When Derek O’Carroll joined Brightpearl three years ago as CEO, he took on the biggest risk any leader can take – a turnaround. Since then, Derek has led the retail operations platform from stagnant to more than $12 million in revenue, nearly 1,400 customers worldwide, and managing more than $3 billion in orders. Shortlisted for CEO of the Year at the Digital Masters Awards in 2018, his specialties include building exceptional teams, creating winning environments, simple messaging, zero ambiguity, and training for excellence.
Top Takeaways: Leading Through Company Transition with Derek O’Carroll
- Shortlisted for CEO of the year at the 2018 Digital Masters Awards
- Every time I tried to resign, they gave me a new project
- Fix the basics and extract value
- Taught to balance humility with curiosity
- Finding the root cause, not the symptoms
- I was incredibly driven. As a kid I had a heart problem and spent 6 months in a bubble
- Team usually have the answer to the problem around the known barriers they see
- What made the team feel successful when they went home?
- I found 42 issues; I obviously couldn’t address all 42 in the beginning
- We created a 3-year turnaround plan
- Created a coalition of efforts
- Those people who identified themselves as barriers were exited from the company fairly quickly
- We saw pretty quickly who had a high “say-do” ratio
- We told them very openly we would be going through a wall of pain
- We have a path to go from foundational business to market leader
- I’m always asking questions, taking my shoes off and putting on the shoes of the customer
- I never go into a meeting telling people what to do, even if I think I know the answers (I’m usually wrong)
- We are a review culture
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Learning From Leaders:
Current Book: Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value by Melissa Perri
Leadership Superpower: Finding root cause- problem solving
Motivational Mantra:
[shareable cite=”Warren Buffett”]When the sea goes out, you see who is swimming naked[/shareable]
Book Most Often Gifted: His Dark Materials 3-Book – Northern Lights Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Additional Items Mentioned
Derek’s website at Brightpearl: brightpearl.com
