IAM1267 – How does Company Culture make an Impact to our Employees?
Podcast Interview with Robert Kohlhepp
Robert J. Kohlhepp is the Retired Chairman of Cintas Corporation. Robert joined Cintas in July 1967 as Controller. He was promoted to the positions of General Manager, Vice President, and Treasurer. In 1979 he was elected Executive Vice President, and a member of the company’s Board of Directors. In 1984 Robert was elected President, and in 1995 he was elected Chief Executive Officer. He served as Vice Chairman from 2003 to 2009 and as Chairman of the Board from 2009 to 2016.
- CEO Story: Robert was hesitant at first when he was invited by the founder of Cintas Mr. Dick Farmer. Through persistence, Robert finally gave in to meet the founder and bet that was his best decision ever made to join Cintas. From controller to CEO, from Vice-Chairman to Board. Robert made a huge impact in the company, on his workers, and in dealing with their customers
- Business Service: With vast products and services for their clients, they pay so much attention to their customer service.
- Secret Sauce: The culture. Define that culture and be sure people are living with the culture. It’s the ultimate competitive advantage.
- CEO Hack: Dogged Determination is the single most important in every successful person. You may get knocked down, but you will get back up and get back right to the game.
- CEO Nugget: The importance of hiring. Turnover is expensive. They develop meticulous hiring. Focus on hiring decisions.
- CEO Defined: Responsibility. Making the right decision because there are 30,000 employees relying on that decision. It should be well-thought, well-planned, and well-executed.
Book Link: Build-Better-Organization-Leadership-High-Performance
build-a-better-organization-Robert-j-Kohlhepp
Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE
Transcription
The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!
Please Note: Our team is using the AI CEO Hacks: Exemplary AI and Otter.ai to support our podcast transcription. While we know it's improving there may be some inaccuracies, we are updating and improving them. Please contact us if you notice any issues, you can also test out Exemplary AI here.
00:17 – Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:43 – Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Robert Kohlhepp of Centos. Robert, it's great to have you on the show.
00:52 – Robert Kohlhepp
Gresham, thanks for having me.
00:53 – Gresham Harkless
Yes, super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Robert so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Robert is the retired chairman of Centos Corporation. Robert Slash Robert actually joined Centos in July 1967 as a controller. He was promoted to the positions of general manager, vice president, and treasurer.
In 1979, he was elected executive vice president and member of the company's board of directors. In 1984, Robert was elected president and in 1995, he was elected chief executive officer. He served as a vice president chairman from 2003 to 2009 and that's a chairman of the board from 2009 to 2016. Robert, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
[restrict paid=”true”]
01:30 – Robert Kohlhepp
Let's do it.
01:33 – Gresham Harkless
Let's make it happen then. So I know I touched on your story a little bit, but I wanted to rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.
01:45 – Robert Kohlhepp
Well, how do I get started at SINDOS? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was in public accounting. I was a practicing CPA. And one day the telephone rang and a gentleman on the other end of the phone was named Dick Farmer, who's the founder of the company. And he called me up and he said he heard about me and he said he would like to talk to me about coming to work for it. And I said, Dick, thank you very much for calling. I'm really not interested. I'm happy where I am. And I hung up. Well, Dick was a very persistent guy.
He kept calling back and finally convinced me that there was no harm in at least meeting him and talking about it. And we met and we really hit it off well. He had a vision of building Centos into a national company. And he said he thought I could play a key role in making that happen. And I was 23 years old at the time. So I figured it's worth taking the chance and the best decision I ever made was going to work for them.
02:38 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, it definitely sounds like that. And everything sometimes happens from a conversation. And even though the journey is in the past, sometimes they'll go away. We always assume they'll go. It sounds like you made a really great call in terms of taking that phone call, taking that opportunity to kind of hit the ground running from there.
02:54 – Robert Kohlhepp
Absolutely. It was a difficult decision. I had a hard time making up my mind. I prayed about it and decided that it was the right thing to do.
03:02 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. So could you take me through a little bit more about Centos what you all did and how you made an impact on the clients that you work with?
03:09 – Robert Kohlhepp
Well, Centos, I started in 1967, as you said. At the time I started, the company did about a million 6 in sales, had 62 employees, and barely made a profit. And today we have almost 8 billion in sales, 40, almost 42, 000 employees and are a very profitable company. We focused on taking care of our customers and building the business. We focused on our employees, hiring good people, and motivating those people. And if you would ask me today if I ever dreamed Centos would be as big as it was or is, I would tell you no.
