The Role of Culture in Scaling an ETA Business

Welcome to Think Big, Buy Small, a podcast from Harvard Business School about entrepreneurship through acquisition.

We're your hosts, Royce Yudkoff and Rick Rubeck.

Welcome to season four of Think Big, Buy Small.

Our opening episode for the season is an interview with James Crawley.

James acquired a company called Ally Waste, which has grown explosively under his leadership.

But today's discussion focuses on a very unique aspect of Ally Waste, and that is how a clearly articulated culture is at the heart of how they manage the company, and in this way is different from many other companies we encounter, not only in the world of small firms, but big firms too.

So we're going to learn all about the very unique culture that James and his management team have created at Ally Waste.

By way of full disclosure,

we should let our listeners know that we're investors in James's business.

But James, I'm thrilled to have you here and thrilled to talk more about this culture thing.

I think it's going to create a lot of learning for our listeners.

I know in our conversations, it has created a lot of learning for me.

So I'm excited to get to it.

But James, I wonder if you want to start by giving us a quick background of whatever you think is relevant that got you into the chair you're in now.

Welcome to Think Big, Buy Small, a podcast from Harvard Business School about entrepreneurship through acquisition.

We're your hosts, Royce Yudkoff and Rick Rubeck.

Welcome to season four of Think Big, Buy Small.

Our opening episode for the season is an interview with James Crawley.

James acquired a company called Ally Waste, which has grown explosively under his leadership.

But today's discussion focuses on a very unique aspect of Ally Waste, and that is how a clearly articulated culture is at the heart of how they manage the company, and in this way is different from many other companies we encounter, not only in the world of small firms, but big firms too.

So we're going to learn all about the very unique culture that James and his management team have created at Ally Waste.

By way of full disclosure,

we should let our listeners know that we're investors in James's business.

But James, I'm thrilled to have you here and thrilled to talk more about this culture thing.

I think it's going to create a lot of learning for our listeners.

I know in our conversations, it has created a lot of learning for me.

So I'm excited to get to it.

But James, I wonder if you want to start by giving us a quick background of whatever you think is relevant that got you into the chair you're in now.