms of the overall strategy. So I think a lot of companies, the strategy revolves around the long, medium and short term view of the financial strategy of the business, not so much the people strategy. The software. So, hardware more than the software.

Will Scott:           Right, right. And of course, the thesis too, that if you don't manage your culture, specifically, you'll end up with a default culture, whatever it sort of morphs into. And so, just again emphasizing the importance of managing culture to get the outcome that you want. Why not? Why not have a culture that you love, as opposed to one that just develops by default?

Pete Miles:         Yeah, really you want one that's energizing for everybody that's involved with the brand, so to speak, of the business. You know, one of the things I found fascinating when I first came to the US and joined Land Rover North America, they used to have an expression about, when you went through their training internally or externally, "We're going to take the brain out and put the Land Rover cabbage in."

Pete Miles:         And this was one of my first exposures to at least a brand that had a very powerful culture, and set of core values. But really, they wanted you to leave behind everything you knew before, and not that what they were going to instill in you was so fundamentally different, but it revolved around, the processes revolved around their company core values.

Pete Miles:         And that led, and was taught in any curriculum, internally and externally, and if you didn't fit in that, if it wasn't your kind of learning thus far to joining, you didn't last that long. Because you didn't fit.

Will Scott:           That's a great example of the stuff that we kind of preach at Culture Czars. How did the Land Rover do that, and who was the champion of that, and made it part of recruitment through people getting fired?

Pete Miles:         Well, so in terms of the process, to arrive at the core values, that was done before I got there. But in terms of their process, I mean it started off having developed core values for the brand, which for them was guts, authenticity, supremacy, individualism, and guts. So that's, they're probably one of the few companies I've worked for, of the many, that actually had very clearly defined values.

Pete Miles:         And the principal of how to leverage those things was, in any process, or any changes that you were making, where if something wasn't working in a process and you needed make it more efficient or more effective, or reduce the overhead costs, or whatever you were trying to apply to it, any changes you were making to the way the company functioned, you had check against, are we making gutsy decisions, or are we making an easy decision? Are we tailing the process or the system to the individual needs of our customers? Supremacy, in that sense, was about the capability of the vehicle, but it was also about the quality of the solution.

Pete Miles:         So, those values, whatever curriculum they were teaching, part of meetings, where if you were having a management meeting, or any kind of meeting with other people to solve problems, or look for ways of producing more profit, or happier customers, the core values were the acid test. Does that resonate with some or all of our core values? And if it didn't, or if the argument was against it, you didn't do it that way. You'd have to keep looking for a better solution.

Pete Miles:         So it's from the top down, bottom up, it was part of the thinking.

Will Scott:           So you clearly remember very well at Land Rover, which was several years ago now, but the memory is strong in your mind, and the fact that you use words like 'guts,' you know in everyday language, shows the core values were really truly a part of the living culture.

Pete Miles:         Well it's one of those things where for me, going through business life in different countries and different areas of even the US, you kind of, if you're open minded and you're looking for solutions, or you're looking to grow businesses, or grow customer bases, you're always trying to learn what's effective. And I remember in the first year, certainly at Land Rover as a business, I remember thinking, "God, if only I had known what I'm recognizing here, as valuable principals to running a business, or growing a business." And that's why it sticks with me so much.

Pete Miles:         And I can tell you, in some aspects of developing a corporate culture, they're one of the best I've seen, on the one hand. On the other hand, maybe the execution, when you look back, could be better. And some companies who don't have such clear cultural values may be better at system and processes change anyway, to produce greater results.

Pete Miles:         But certainly when you can get the right people working in a consistent direction to affect the relationship with your customers, then I think it's extremely important.

Will Scott:           So did you extend the culture downstream to the customers?

Pete Miles:         Yes, again, if I contrast with different business situation, that's not always true. But if you say, how is having an effective culture the most impactful? Then it has to flow in all directions. People have to feel like they're part of it, and want to be part of it.

Pete Miles:         And so, and yes in those instances with Land Rover as a particular brand, then there customer events that were conducted, much more so than in other businesses I've seen, that ...Again, those mark values were part ... the consumer facing parts of them having some fun. Because actually the mark value that I missed, or the core value that I missed, was fun. (laughter) Right?

Pete Miles:         Too, so yes, it was really through any interaction, internally and externally, there was some leg that was exposing people, generally, to-

Will Scott:           That's absolutely fantastic. And the proof is in the pudding, it works. At Culture Czars, we like to say, to encourage leaders to think of themselves leading a culture, not just a company, so they really are extending the culture and the core values and so one beyond simply the four walls of the company. Downstream to customers, upstream to vendors. And now you're leading something much more big and purposeful than simply a company. And of course, you're hopefully working with people that fit and you're selling to people that fit.

