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Built to Win is a podcast for leaders driving growth, transformation, and complex change. We speak with founders, operators, and industry experts about what it really takes to build and scale successful businesses. Conversations cover leadership, culture, talent, technology, and execution, with a focus on real challenges and practical decisions. Expect honest insights, real stories, and lessons you can apply straight away. Powered by people. Built to win.
welcome to the built to win podcast
I'm your host Luke Mccluskey
and during this podcast
I am going to be sitting down with the top 1% of people
in their industry I'm gonna be getting under the bonnet
of what makes them special
what makes them great
and what makes them stand out from the crowd
a lot of people ask me who I circle or what I circle
and I could sit here and say that
we help find the top 5% of talent in the marketplace
I could also sit here and say
we'll do so in timescales
that you've probably never seen before
and whilst all of these things stand true
I think
the true thing that separates us from our competition
and what really makes us unique
is the people that work here
we all have a relentless drive to succeed
a relentless drive to win and winning for our customers
so ensuring that we find our customers
the right contractors
to deliver their projects on time and in budget
winning for our contractors
ensuring that we can get continuity
so going from one contract to another contract
to another contract
and ensuring that we got the client base
to be able to deliver on those promises
we specialise in markets the food manufacturing market
and the life sciences market across the UK
Europe and USA we deliver large scale capital programs
we deliver large scale ERP programs
but I do appreciate that these are just words
so why not give us a call
let us prove ourselves in a live opportunity
and let us showcase what we can do for you
welcome to the build to win podcast
where I sit down with the top 1%
of people in their field and uh
get under the bonnet
and truly understand what makes them unique
and today's guest is Kevin Moore
CEO of Valio Foods UK
and in this conversation about pressure
standards
and what it actually takes to step into a completely
different league so welcome Kevin
good to have you on how you doing
yeah good
thank you you well yeah
very well good stuff
so um
before we go into this I would just like to highlight
just some of your key achievements
and just to wet the appetite of uh the
the viewers so
you joined Green Core as an account executive
and worked your way up to the CEO
uh you have secured a portfolio of non
exec roles across various industries
uh and you currently sit at the helm of um
Valio Foods UK um
driving the transformation across that business
yep nice one
okay so
um I'd like to take it back to the start if that's okay
um would you mind just giving us an overview of your
of your background and of you
yeah um
so I think I'll probably go back to the beginning
really um
I'd say it's it's kind of started my very
early as I had a fairly amazing childhood
but I had a tragedy in that
where my mum passed away when I was 10
I have two older sisters
and I watched my dad kind of work really
really hard from a very
very young age to bring the three of us up on his own
and I think moments like that are quite defining
and it taught me three things
I think there's three things I take from that
which I look back on now the first is resilience
watching a dad who worked in a factory when I was a
a young lad um
working really hard to make sure that
we wanted for nothing as children
yeah um
it's quite impactful positively highly
so resilience was the first thing that teach you
and I watched a guy struggle at the age of 45
cope with that
the second thing I think it teaches you is um
hard work the ethic of hard work
I think that
the one thing I say that myself and my sisters um
certainly had in life
or have in life is the one of hard work
mm hmm and again
I think that's really influential on you
as an individual and it certainly has been on me
um and then the third I think is one of respect
um my father was a shop steward in a factory
so very very different world uh
to the one in which I'm kind of
operating but it taught me one of
of kind of respect respect levels
understand that everybody is fighting a very
very different battle every single day
whatever they do I think there's a
there's a famous quote that of
I think Jonah Kelly took to cleaner in NASA
yeah who said what do you do here
I think she said something like
I'm putting a man on the moon
it's very very true
I love that
every single code in an organisation makes it work
yeah I can't do my job without people doing
jobs in the factories or jobs in security
or jobs in health and safety
or whatever it may be yeah
and I think
having a respect and understanding of all those levels
and the role they play um
is what
kind of growing up in that environment taught me
watching my dad do that from the
the work perspective and it's
it's amazing how you never lose that
when you live that every single day
as a as a youngster
I've seen my sister's being really successful uh
I've seen my career build
as a consequence of constantly reminding yourself
and having that as a backstop as to how you operate
so that defining moment very