But we sort of developed goals in 5-year increments when we were doing a million and a half, we said, how can we get to 10 million? And when we got to 10 million, we said, how can we get to 25 million? And sort of did it in 5 year increments and we continue to do that today. I think the company is founded on great customer service, great products, and care for our customers. Actually, we revere our customers because they're paying for everything. Some companies haven't figured that out, but we certainly did. And then we focused all on our people, hiring good people, quality people, people who were dedicated, willing to work hard, and shared the vision we had and the culture we had at the company. And it all worked out very well.
04:32 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that so much. And I think so many times and going back in that time machine, so to speak, and hearing of the progression and the way that you approach that progression is absolutely huge because I think so many times you see since I should see an extraordinary success that you all have been able to have, but you don't hear the 5-year increments, the 5 years, I don't know if you call 5 years of the sprint, but it kind of feels like that in relation to the timeline of how you were able to kind of get and continue to kind of grow and see that success.
05:00 – Robert Kohlhepp
Yeah, absolutely. And, it was something that was, well thought out and well planned. We had a very good plan for each 5 years. And I think it's difficult to plan beyond 5 years because the environment in which you're operating changes so much. And so I think trying to come up with a 15 or 20-year plan is just not appropriate because of the changing environment and the situation. But it worked well for us. And we still do that today. The 5-year, I mean, the goals didn't change, but the strategy because the marketplace was changing, the customer base was changing, our business was changing. And so the strategy to accomplish the goals is what really changed.
05:40 – Gresham Harkless
Nice. Yeah, I think that's a big part. And especially as we talked about, you know, with change, so many times people think that you, for lack of a better term, move the goalposts and you decide to change what the goals are, but in reality, what you wanna do is realize that the, I guess, environment or the industry may be potentially might have disruptions or changes. So you change the strategy so that you still reach the goal. You just might have to do it in a different way.
06:02 – Robert Kohlhepp
Exactly right. Yes.
06:04 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself, the organization, or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?
06:14 – Robert Kohlhepp
Well, Gresham, I think the secret sauce is the culture we have at Syntos. Every organization has a culture. You think about any jobs you've had, if you think about the high school you went to, the college you went to, there was a culture there. There's a culture in every business and every organization. What so many companies don't do is take the time to define what that culture is and what they want it to be. And then to be sure that people are living by that culture and buy into that culture and be sure that people who you hire are compatible with that culture.
And that doesn't mean that we're better than they are, they're worse than they are, but if they're not compatible with our culture, they don't believe in honesty and integrity, hard work, taking care of the customer, and treating every employee with respect. If they don't believe in those things, they're not going to fit well in the centos, they're not going to do well in the centos. So our interviewing process was as much focused on, whether is this person going to be compatible with our company. As it was, does this person have the skills it takes to do the job?
And so defining that culture and cultivating that culture and making sure that everybody was in sync with that culture was the secret sauce. We called it the ultimate competitive advantage because it's difficult to copy. You can't see it. You can't feel it. You can't touch it. It's not a product. It's not a service. It's an intangible that exists within an organization. And if you can get the vast majority of people in the organization to buy into that culture, it becomes an awesome force. And that's what we had and have and still have today.
07:51 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. I love that. And I appreciate you breaking that down so much. I love how you said the ultimate competitive advantage because I think, as you said, you know, so well actually creating a space, taking the time, you know, even investing the resource into creating that culture.
08:04 – Robert Kohlhepp
And I think the other thing too that we worked very hard on was making the culture, the culture of Cintas, not my culture, not the CEO that I succeeded or the CEO that succeeded me. If you think about Lee Iacocca when he took over Chrysler many years ago, really turned the company around and took it from a loser to a very successful company, completely redesigning the way they design cars. And He used to have this ad, if you can find a better car, you go ahead and buy it because we make great cars and you ought to look at our cars. And he did a wonderful job there.