Will Scott:           And I know the Land Rover Experience was a term that was used, right, throughout everything as well, including the dealer-

Pete Miles:         Yeah, Land Rover Way, actually, is what the stock definition was for everything, we do it the Land Rover Way. And if somebody said, "Well, what's the Land Rover Way?" Or "What's-" And I think it's true for any business, somebody should be able to ask what's your way of doing business? Besides what's the product that you sell, or service. And that's really the mortar between the bricks, I think, in a lot of businesses.

Pete Miles:         And it's the effect of compound interest. You get a lot of people thinking this, in a similar way. When there's, there's always a 360 degrees direction you can go in, with business or as an individual. And this actually helps corral the thinking into a more defined channel, focus.

Speaker 4:           And learn from reminders.

Will Scott:           Is there a specific story that you remember, that you can share with us from Land Rover. When somebody used a core value to make a point, or?

Pete Miles:         There's actually so many, it would be hard to pick on one, specifically off the top of my head, other than the recollection that on so many occasions, when you were discussing solutions, that you would either be asked how it fits in with our company's core values, and you'd have to ... Because you know, when you have five things that you're saying represent a company, whether it's trust, as an example, and you're developing a warranty system, or a customer service experience, how does that resonate with trust?

Pete Miles:         And so, in those instances, in an instance like that, it would basically be that instead of leading to the escalated, to solve a customer issue, that the person facing the customer could have the flexibility to decide how and what to do there. So whether it was a potential cost of 50 dollars or 5000 dollars, that they had the responsibility to actually solve that problem quickly.

Pete Miles:         Whereas in other companies, I could tell you, you'd have to go through a whole escalation and sign-off process for that. But it depends upon having the right people in the right places. So if you don't, then you can't open a checkbook app to say, "It's your decision, you're the one listening to the facts, so just do whatever is right."

Pete Miles:         But if you know you've got people that carry that burden of responsibility on their shoulders to be diligent, as well as recognizing the culture and values of the customer, then it's okay. That kind of example was typical. And then, another place I could give you the converse of that, for some of those things. So, yeah.

Will Scott:           Yeah, actually please do that. Feel free to go ahead and tell us an experience in one of your other companies that you've worked in.

Pete Miles:         Well, just to keep in the theme of customer service, you know in other brands, and I'm not going to mention which ones they are, necessarily. But you would if the customer had an issue, and they might come through to me at some point, as when I was more senior in a company, you'd hear the terrible experience that somebody had had, and wonder how it had got so out of control. And when you dig into it, there would be bottlenecks, checks and balances along the escalation process, depending on how severe it was.

Pete Miles:         Which in a sense, when you think about it, the worse experience you've had, the more you've had to go through to get the bigger, not necessarily compensation, but reaction that's relevant to the level of poor experience that you had. The harder you had to work for it as a customer.

Pete Miles:         So in that sense, a lot of businesses, as part of ... certainly bigger companies set up a lot of policies in place to protect things from going wrong. So, checks and balances. But at the same time, they can often be speed bumps that are actually inconsistent with-

Will Scott:           Absolutely.

Pete Miles:         The values of the company. And then, you're either excusing them because it's company policy, or you're challenging them because it's not serving the customer and one of the core values of the business. Now, if you don't have a core value that's trust or service, then it doesn't matter. You can say you want to have customer satisfaction and loyalty, but it's actually not something that the systems all have to resonate with and support that business, because you haven't got it as a core value.

Will Scott:           Yeah, no, I completely understand that. I think it's probably harder in larger companies to have core values, and be consistent with them throughout the organization without those checks and balances. But for sure, if you can be consistent, and can core values, and act according to them, which really is the only way, then the company is going to perform better. And the customer is going to get better service.

Pete Miles:         Well, everything gets better when you have a well-defined values for business. Because this is same as if you have a person, if you don't notice what they are, individually, and you don't notice what they are, or recognize what they could be, as a company, then it's every employee and person for themselves, based on their judgment.

Pete Miles:         So it may be that it's similar, but it may be that it's quite different. And without getting a similarity to the way you build systems, processes, grow sales, service customer base, you're losing time. And potentially not making the most effective use of resource. And that's why I think it's so important to have. Certainly in bigger companies, you know a lot of the smaller companies, when you think of companies like Apple, or Google, you know the ones, Starbucks and so on. When they were originally started, the entrepreneur had a vision, but they also had a view about how to deliver that vision.

Pete Miles:         A lot of bigger corporations have grown up in quite a different way, or those original founding fathers of that business, those core values somewhere along the line may have just become less of a focus. And then getting back is hard, because the more people you have the more chance you have that you've hired people, and maybe formed habits that are consistent with their own values, but not necessarily the values of the company.

