Wow.

But he was just a fantastic partner of mine, and his commitment to me is, "Once it's clear, James, that the turnaround is underway, I'll step down, we'll make you chair, and then you'll get a chance to formulate the board." His investment company had three seats, including his seat, and they were true to their word.

Once we were on a path about a year into turning around and transforming the company, he stepped down, I was appointed chair, and we started to reformulate the, the, the board.

We had really, really, uh, at that moment, a, a really fantastic board.

I was able to add a couple really great board members to kind of complement and round out what we were hoping to be able to do.

And really essential to the turnaround was, one, we, uh, n- needed to, uh, raise capital to really lead through the, the, the transition of the company.

So we were able to get new investors in, recapitalize the firm.

And maybe you can tell us a little bit about that partnership with the CEO, and, and how do you think about it from your role as the chair?

You

know, from the CEO seat, sometimes you can influence the composition and and makeup of, of, of the board.

Uh, and sometimes you, you don't have as much control, but you know, the thing I learned there is if, if you've got an effective board, it really makes the organization better.

It makes the CEO much better.

Um, and, uh, As I move to the era that I sit in now, I only serve on boards with the coaching work that I do.

Even as I interview for boards, I describe to the executives, I said, most days I want to look like help versus work.

And if you've got a board, you know, some board members are work and they're not much help.

How do you set somebody up to be a CEO and think about it in what it's actually in reality going to be like? Sure.

I just bought the book and struck by the subtitle that at an organizational level, can you share a little bit more around that, especially during a really intense period of disruption and change? Sorry for the long

question.

Thank you.

Sure.

Fantastic question.

And I think the way we think about the systemic or organizational aspects that really anchor both culture and values as you're leading through change is really rooted in communication.

Like how effective is the communication to create consistency, stickiness? So there is a technology leader we talk about in the book and he is, describes himself as being late to the culture game, but starting five years ago, and it's about a 2,000-person organization, and as we interviewed him, we almost couldn't believe it.

Very inspired by your book and conversation.

Uh, what was your dream? What was your goals? What were you thinking when you started?

Again, much like you, uh, first member of my family to work in a professional job.

So, um, you only know what you can see, and if you can't see it in your family, you have to be inspired kinda other ways.

So for me, uh, I felt really fortunate, you know, landing a job with, you know, one of the greatest companies on the planet, the Coca-Cola Company, right out of university.

So that was a big deal.

And as I could see more opportunities, my aspirations grew, and they continued to grow.

N- never would my ambition have been, uh, to be CEO of a public company.

And you got all this board education, like how are they built?

So talk us a little bit about the inspiration behind writing a book like this.

Really, the thought around the book is we looked at really the accelerated pace of change, all the things going on geopolitically, socially.

You've got tariffs.

There's never been a more important time to focus on culture.

And kind of the thesis of the book is you have culture by design or default.

And with the accelerated change process, our thesis is that not enough leaders and companies are being intentional about, uh, culture.

Is it, what is causing that? What's the root issue of that? I just think the, I think the speed, um, I think all the things that are coming at C-suite leaders and chief executives are putting this as a back burner issue.

That first year you get in there, how do you go about turning a brand around? I imagine a lot of listeners and viewers of this could be helped by this advice.