But when Lee Iacocca retired and left Chrysler, it went right back to where it was before because it was Lee Iacocca's culture, not Chrysler's culture. And therefore it didn't span the test of time. And so what happens is that if it becomes an individual's culture, when that individual leaves, all of a sudden a new person comes in as a new CEO, they have a different culture, different values. And all of a sudden people have to adjust and change everything they're doing. We made sure it was Sintas's culture, not my culture, not the founder's culture, not my successor's culture. And I think that's very important that it becomes the company's culture, not the individual management team's culture.
09:21 – Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. So I appreciate you so much for sharing that and how that, again, has been those foundational blocks in that fabric, according to everything you all have been able to do. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient?
09:42 – Robert Kohlhepp
Well, I would say, well, I was asked recently, what is the most important trait of a successful person? And without hesitation, I gave this answer. I believe the most important trait of any successful person is dogged determination. You're going to get knocked down. There are roadblocks in the way, orange barrels everywhere. The road to success is always under construction. The people who are successful are the people who understand they're going to get knocked down. And when they do, they dust themselves off, they get back up, and they get right back into the game.
And I think that determination is more important than intelligence, it's more important than your looks, it's more important than anything. If you have that dogged determination that I'm gonna get this done, I'm gonna do it honestly, I'm gonna do it fairly, but I'm gonna go over roadblocks, I'm gonna go through roadblocks, I'm gonna go under roadblocks, but I'm gonna get to where I'm going. That dogged determination, in my opinion, is the single most important ingredient in every successful person.
10:48 – Gresham Harkless
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I wanted to ask you now, you might've already touched on this, what I like to call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.
11:03 – Robert Kohlhepp
Well, my nugget would be the importance of hiring. If you look at what it costs to turnover, have turnover in your organization, it's very, very expensive. In fact, I've recently read that the national turnover rate in the country has gone from 57 to like 75%. That means 3, not 3 out of every 4 people, because sometimes it's the same person more than once, are leaving their jobs and going someplace else. Turnover is one of the most expensive expenses that you have that's not on your operating statement. And so many companies don't focus on it. The number one reason we found for turnover was that we didn't hire the person properly.
We shouldn't have hired them in the first place. So we developed a program called meticulous hiring. You went on many, many interviews before you got a job from us. We were not only focused, as I said earlier, on is this person qualified to do the job but is this person going to be compatible with our organization. Are we going to like them? Are they going to like us? And is it a good marriage instead of a strained marriage? We check references very, very carefully. We in interviews ask a lot of behavioral questions because we believe that past behavior predicts future behavior. So we would ask questions like, who's the best boss you ever had and why?
Who's the worst boss you ever had and why? What's the toughest decision you ever have made? How did it turn out? Why did you do what you did? Who are you? Who's your best friend? Who do you associate with? Tell me about your family and your upbringing and so forth. And so we would get into a lot of behavioral questions trying to create questions that we asked a situation and how the applicant would deal with that situation. And you learn a lot about people that way. In your last performance review, what areas did your boss tell you you needed to improve in?
Then in the reference check, I would ask the former boss the same question. You'd be surprised how often I got different answers from each party. So my point is this, the importance of hiring the right people is critical so that those people stay with you, they're successful with you, they're compatible with you, because if you lose them, it's very, very expensive. The other thing I would tell you is that when you have an employee who has done a good job and they walk in and they quit, fight like crazy to keep them.
We used to talk about 20, 25% of the people who resigned had another job out of leaving and staying with us because we knew how important they were to us. So my nugget would be really focused on the hiring decision. Don't get worn down because you haven't found the right candidate. Don't compromise because a person's good, but not quite what you really wanted until you find the right person. That's a good fit. Meticulously hire the people who join your organization.
13:56 – Gresham Harkless
Nice. I absolutely appreciate that. The meticulous hiring. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping that different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Robert, what does being a CEO mean to you?
14:09 – Robert Kohlhepp
Well, being a CEO is a very big responsibility for people who do it properly, in my opinion. I, When I was a CEO, I think we had as many as 30, 000 people before I retired. I worried very much every day, every night about, am I making the right decisions for those 30, 000 people. People are counting on you to make the right decision. You need to be very careful in your decision-making process. You need to make decisions for the benefit of all those people, not just yourself, not just the people in the C-suite, but every single person who works in your company.
And I think I took that very seriously. And there's a lot of pressure. I'd say the only other pressure that I ever had in my life was being a father. That's a lot of pressure on that too, because it's more an emotional pressure than it is anything else. But I think taking into account that you are making decisions for a lot of people in your organization. And those decisions have to be well thought out, well planned, and well executed because it's a CEO's responsibility to do that.