very early on drove me to be successful in
in everything I do
and I think that's kind of really important to have
as a as an individual
yeah it's um
there there two there three major values I think um
so that makes that can make anybody successful with
with with those three things
so thank you for sharing that when
when when
when you think back um
you know if we think about like
the amount of people that ended the industry when
when you entered the industry
and also you've gone up to
all the way through the gears
um to uh
to CEO what
what belief do you feel that you had to kill to
to level up
and at what point do you think that that one
I realized I I mean
there's that one today he's talking about
so I think there's a there's a few
I think the first I think everybody
um I mean
there are a few exceptions in the world
but I think everybody suffers with 100% yeah
and I think there's a consequence of that
you're battling with one person
you're battling with yourself
and I kind of learnt
I was looking up to have a series of mentors around me
as I grew and I think
I think um
I think we chatted briefly before
we kind of came on air about how
how do you get to the top and what skills you need
when there is an element within it
which is look
there is a slice of that pie chart that is
that is look and timing
so I think 10% of it is look and 10% of it is timing
and I think that um
having having a bit of that naturally helps you
and I had a bit of luck by having great
people around me who wanted me to be successful
yeah and I think
that being able to take that
and take advantage of that is visible for me
which is really really important
so um
that's kind of the first thing I'd say
the second thing I'd say is then once
once you realise you're not competing with other people
I mean what they say when you
I think athletes don't look left
don't look right just look forward and run for the life
yeah yeah
yeah
that's the best piece of advice in business as well
don't look at what everybody else is doing
I think that you naturally worry about
why is Johnny being promoted
or why is Jamila being given a pay rise or what
it's just white noise
it's noise that distracts you from your focus
of being you and the best you
yeah and so I'd say just be
you just gotta believe in yourself
and I think in time as things work through
and you realize actually
that white noise is exactly what it is
I think you become more focused
and I think you get better
I think that's what helped me
it's really interesting
I actually wrote a post about this on
on on LinkedIn the other day about how recruiters
and we were one of them
we were constantly worried about
what our competition were doing yeah
we're constantly worried about
you know who's moving where
who's in with what client blah
blah blah
blah blah
and I then run um
a training session for individuals here
it's called UVU yeah
right and it's like
who cares
the art of good change
be 1% better than you were yesterday and and
and all of that will become a byproduct of it
but the natural thing is to compare yeah
I think I think
I don't there's a difference here
I think awareness is involved yeah
I think you we don't operate in a vacuum
you need to be very aware of your surroundings
and your competitors
but it's got to be exactly that
it's got to be one of the gears yeah
in your whole operating model
but you've got to be the best you
mm hmm and that's
that's hard to do yeah
I think it's really hard to do
especially when a competitor
or somebody does something that's really exceptional
yeah yeah
absolutely
because your natural instinct as a human is to go
look at that yeah
and then your ego hurts ha exactly
your ego holds you back exactly that yeah
um so
I mean
there is something that I would say as a trait that is
as you as you go on
this is a thing I think that's really help me
which is be curious
I mean more savage that every day is school day yeah
genuinely is be curious
ask more questions than you give answers to
so kind of stop press shock news
I was terrible up to the age of
I'm probably still am to some extent
up to the age of 35 40
I had the answer to everything
I knew the answer everything that was going on
any problem I know the answer
the truth was no idea okay
and I give you take enough info and as I get older
unfortunately this is something I wish I knew many
many years ago but as you get older
you take more info
you ask more questions why
because people have more experience
people got more things wrong than you have
they Learned from it take that time
take take a breath it's the full second rule
count to four before you respond
do I still have that today
no still get emotional
still get triggered yeah
yeah yeah
um but that's just being human right
it is being human but I think it's really important
I mean what I'll see the coroner
what
what do they say to you if you can't stop the skid
turn into the skid what the 99.9% of people do
slam the brakes slam the brakes
slam the brakes slam the brakes yeah
yeah that's the human nature yeah
the skill of 1%
the top 1% or half a percent or whatever it is
is the ones who just in that moment
reflect and take just
just take that 1 millisecond to think it through
mm hmm
and that curiosity just helps you think generally
and generally leads you to a better outcome
mm hmm not always but
but most of the time yeah
yeah yeah
so that would be that it's really
