Interview Series: Building a Winning Company Culture with Ed Eppley

In this episode, Marty Grunder sits down with his longtime friend and mentor Ed Eppley. Ed is considered a leading expert globally on motivating and leading teams to perform well and is always a great source of inspiration and advice. In this episode, he shares his best tips on fostering a strong and positive company culture.

You’ll hear Ed’s thoughts around developing a company culture that aligns with your business model and goals, asking yourself as a leader, ‘Would I want to work for me?’, accepting ‘average’ employees just to fill positions, and planning your exit strategy years in advance.

Ed Eppley, founder of The Eppley Group, is a leading global expert in professional management, sales strategy, and performance management. He has worked with executive teams at multinational companies across the U.S., Europe, China, Japan, and Australia. His clients include a “Who’s Who” of business category leaders such as BMW, DSW, Sara Lee, Bloomberg, Battelle, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Speedway, Steamboat Ski & Resort Company, Value City Furniture, PSA Airlines, Emerson Electric, NECCO, Safelite Auto Glass, and others. Ed is the author of “Let’s Be Clear: 6 Disciplines of Focused Management Pros.”

Discussion Points:

• Background, early entrepreneurship, and sales training
• Ed’s work with executives today
• Definition of culture
• An epiphany of Marty’s - would I want to work for me?
• Should you settle for a less-than-stellar employee? Is the compromise worth it?
• Cameron Mitchell and his great restaurant business culture
• Taking responsibility for employees you haven’t pushed or trained well enough
• Ralph Nader’s ideas on leadership
• Leaders need to grow their people’s productivity 3-5% each year to keep improving the company
• Good leaders/managers take an average person to an above-average result
• Create your own exit strategy within your company

The Grow Show podcast is sponsored by STIHL and brought to you by The Grow Group - a leading coaching and education firm for landscape professionals. Your host is Marty Grunder, president and CEO of The Grow Group and Grunder Landscaping Co., one of the most successful design-build operations of its kind in the Midwest. The Grow Show shares ideas, tips, tactics, and insights that will help you grow your landscaping business. 

Resources:

Ed Eppley LinkedIn

The Eppley Group

Book: Let’s Be Clear

GROW! Conference Feb 2024

The Grow Group

Grunder Landscaping

Marty Grunder LinkedIn