15:16 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do now is passion, Mike, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.
15:28 – Robert Kohlhepp
Well, one final thing I guess I would say is to have high expectations for yourself, and for the people who work for you and for your organization. You should always aim high.
15:37 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And people that want to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to do that?
15:41 – Robert Kohlhepp
Well, I've written a book called Build a Better Organization. I have a website Robert cohab.com where you can order the book that way hear my podcasts and read some of the articles I've written. And it's also available on Barnes and Noble and, and Amazon.
15:58 – Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And to make it even easier, We'll have Robert's information in the show notes as well. So you can subscribe to his podcast, get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on. Truly appreciate you for showing us that, reminding us of how important that is. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:13 – Robert Kohlhepp
Thank you Gresham, and thanks so much for having me.
16:15 – Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
00:17 - Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.
00:43 - Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Robert Kohlhepp of Centos. Robert, it's great to have you on the show.
00:52 - Robert Kohlhepp
Gresham, thanks for having me.
00:53 - Gresham Harkless
Yes, super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Robert so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Robert is the retired chairman of Centos Corporation. Robert Slash Robert actually joined Centos in July 1967 as a controller. He was promoted to the positions of general manager, vice president, and treasurer.
In 1979, he was elected executive vice president and member of the company's board of directors. In 1984, Robert was elected president and in 1995, he was elected chief executive officer. He served as a vice president chairman from 2003 to 2009 and that's a chairman of the board from 2009 to 2016. Robert, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
01:30 - Robert Kohlhepp
Let's do it.
01:33 - Gresham Harkless
Let's make it happen then. So I know I touched on your story a little bit, but I wanted to rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.
01:45 - Robert Kohlhepp
Well, how do I get started at SINDOS? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was in public accounting. I was a practicing CPA. And one day the telephone rang and a gentleman on the other end of the phone was named Dick Farmer, who's the founder of the company. And he called me up and he said he heard about me and he said he would like to talk to me about coming to work for it. And I said, Dick, thank you very much for calling. I'm really not interested. I'm happy where I am. And I hung up. Well, Dick was a very persistent guy.
He kept calling back and finally convinced me that there was no harm in at least meeting him and talking about it. And we met and we really hit it off well. He had a vision of building Centos into a national company. And he said he thought I could play a key role in making that happen. And I was 23 years old at the time. So I figured it's worth taking the chance and the best decision I ever made was going to work for them.
02:38 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, it definitely sounds like that. And everything sometimes happens from a conversation. And even though the journey is in the past, sometimes they'll go away. We always assume they'll go. It sounds like you made a really great call in terms of taking that phone call, taking that opportunity to kind of hit the ground running from there.
02:54 - Robert Kohlhepp
Absolutely. It was a difficult decision. I had a hard time making up my mind. I prayed about it and decided that it was the right thing to do.
03:02 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. So could you take me through a little bit more about Centos what you all did and how you made an impact on the clients that you work with?
03:09 - Robert Kohlhepp
Well, Centos, I started in 1967, as you said. At the time I started, the company did about a million 6 in sales, had 62 employees, and barely made a profit. And today we have almost 8 billion in sales, 40, almost 42, 000 employees and are a very profitable company. We focused on taking care of our customers and building the business. We focused on our employees, hiring good people, and motivating those people. And if you would ask me today if I ever dreamed Centos would be as big as it was or is, I would tell you no.
But we sort of developed goals in 5-year increments when we were doing a million and a half, we said, how can we get to 10 million? And when we got to 10 million, we said, how can we get to 25 million? And sort of did it in 5 year increments and we continue to do that today. I think the company is founded on great customer service, great products, and care for our customers. Actually, we revere our customers because they're paying for everything. Some companies haven't figured that out, but we certainly did. And then we focused all on our people, hiring good people, quality people, people who were dedicated, willing to work hard, and shared the vision we had and the culture we had at the company. And it all worked out very well.
04:32 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that so much. And I think so many times and going back in that time machine, so to speak, and hearing of the progression and the way that you approach that progression is absolutely huge because I think so many times you see since I should see an extraordinary success that you all have been able to have, but you don't hear the 5-year increments, the 5 years, I don't know if you call 5 years of the sprint, but it kind of feels like that in relation to the timeline of how you were able to kind of get and continue to kind of grow and see that success.