it's really interesting if you
if you think back what
what would you say is like the core
the fundamental mindset that that
that built you to where you are now um
fear of failure hmm
sadly um
and not wanting to let people down
um and I think that goes back to the conversation
I had at the beginning about kind of my childhood
I think the fear of failure is a
I don't necessarily think it's a good driver um
but I don't
I feel that people put their reliance on you
their instinct in you
and you don't want to let them down
I think I think leadership is a privilege
I think being in charge of something
being a CEO or being a managing director
or being a sales director and leader of anything
a function
an area
a hygiene team whatever it is
is a privilege yeah
to be chosen to go and lead something
yeah and I think with that comes a responsibility to
be the best you can be
and I think you don't wanna let people down
99.9% of people don't wanna let people down
mm hmm and therefore
I think that privilege is a
is a physical driver and a mental driver
and emotional driver for me as an individual
yeah to not let people down
I mean there's a load of things
I talk about in terms of how I approach certain things
but I think to me the fear of failure
the fear of letting somebody down
whether that's your family
whether that's your your colleagues
whether that's your boss whoever it is
um look at sports
you don't want to let your country down
if you play for England you don't want to let
but there's a balance with fear of failure
isn't there
because I think it's either it could be a huge driver
it can be a driver yeah
absolutely because then you just net
you could sometimes just never take that risk as well
so where does that sit I think um
I think your point is is extremely right
I think fear of failure can paralyze you yeah
you can't just stop and not do anything
but I think I think confidence is really
self confidence is really important
I mean the amount of people
I mean I'll use a great example
the amount of people I've spoken to over the years
I don't want to present I don't
I don't want to stand stand in front of them
all the presentation is about confidence yeah
the thing that's really interesting
when you stand up and present
is that you know more than all the people sitting
in that room that's why whatever it is
that's why you are there yeah
so I hope you can say anything
yeah yeah yeah yeah
but it's about self belief
and I think self belief come
comes from time and experience for me
and you've got to be brave
I think you've got to be brave
you've got to be as a leader
you've got to say look
general people have made a decision
you've got to remember you're in that position
because people believe that you can do it
uh huh start to believe that yourself
uh huh
and we're all we're all driven by different things
so I'm driven by curiosity
people are driven by
people who stand by the side of them yeah
so understand what it is
that helps you get through that moment
for me it's
it is detail so the diagnostic of when you go into
I always want to know what I'm solving for
I mean there's an average that I have to say to people
you never get a cab without knowing where you're going
mm hmm but
people go into business
and leave things without being clear about what
they don't try to get to why would you do that
hmm why would you not be clear
because 99.9% of the game is people want a purpose yeah
they want to know why they're there yeah yeah
I'll even follow a team cause I want them to win yeah
that's your purpose it's
it's the same thing they want to feel part of something
right exactly
they want to feel part of something
not just a a number
no exactly that
and I think
I think building some momentum in a narrative
and telling a story people love stories
hmm like building a story is to
what you're trying to achieve
more than you're trying to do it
hmm people will anchor on to that
yeah and when they anchor on to that
you build momentum and when you get momentum
confidence flows when confidence flows wow yeah
yeah everything is possible
I read legacy by the way OK
it's a great book only you had
I'm connected with them on well
we has James come to our conference
our first with I mean the
you the business I'm in today wasn't a UK business
it wasn't one collection businesses
yeah and we announced in uh
2024 that we're bringing Valio
UK into one organisation
for a variety of different reasons
and um
I'd heard about James Mm hmm
through a company that we've been working with um
on bringing the conference together
the first UK conference we'd ever had
and James Cam is a guest speaker
and it was it's an incredible book
yeah an incredible set of
I mean
it was broadly grounded in the All Blacks and sport
yeah but his performance
lessons were were incredible
yeah um
you can hear a pin drop in the room when
he when he was speaking about oh
I bet it's George
I bet I was hooked on that book the minute I
I felt I picked it up
yeah no one looks after me
we watch look after ourselves
I just love that indeed
very green I'm sorry
went off peace there but I have to say um
when uh
when did you realize that in your career
that it was all on you
and that no one was coming to save you
um
I probably look at this in a slightly different way
so the first thing I'd say is these jobs
your job my job
anybody's job they're not solo endeavours
