Chris Petit - VP Asia Pac Distribution


Building organisational capability across departments, across organisations and across national borders.

Chris Petit has worked with some of the most successful organisations in the world. He has navigated the challenge of post-merger operational and cultural integration, expanding and evolving a business into new markets, from business strategy to hands-on-the-ground practical operational improvement. In this conversation we discuss his experience navigating the evolution of the mechanics, organisational and cross-cultural dynamics of global business transformation.

Chris Petit on LinkedIn

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Transcript

Christopher Organ: How are you Chris?

Christopher Petit: Fantastic, never better!

Christopher Organ: Never better indeed. Let's start with a little bit about you Chris.

Christopher Petit: I've been an Operations guy my entire life. I enjoy getting things done, solving problems etc. and Operations is a good place for that type of activity. I started out with Dreyers Ice Cream many years ago in Oakland, California. Dreyers was a small “mom and pop” type of operation when I started, and when I left after 21 years it was the largest ice cream company in the United States.  

One of the biggest challenges we had from an Operations perspective is how the ice cream is handled after it leaves our control.  Typically the delivery truck will roll up at the commercial outlet and the driver loads up a cart with that day’s order.  The ice cream then sits in the cart at room temp until a store employee is available to put it away. When you let ice cream melt and then refreeze it starts getting icy. You start growing the ice crystal that's suspended in the product and that creamy texture really deteriorates in a hurry.  So Dreyers was a pioneer in what we called Direct Store Delivery (DSD).  In this model a Dreyers employee handles the product from the point it leaves the warehouse to the end consumer.

While DSD was one of our biggest differentiation points, we also prided ourselves on our commitment to Quality. We didn't use powdered milk or artificial sweeteners and so forth. For example when we made Rum Custard ice cream the rum was genuine Myers right out of the bottle, accept no substitute!  But what really set Dreyers apart from the competition was that we spelled out exactly what our culture was in a little booklet, which we called the “Grooves”.

The idea was you need to get in the groove if you're going to be successful at Dreyers. One Groove was “Managers Should Manage”. There was no large HR division, just one person that generated forms and handled payroll and other corporate requirements. You were expected as a manager to take care of and develop your own people, it wasn't something that you abdicated to HR or someone else to do. 

Christopher Organ: So I would imagine over that period of time as Dreyers was expanding that potentially the culture is shifting and needing to be designed for the future and managed in the right way. Can a company culture be intentionally shaped in this way? Walk us through what you experienced.

Christopher Petit: I think absolutely yes, it can be intentionally shaped and Grooves were an example of that, where everybody knew the expectations for how you would interact with each other, both internally and externally. The culture is to have everybody understand a common set of principles. What is it that we're here for? How are we supposed to act and what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour?

Christopher Organ: Given that's the case, how would you ensure that the company culture is translating into the right employee behaviour? How do you measure that?

Christopher Petit: You measure it through your employee development plans, your succession planning and development planning so that you've got a way of everyone being able to understand and act in a consistent manner. And we hold each other accountable, that's a big part of it. If you see behaviour that's not acceptable, that needs to be addressed.

Christopher Organ: So as a leader, how do you embody the company culture you're trying to build?

Christopher Petit: You have to set an example that people are going to see in you every day as a leader. They're going to take their cue from you. They're going to look at what kind of a mood you're in, how you're acting and they'll act accordingly. So you really need to walk the talk. You need to be an example of what the culture is all about and you need to be able to articulate that and not be afraid for people to see. If you're not having a good day, there's a way for your employees to get through that. They hold you accountable.

Christopher Organ: So you spent some time at an organisation called CooperVision (CV) that undertook transformation and expansion across the world. Tell us a little bit about that organisation.

Christopher Petit: I came to CV directly from Dreyers and I was surprised, thinking that all companies did things the Dreyers way, with a set of standards and guidelines that everybody understands and is available to all. I got to CV and there was none of that. It was chaotic, dynamic and very dysfunctional.  Leadership at the time had a hard road to hoe because it wasn't accepted by everyone that we had a real problem. The company was very successful and we didn't appreciate the fact that if we worked on our culture and our understanding and our ability to hold each other accountable that we could be even better. We could go from good to great. 

Christopher Organ: And the organisation went through quite a significant rebranding effort which really crossed all borders as an organisation. The Company was expanding globally, making it a huge undertaking not only from an employee experience perspective but also a cultural perspective. Tell us about your experience getting through the process of bringing the organisation together on a new identity.

Christopher Petit: I think it really boils down to three things, one is consistency. Here's our message, here's how we want to act. You need to be consistent in that rollout and leadership needs to be fully engaged in the effort or it's not going to succeed. Secondly, there needs to be accountability.  From the top of the organisation on down, everyone needs to get on board. Finally, you need to really understand the cultural differences because things don't translate directly from country to country and language to language. You need to really appreciate the fact that some things that do real well in Europe aren't going to do so well in South America for example.

Christopher Organ: Let's dive into that a little bit. Can you provide an example of an element of the culture that may work in one geography and not in another.

Christopher Petit: One example I faced was the business culture in Japan, it’s very different from a western business culture. You'd sit in a meeting and come to realise that when people said yes and nodded their head they weren't agreeing with you, they were just acknowledging that “…you are speaking and I am listening.” There's not necessarily an agreement in that at all. Whereas in the western culture, when someone nods their head then yeah they're agreeing with you. So that was one example of interaction in Japan. Another was the realisation that the important decisions and discussions were made behind closed doors or that night over drinks and dinner. Finally, you have to appreciate the other person’s point of view and you have to be willing to compromise. That is the key to handling a cultural difference.