05:00 - Robert Kohlhepp
Yeah, absolutely. And, it was something that was, well thought out and well planned. We had a very good plan for each 5 years. And I think it's difficult to plan beyond 5 years because the environment in which you're operating changes so much. And so I think trying to come up with a 15 or 20-year plan is just not appropriate because of the changing environment and the situation. But it worked well for us. And we still do that today. The 5-year, I mean, the goals didn't change, but the strategy because the marketplace was changing, the customer base was changing, our business was changing. And so the strategy to accomplish the goals is what really changed.
05:40 - Gresham Harkless
Nice. Yeah, I think that's a big part. And especially as we talked about, you know, with change, so many times people think that you, for lack of a better term, move the goalposts and you decide to change what the goals are, but in reality, what you wanna do is realize that the, I guess, environment or the industry may be potentially might have disruptions or changes. So you change the strategy so that you still reach the goal. You just might have to do it in a different way.
06:02 - Robert Kohlhepp
Exactly right. Yes.
06:04 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself, the organization, or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?
06:14 - Robert Kohlhepp
Well, Gresham, I think the secret sauce is the culture we have at Syntos. Every organization has a culture. You think about any jobs you've had, if you think about the high school you went to, the college you went to, there was a culture there. There's a culture in every business and every organization. What so many companies don't do is take the time to define what that culture is and what they want it to be. And then to be sure that people are living by that culture and buy into that culture and be sure that people who you hire are compatible with that culture.
And that doesn't mean that we're better than they are, they're worse than they are, but if they're not compatible with our culture, they don't believe in honesty and integrity, hard work, taking care of the customer, and treating every employee with respect. If they don't believe in those things, they're not going to fit well in the centos, they're not going to do well in the centos. So our interviewing process was as much focused on, whether is this person going to be compatible with our company. As it was, does this person have the skills it takes to do the job?
And so defining that culture and cultivating that culture and making sure that everybody was in sync with that culture was the secret sauce. We called it the ultimate competitive advantage because it's difficult to copy. You can't see it. You can't feel it. You can't touch it. It's not a product. It's not a service. It's an intangible that exists within an organization. And if you can get the vast majority of people in the organization to buy into that culture, it becomes an awesome force. And that's what we had and have and still have today.
07:51 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. I love that. And I appreciate you breaking that down so much. I love how you said the ultimate competitive advantage because I think, as you said, you know, so well actually creating a space, taking the time, you know, even investing the resource into creating that culture.
08:04 - Robert Kohlhepp
And I think the other thing too that we worked very hard on was making the culture, the culture of Cintas, not my culture, not the CEO that I succeeded or the CEO that succeeded me. If you think about Lee Iacocca when he took over Chrysler many years ago, really turned the company around and took it from a loser to a very successful company, completely redesigning the way they design cars. And He used to have this ad, if you can find a better car, you go ahead and buy it because we make great cars and you ought to look at our cars. And he did a wonderful job there.
But when Lee Iacocca retired and left Chrysler, it went right back to where it was before because it was Lee Iacocca's culture, not Chrysler's culture. And therefore it didn't span the test of time. And so what happens is that if it becomes an individual's culture, when that individual leaves, all of a sudden a new person comes in as a new CEO, they have a different culture, different values. And all of a sudden people have to adjust and change everything they're doing. We made sure it was Sintas's culture, not my culture, not the founder's culture, not my successor's culture. And I think that's very important that it becomes the company's culture, not the individual management team's culture.
09:21 - Gresham Harkless
Yeah, absolutely. So I appreciate you so much for sharing that and how that, again, has been those foundational blocks in that fabric, according to everything you all have been able to do. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient?
09:42 - Robert Kohlhepp
Well, I would say, well, I was asked recently, what is the most important trait of a successful person? And without hesitation, I gave this answer. I believe the most important trait of any successful person is dogged determination. You're going to get knocked down. There are roadblocks in the way, orange barrels everywhere. The road to success is always under construction. The people who are successful are the people who understand they're going to get knocked down. And when they do, they dust themselves off, they get back up, and they get right back into the game.