mm hmm
people will be tennis players and think it's a solo
it's nothing nothing in life is a solo endeavour at all
there's always a team of people behind that OK
sport
single sportsmen and women go out and play on their own
but there's a team of people who get in there
yeah yeah
so it's never a solo in that first thing to remember is
it isn't it isn't that
but the second thing
and the contradictory thing to that is
these roles are the loneliest in the world
because ultimately it stops with you
yeah and I try and keep that in perspective
yeah I worked with a phenomenal set of people
and I had an incredible leadership group
both the very tops and the next level
which we call the Senior leadership
group incredible people
they were all driven all passionate
all capable
and I think you just got to remember they are
they are there to help you win
they all wanna succeed mm hmm
um
and I think remembering that in the difficult times is
is the key thing here
because is that you stand up when you fall back
you want to be caught yeah
I generally feel like
in all the businesses I've ever worked in yeah
people want you to succeed
it's rare that you stand up a front or make a decision
and people don't want you to succeed
hmm um
and if you use your diligence correctly
and you get ownership and buying
it shouldn't be alone in there
it is alone in there are days when you make decisions
and times in my career where I've made decisions
and I think cops feels really
really hard but if you do your diligence
and you involve the right people
it's generally the right thing to do
and as long as
I think you do that with a level of heart and mind
and you respect you're empathetic you
you have um
you appreciate the message that you've been um
you've given across with it
it's good or bad news mm hmm
um I think it's really important
I think what's it again
another rally
should treat success and failure in the same way
hundred percent is it's really important
I've I've seen others that don't
do that um
and and you learn from that
I mean you learn as you ever
as I say every day at school
that you learn all the time
the leaders that are running around knee sliding
because they've been really successful
are the ones that tomorrow fail
and are a bit embarrassed
holes in the net yeah
it's so true it's so true
it's the same thing so
that silent ever point is really important
you're never on your own it feels it
but you're never ever on your own
I've always thought I've had somebody to talk to always
I mean
my boss at the moment is pretty gives you space and um
but he's also there to
to challenge and kind of hold you to account
and I think again that's a
that's a great time in your life
I think it's pretty good and if you haven't got that
I think it's really tough
yeah yeah
we when we talk about um
I'll I'll we touch on it right at this
the start in terms of your
portfolio of knowledge and roles that you've
you've worked on so yeah
what's that
was that driven by the fact that you're super curious
or was it driven by that you know
you just mentioned about about about your boss
you know
I've always got someone there that I can talk to
was it driven by that
it was driven by two things really
I think um
definitely curious yeah
um I
I don't I've got to be honest with this
this um
I was also bored I was bored
I was I was a young managing director
mm hmm um
I wanted to do more
I didn't feel I was moving quickly often
and I decided I had a brilliant boss at the time
and guy is currently in the CEO of another Foxy
I mean it's Foxy 2 fifty company
and um
he gave me the opportunity to be an ad
and what it gave me the opportunity to do
which I really wanted to do
was understand different ownership structures
so I worked in a plc for my entire life
yeah
and the governance and control and rigour of reporting
discipline in the plc is quite incredible
one of the reasons why they're
they're blue chips and they
they're generally successful organisations
but knowing how a cooperative works
or knowing how private equity works
or knowing how a family
owned and operated business works
I have no idea yeah
and if I was to tell you that
all the same group of people
they're not it's incredible
what I've learnt last 18 years
being an ND in different places
everything from a charity
until a cooperative that was based in Denmark um
or it's just incredible set of lessons
there are different drivers
what you can bring to
it is a framework of control and governance
and experience but they're all different
they're all run by
different emotions and different financial metrics
and I've I've just been curious about that for years
and all I do is act to my experience
gives me more capability
to think about problems that you face
in a different way fair enough
yeah absolutely um
what what do you do that
you feel most people are willing to do
I probably say I do something
I won't say that most people are unwilling to do it
and I won't necessarily say this is
as I've been successful but I
I fully commit and I think at times
I've done that at the expense of my family
so I would say that um
that is something I've got wrong as opposed to right
but I think that means that
that gives me a slight edge sometimes yeah
because I'm fully all in
and it'll be a Saturday or Sunday work or whatever
it may not be or I'm away from home or whatever and um
I think I think that gave me an edge