Christopher Organ: What would be the biggest hurdles you faced when integrating two companies?  How did you overcome them?

Christopher Petit: The Cooper acquisition of Ocular Sciences was an excellent example of that type of challenge, as we badly underestimated the differences between the two cultures. If you looked at it on paper, they seemed very similar. About the same size, and both had started out establishing themselves with a quality proposition. There's a lot of similarities, so this will be easy to put these two together, it'll be seamless. Very much not the case. Lots of differences in culture weren't addressed and there was a lot of antagonism almost to the point of sabotage. It took five years to really bring the two companies together to where they became the success that CV eventually became. So you can't be fooled by the fact that they looked the same on the surface. You really got to get into the underlying issues and address them. Nobody likes to sit in meetings all day, but you have to get people together in the same room at least occasionally.  I know this a challenge in today's environment with folks working from home.  Not being in the office every day makes it difficult to establish those relationships, but unless you can get through that it's going to be a real struggle.

Christopher Organ: I’ve found one of the major hurdles is the jargon and language that's used in an organisation can be different.  Even the definition of customer meant two different things and the two organisations had to rationalise that over time.  It took a long time but eventually we got there. Any thoughts on how you rationalise things over time?

Christopher Petit: Set a timeline and set the vision. I know a lot of people scoff at team building activities, but when you're bringing two common companies together, it's critical that you understand one another. You understand the change in your working relationship. A week ago you were trying to throw your competitor out of the store and make him look bad, now we're buddies and we got to make this work together. There has to be an element of trust and making sure that people are communicating and spending time together.

Christopher Organ: We hear a lot that adjustment in group behaviour is hard. How did you motivate people and get them moving the right direction?

Christopher Petit: You need to have a common goal, a common objective that is agreed to; this stuff is not easy. It takes time and it takes a lot of failures before you have a success that you can build on. Perseverance is definitely a big part of it.

Christopher Organ: It's quite common in Western cultures to rally around tasks or rally around outcomes and make that the vehicle for trust building. Non-western cultures can be very different. Tell us about how a western organisation like CV was able to adapt to the cultural differences in that regard.

Christopher Petit: We were facing that on a regular basis in Asia in particular as we rolled out a new software package across the region. It's one of the biggest hurdles you need to overcome. How do you break down the cultural barriers and reluctance to change and turn it into a positive?  Get people to appreciate one another and with success and some wins under your belt you start to trust the other person. When dealing with multicultural situations, it's key that you get together through meetings and team building activities; give people a chance to be comfortable with one another and work together.

Christopher Organ: So maybe we can move on to technology then off the back of that. Like an ERP implementation. In your opinion is technology an enabler or an obstacle?

Christopher Petit: In many cases both, but most often in the short term it's an obstacle. You need to look at it not just as the implementation of a new ERP package, it’s a change management project.  For example, our billing process is going to be much more streamlined and we're going to have all these nice features we don't have today. Supply Chain will have a host of new capabilities, but that's all down the road. Getting the Organization through the short-term pain is critical and that's where communication is essential to making sure people are getting together. 

Christopher Organ: So I guess yeah to your point of communication and bringing people together. I guess it's not always possible to be in the same room at the same time and we use technology to help facilitate collaboration, one of them working over video calls like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. In terms of culture, what are the challenges of the move to work from home Zoom instead of face-face complementing face-to-face.

Christopher Petit: You can't think that Zoom is going to manage the situation successfully if you don't get people together face to face as well. It takes longer to build relationships if the trust factor is not there. If you've got cultural differences it makes it even more critical.

Christopher Organ: It's difficult to read body language and can also be difficult to really read the room when you're working over Zoom sometimes.

Christopher Petit: Yeah, let’s say you work with somebody face to face and then for whatever reason you're forced to go to a Zoom type of relationship. You already know the person and you’ve spent time with them, there's a level of trust there. So the transition to a Zoom call is successful, you don't lose a lot. But if you're trying to establish a relationship and develop it strictly from Zoom without ever having met the person or spent any significant time with them it's going to take you three times as long to get that relationship built as it would if you had a face to face relationship. You can't substitute Zoom completely.

Christopher Organ: So talking about perspectives in a multinational team. How do you leverage the unique skills of a multinational team to help drive innovation and success?

Christopher Petit: You need to make sure everyone is valued. I’ve heard it described as “…you need to be sensitive to the weak signal.” In almost every meeting you get one or two people that dominate and the rest sit there and listen. You need to make sure that everybody is being heard, that everyone's bringing a unique skill set or a unique way of doing things can be appreciated and utilised, and understand what each individual can offer and make sure that it gets full consideration.  Finally, it comes down to leadership. You've got to have people that can appreciate different cultures. People who don't insist on getting their own way, people that are good at compromise and consensus building. Having those types of skills and that buy-in from the top; this is the way we're going to succeed.

Christopher Organ: Thanks, Chris. So wrap this up. Last question: in your opinion what are the most important skills a global business leader will need to succeed in the next three to five years?

Christopher Petit: A global perspective. Understanding the strengths and the areas of development in the Organization. You need to lead by example but empower your team as well. People are going to take their cues from you, so you need to be that positive role model and be consistent in your approach. Finally, you need to be someone that can be trusted. That sounds a little obvious but it’s hard to find these days. Trust, consistency and a balanced approach.

… I learned that from Donald Trump.

Christopher Organ: Very hard to find. Thank you Chris.