Pete Miles:         So to go back in and fix that, if you want to get exceptional performance from a business, is quite tough. Because you have to hope, in a way, that not only you can rekindle those values, but that you can establish them. And then get everybody to buy into them. And accept that you're going to have to change some things, if the habits that the company's formed on, consistent with the values. So it's, you know, the devil and the deep blue sea.

Will Scott:           So, if you were to be starting a new company today, or going into a small, let's say, I don't know, a 100 person company or something, and culture was one of the first things you were going to address, assuming they didn't have any core values, what would you do? How would you start working with that group?

Pete Miles:         Well, for us in this particular phase of my business life that I'm in, it's critically important. But the good news is, we start with a blank sheet of paper, because these are ground up startups. So they are big businesses nevertheless, that will be over 100 million dollars in revenue. But in that sense, it makes it easier in a way, to not only have establish what our core values are for the business the way we want to do business, but recruit people into key positions and to have a company that ... Like feeding them to them, but actually be able to identify those people that have similar values. Value the same things.

Pete Miles:         And so that's kind of a very different thing that gives us a huge advantage. And I think for any small business that's growing, you're in a much stronger position with a smaller group of people, to get to being a bigger company. So we've gotten very clearly defined, and so that everybody as they come onboard will understand the mission to our customers, and how we expect them to conduct themselves.

Pete Miles:         And that goes from the top down, bottom up, and also for the systems and processes that are being developed.

Will Scott:           Yeah, that's very true. I like to remind people that culture is actually one of the few things where you can make a relatively small investment, it doesn't cost a lot to do what you just said, define the core values and communicate those throughout your new organization. Compared to what you're putting in to buildings and inventory and all of that, it's a very small expense, right?

Pete Miles:         Yeah, really it's simply, in that sense it's back to finding what you do, and how you do it, and then do what you say. So it's not really, it doesn't have to be cumbersome. And as I said, in terms of whether any business has to respect a P&L account, it's how you go about tacking those things on, driving enough top line on, producing enough bottom line. In that sense it's part of using a filter to how you accelerate to where you want to go, and manage the business as you are going. It brings a consistency to it.

Pete Miles:         And it's like the power of marketing, in that sense. The ultimate driving machine. You know in that sense, there's a brand value, not necessarily a core value, but in that instance the goal is to have everybody who thinks BMW think "The ultimate driving machine."

Pete Miles:         And so, a culture of business is the same thing. When people think about a certain ... your business, my business, is to have them be able to say what it means, that is consistent with your core values. And then you know, you're successful instilling it in your business when people recognize it, and the experience.

Will Scott:           So based on the experiences that you've had, these different companies with culture, what advice would you give to our subscribers around having a defined culture, and how that can help them, their business, succeed?

Pete Miles:         Well, my advice on this is simple. Ignore developing a clear set of core values, and developing a culture in your organization that you'll be proud of, at your peril. So it doesn't mean things will necessarily always go bad, people may not have got well-defined core values or a well-defined culture that they can see based on those core values in their company.

Pete Miles:         But what I can almost certainly guarantee you is, you won't be getting the best out of your business, the best out of your people, and the best out of your customers if you don't have one. It's virtually impossible to do that.

Pete Miles:         So yeah, I would say, ignore them at your peril. Recruit and retain people based on those core values. There's a saying, goes "Garbage in, garbage out," so it's not that people are bad, whatever really works in the company. But if their programming thus far is out of line with the spirit and means of which you go about your business, it's going to be a wonky wheel. And retain. So, you know that's also about making sure that people are retained, trained. Because you'll have a much less stressful environment in a company that has a consistency to it around the core values so it becomes more fun.

Pete Miles:         So, I would say, ignore it at your peril.

Will Scott:           That's awesome advice, thank you very much. And thanks again for being a part of the Culture Czars series of CEO interviews. Great insights from your interesting and varied career. Definitely going to go and look up that Land Rover case study, that sounds like they did a really great job there.

Will Scott:           And congrats on your success, and wishing you all the best with your new ventures. Thank you, Peter.

Pete Miles:         Well it's been my pleasure, and thank you. And wish all your viewers a successful future with their business and getting as much as they can out of creating their own culture in their organization to be proud of.

Will Scott:           Thank you. And maybe we'll check in with you again, when your new ventures have been around a little while. See how you're doing.

Pete Miles:         Yeah, we're expecting to grow pretty rapidly, so look forward to doing that and giving you a progress report.

Will Scott:           Okay. Well, thank you very much.

 

William Scott