in terms of just being prepared and aware
but I don't think it's wrong
I don't think it gives me a good balance
so it's compromise right
it yeah
and I don't and I say I watch other people
I think do that brilliantly
hmm um
at every hour by the way I've
I've watched people do that
I've watched people be really disciplined
about putting that first
I've kind of missed holidays or I've worked on
holidays or I've been on the phone on holiday
and I see people do that brilliantly hmm
um so I admire people that do that
I respect people that do that and
and that's something that
it's probably given me an edge at times
or I felt gave me an edge
I don't think probably deep down it does
but I felt it did
then it convinced my mind that was the right thing to
yeah yeah
when it was obvious no
fair enough I actually think um
just from the conversations that we've had um
I think the level of self reflection that you do
it separates you from a lot of people
I don't think people I don't think a lot of people
actually sit back and truly self reflect
and I think that that that's game changer thing
yeah yeah
well
there's two things that I think reflection is one thing
doing something about the reflection is the other one
yeah right
um I'm probably better at the first thing
than the second thing yeah
um
do I think I've mellowed and got better at the things
I'm not very good at yeah
am I greater than no
emotion
still plays a huge amount in my leadership style
too much um why
because I'm frustrated yeah
uh because I don't like to let people down
and I think when
when we're all disciplined or when lazy thinkers
that frustrates me so that's still a weakness
but it's it's really interesting Luke that um
I used to fear fate I mean
properly fear it yeah
now I don't like it I get frustrated by it
but it's the most important thing you learn from it
you look everyday
and what I would encourage people to do
and I do this now when we fail
when we get something wrong
I write it down yeah um
I write it down
because it gives me a reminder of the pain
it's a weird thing
it's just something I do so when something goes wrong
I write it down
and I write down and I diagnose what went wrong
what did I miss what did we collectively miss
because
and my sister says this to me quite a lot Kev
failure is not failing it isn't in 99.9% of the times
but times when I'm sure it is but
but in most things in business
it's not failing it's disruptive
but it's not failing and if you can use that
and build that into the way you operate
I mean you are gonna end up in a very
very strong position in a single position
in my opinion yeah
that's really interesting
I think it's the relationship you have with failure and
and and what you what you label failure as yeah um
I think that's a really good point
fear of failure at the when
when you talk about failure when in
in your early in your earlier days it
feels like all or nothing
yeah it does right
it does it feels like OK
if I get this wrong it's done
I'm done I'm done yeah
yeah
whereas you've Learned to deal with that a lot better
the reality is it is yeah
yeah I'm done
yeah it is very rare
you're done yeah
there are so many people that I know in our industry
that have gotten thrown and reinvented themselves yeah
and so
again I think
I think that's just human nature to what
what is it human nature is
to catastrophize everything that goes on
why is that where does that come from
fight or flight it's the yeah
that's so true it's the fight or flight thing
it's the the
the the years of um
human nature being analyzed
it's it's natural hmm
that's what you do this is
this comes from medieval times when you're trying to be
you're a caveman or a cavewoman
you're trying to survive it's a fight or flight
and it's it's exactly that
and that's exactly how I think we operate as
as humans um
I think it's how you deal with it
it's the skin analogy I get your choice
you have choice hmm
and I what's the issue
when things go wrong
your immediate response is one of ah
but it blinds you yeah
you go to worst case scenario
it blinds you straight away
I think being blinded by that
you make you make poor decisions
you make poor decisions
taking time to reflect and take input
is when you make better decisions yeah
in my experience yeah
yeah absolutely absolutely
um what habits to you would you say move the needle
um I mean
the discipline is key yeah
yeah um
so the first I think I touched on earlier on
I think the first thing is set a clear direction
be really clear something for a strategy
something just to be clear on your North Star
where are you going what does good look like
being able to describe
what good looks like to everybody
is really important I often sit in a room and say
people we're talking about something
I'll say if we all wrote down
what we thought would look like on a piece of paper
and then showed everybody
would be would be a lie
hmm
a lot of time no
no we're not really crystal clear
on what direction we're taking
it's No. 1 uh huh
No. 2 is communicate that clearly
yeah and consistently
and consistently communicate your progress against it
people that know whether we're doing well
we're doing badly need to step up
need to step down got better space
we got better time where are we
yeah ha ha
it's it's really good
how many people watch the map on the flight
when they're going abroad
yeah how far am I