And I think that determination is more important than intelligence, it's more important than your looks, it's more important than anything. If you have that dogged determination that I'm gonna get this done, I'm gonna do it honestly, I'm gonna do it fairly, but I'm gonna go over roadblocks, I'm gonna go through roadblocks, I'm gonna go under roadblocks, but I'm gonna get to where I'm going. That dogged determination, in my opinion, is the single most important ingredient in every successful person.
10:48 - Gresham Harkless
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I wanted to ask you now, you might've already touched on this, what I like to call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.
11:03 - Robert Kohlhepp
Well, my nugget would be the importance of hiring. If you look at what it costs to turnover, have turnover in your organization, it's very, very expensive. In fact, I've recently read that the national turnover rate in the country has gone from 57 to like 75%. That means 3, not 3 out of every 4 people, because sometimes it's the same person more than once, are leaving their jobs and going someplace else. Turnover is one of the most expensive expenses that you have that's not on your operating statement. And so many companies don't focus on it. The number one reason we found for turnover was that we didn't hire the person properly.
We shouldn't have hired them in the first place. So we developed a program called meticulous hiring. You went on many, many interviews before you got a job from us. We were not only focused, as I said earlier, on is this person qualified to do the job but is this person going to be compatible with our organization. Are we going to like them? Are they going to like us? And is it a good marriage instead of a strained marriage? We check references very, very carefully. We in interviews ask a lot of behavioral questions because we believe that past behavior predicts future behavior. So we would ask questions like, who's the best boss you ever had and why?
Who's the worst boss you ever had and why? What's the toughest decision you ever have made? How did it turn out? Why did you do what you did? Who are you? Who's your best friend? Who do you associate with? Tell me about your family and your upbringing and so forth. And so we would get into a lot of behavioral questions trying to create questions that we asked a situation and how the applicant would deal with that situation. And you learn a lot about people that way. In your last performance review, what areas did your boss tell you you needed to improve in?
Then in the reference check, I would ask the former boss the same question. You'd be surprised how often I got different answers from each party. So my point is this, the importance of hiring the right people is critical so that those people stay with you, they're successful with you, they're compatible with you, because if you lose them, it's very, very expensive. The other thing I would tell you is that when you have an employee who has done a good job and they walk in and they quit, fight like crazy to keep them.
We used to talk about 20, 25% of the people who resigned had another job out of leaving and staying with us because we knew how important they were to us. So my nugget would be really focused on the hiring decision. Don't get worn down because you haven't found the right candidate. Don't compromise because a person's good, but not quite what you really wanted until you find the right person. That's a good fit. Meticulously hire the people who join your organization.
13:56 - Gresham Harkless
Nice. I absolutely appreciate that. The meticulous hiring. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping that different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Robert, what does being a CEO mean to you?
14:09 - Robert Kohlhepp
Well, being a CEO is a very big responsibility for people who do it properly, in my opinion. I, When I was a CEO, I think we had as many as 30, 000 people before I retired. I worried very much every day, every night about, am I making the right decisions for those 30, 000 people. People are counting on you to make the right decision. You need to be very careful in your decision-making process. You need to make decisions for the benefit of all those people, not just yourself, not just the people in the C-suite, but every single person who works in your company.
And I think I took that very seriously. And there's a lot of pressure. I'd say the only other pressure that I ever had in my life was being a father. That's a lot of pressure on that too, because it's more an emotional pressure than it is anything else. But I think taking into account that you are making decisions for a lot of people in your organization. And those decisions have to be well thought out, well planned, and well executed because it's a CEO's responsibility to do that.
15:16 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do now is passion, Mike, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.
15:28 - Robert Kohlhepp
Well, one final thing I guess I would say is to have high expectations for yourself, and for the people who work for you and for your organization. You should always aim high.
15:37 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And people that want to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to do that?
15:41 - Robert Kohlhepp
Well, I've written a book called Build a Better Organization. I have a website Robert cohab.com where you can order the book that way hear my podcasts and read some of the articles I've written. And it's also available on Barnes and Noble and, and Amazon.
15:58 - Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And to make it even easier, We'll have Robert's information in the show notes as well. So you can subscribe to his podcast, get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on. Truly appreciate you for showing us that, reminding us of how important that is. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
16:13 - Robert Kohlhepp
Thank you Gresham, and thanks so much for having me.
16:15 - Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
Sign up to receive email updates
Enter your name and email address below and I'll send you periodic updates about the podcast.
[/restrict]
