Gavin Pearson and Stuart Smith were as different as two people could ever be, each with his own idea how to grow a successful business. Gavin grew up in one foster home after another until he was adopted by a loving couple. What began as a wonderful family suddenly changed when his adopted father was killed. Young Gavin with his widow mother barely made ends meet by her waiting tables and cleaning houses.

Stuart Smith grew up with two older sisters in the privileged home of a Wall Street arbitrageur. He played lacrosse and hockey in a private school. As Chairman of the Board of NOP Inc., a high-tech manufacturing organization in Dallas, he always had big dreams.

Stock values floundered, stagnated, and then vacillated at sub-standard levels. The Wall Street advisory firm sent Stuart a one-page profile of Gavin Pearson, saying, “He can transform your culture and turn NOP around. Wall Street loves him.” He was well-known for fostering the trust-and-openness high-performance team culture at Prominent Staffing Company. “Bring him on as CEO,” they said.

Stuart noted with disappointment that Gavin Pearson was not a younger version of himself. In fact, he was quite the opposite. Gavin had been immensely successful, but his credential screamed, “Brand ambassador for organizational development and cultural transformation”—exactly what Stuart detested as a lot of warm and fuzzy nonsense. For the love of big money, he had to abide by the Wall Street diktat. And for the love of being perceived as the man on top who pulled the right strings, he had to trust Gavin Pearson to make NOP a Wall Street darling again, but not for long if Gavin’s methods didn’t work.

Steve Gandara and his team at Excellent Cultures, Inc. have spent nearly five decades producing the world’s best cultures for the world’s best companies, delivering triple- to quadruple-digit ROIs.

Steve Gandara

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