we got how long we got left
yeah same just
just really rigorous on knowing what you're solving for
know where I'm trying to get to is really important
and then
I think the thing that you wrap around that is
governance
relentlessly measure performance
if you do not measure performance
you will win the under
you will float something you think is good
by the thing
is that absolutely relentless on that performance
and if you are be generally successful
hmm the most successful companies in the world
are relentless about those things
so it's that golden thread all the way through no yeah
got behind it apple yeah
innovation is the golden thread
yeah they're relentless about it
they invest in it
we were chatting before we came on air about
pharmaceutical companies relentless about our day yeah
got to be relentless yeah
the best companies in our industry
are the ones that are relentless
about those key metrics yeah
and they constantly measure them
and if you don't deviate from that you
you generally successful
that would be my personal opinion
yeah and you can see that
I mean um
you'll you'll see if you
if you as long as you're measuring it
you'll see where the break is in the golden thread
and that tech points
straight to the bit that you need to fix yeah
um yeah interesting OK
um
I think I know the answer to this one
cause we kind of just touched on it
but when I don't think a human can be motivated 100% at
the time and be sad
I agree with that for one yeah
um so when motivation isn't there
what do you rely on is that curious
is this I mean
we talked about it's interesting
um when I came in
I thought your office was
I've never been in an office like it
like this is exact
the exact opposite of what I've described a um
I'm gonna call it a recruitment organization yeah
the exact opposite um
why there's energy
there's taste there's people talking
there's noise there's laughter
that is a
stuff that gives me energy and reminds me why I'm here
to do hmm um
so I go and get energy by that
I also like to exercise I like to play padel
for example yeah
yeah yeah
um I like to do photography
for example so
you just take yourself out of the situation for a bit
remind yourself why you're there and then go back
hmm have people around you who can play a role you we
we talk to you about sports
yeah I have a team of seven people in the UK business
I mean they are seven completely different people
but they all bring something different
that creates a whole yeah
and I think having a clarity of roles
for those individuals to play in the team
is really important it's very easy to say
you're a functional director for a job
but you're a functional director for fun of it they
have to bring a human side to a table
yeah yeah
they have to bring something different
so there's a naysayer in the table
there's a half empty player in the table
there's a half full player in the table
there's a joker in the table
having that group of people
who bring something different
that are accounted to you
I think it's massively important
yeah you can't have a team of Messiah right
you can maybe you can have a team of emotional people
yeah or a team of absolutely curious people
it has to be a balance yeah
so having those people around you
who then can pick you up and can see that
it's hugely important that's emotional maturity
not intelligence and I think that emotional maturity
in a senior team is critical that um
what would you say
the biggest mistake you made in your career
that actually turned out to be probably the biggest
learn and maybe took you off in a
in the right direction
well I'm gonna give you one
I'm gonna give two I'm gonna give an example of one
of a thing that happened
and then I'm gonna try and use one on a personal basis
the first one says don't fuck your own homework
hmm
there are too many organizations
and people who often think that's
successful um
that's good enough that's no
set your direction be really clear about what it is
I don't think we're taking a feedback
enough including me yeah um
in fact we just completed our annual employee survey
yeah
it's a brilliant reminder of I might think it's great
but there's a truth there's a simple thing
and you can do that every day
for people in your organization
now go and ask them how are they going
what's working for you
what's you Mark your own homework
it's dangerous yeah
you gonna give yourself a nice score every time yeah
so that would be the first thing
and then there's the second thing is
I worked for Greco um
and we had this big opportunity to buy
another organization which we're gonna transform
and then
we got picked to the post by another organization
and we were all well
as maybe this is a disaster
actually
was the best thing that ever happened to the company
because we ended up buying
something completely different
that transformed the organization um
we were so wallowing in self pity
the time it failed
that you actually missed the bigger picture
you'd step back and think actually that again
failure is not fatal it's take a step back
there's always a different route through
and do you know what a lot of the time it's
it's a better route through yeah
yeah absolutely yeah
that's really interesting um
what standards do you drive
I'm sorry
what standards drive the culture that you that you run
um we actually have
five value behaviours in the organisation um and
they're all they're all very different um
so I I think what's there is
so there's organisational values
which I think we all try and spy to
and measure people against every year
and blah blah blah
and I think they're all
they're very very purposeful and they're
they're bright
and there's agility and teamwork and discipline
and so on and so forth but there
on a personal basis for me
it is one of
it's it's two things right
it's one listen
god gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason
so I think he gave me 7 miles and one ear ha
more to people um
and taking that input again
go back to marking
not marking your homework is really important
I I
um the value of listening is
is really important um
and the value of of just I
I have someone up
I have two or three people around me who
just help me slow down sometimes so the discipline of
slowing down and and reflection is
is massively important um
I often get so obsessed with the process
that I don't always give us time to sit and talk
and I have a team of people again
it's a pleasure to work with them
who slow me down and say
can we just change the agenda of it
can we have just two hours of free just discussion
and so I think
the discipline for me is one of just being aware
just being aware
there is a different way of doing stuff
hmm there is no right or wrong answer
I mean you could ask
you could sit thousands of people in this chair
and they're gonna give you different ways of yeah
so they sat on the other I think
I think actually just being curious enough to know
there's a thousand different ways to do it is
in itself fascinating
yeah yeah
yeah absolutely
um
what are you building now that that scares you
what scares me I'm
what scares me is
you've got other people's careers in your hands
yeah scares me
cause
I have been fortunate to have people look after mine
and my job is to nurture other people
I think I have to over commit to do that
I spent trying to spend a lot of time with individuals
lower down the organization
and I don't think I have 1,000 a day to do that
mm hmm um
but I think it's really important to do it
I mean I mean
people's careers are
it's hugely important
and I can see in hundreds of people in my organization
and I got the chance I got the opportunity
and I want to create it for as many people as we can
I mean it's a bit
I work in an amazing industry
in the food industry in this country is incredible
yeah absolutely
and there are incredible people in it
both retail manufacturer support services everywhere
it's incredible and um
I just want them to be I want to see people grow
it's great watching a colleagues
ex colleagues
current colleagues grow get developed get promoted
it's it's
it's great I mean
it's super and if I could be a uh
an example to people of
of how to go about doing that brilliant
that's that what legacy that is gonna be it's
it's incredible
that is a legacy because someone gave you that yeah
opportunity that becomes so I don't know
that's a passion of mine as well um
the the development of
of of
of people and seeing people achieve their goals
as long as they give you the work ethic and yeah
and the things that match your values right
exactly and okay
I think I know the answer to this one already
because I think I made a touch note
but when all is said and done
what do you want to be remembered for
um I just want people to enjoy working with me
I know there will be times when they'll have said wow
that was difficult or it was hard or it was whatever
I want people to enjoy
working in the teams that I've been in hmm um
but I mean I have so many stories and memories
of things that have happened
and worked
like that's all you got at the end
when you sat in your armchair at whatever age it is
and you're rocking and
drinking your soup through a straw
what what you gonna remember
you got memories and yeah
financial targets are financial targets
and winning stuff is really important
don't get me wrong
it that is really important to me as well
but it's those memories
I've got thousands of them that have been incredible
businesses that have won businesses that have lost
people I've worked with frustrating moments
for me it's those memories
I've just so many
how can you go out for a beer with somebody
you talk about the old time
yeah yeah
that's right I just think they're really important
hmm really important for me personally yeah
fair enough fair OK
um we're gonna go into a quick fire round OK
um it's one or the other OK
um so just cut the first thing that comes to your uh
your mind let me know when you're ready
OK go for it cool
OK built or born
fear or fuel
fear pressure or comfort pressure
discipline or motivation
discipline
talent or relentlessness
talent relentless
lone wolf or team wolf
Team Wolf okay
and what's your age
what's my edge um relentlessness yeah
yeah just don't let it go
don't let it go I
I I think what's the term
complete the finish it I think you've got
you've got to finish all the thing you want yourself
yeah I think it's really important
I mean religiously get away
you're not doing that but I but I think you gotta
you gotta finish what you started
I don't know it's important
mm hmm really important absolutely
Kevin this has been amazing
I've really enjoyed this
I know the viewers are gonna absolutely buzz off this
so really appreciate you guys
you joining the podcast you too
thank you very much thank you