An instructional leadership novel chronicling a company’s transformation from surviving to thriving. It highlights real leadership experiences using Excellent Cultures’ proven process—nearly five decades building the world’s best cultures for the world’s best companies.

From surviving to thriving.

Gavin Pearson and Stuart Smith were as different as two people could be, each with his own idea of how to grow a successful business.

Gavin grew up in one foster home after another until adopted by a loving couple. What began as a wonderful family changed when his adopted father was killed. Young Gavin and his widowed mother barely made ends meet—she waited tables and cleaned houses.

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

Stock values floundered, stagnated, and then vacillated at sub-standard levels. A Wall Street advisory firm sent Stuart a one-page profile of Gavin Pearson: “He can transform your culture and turn NOP around. Wall Street loves him.”

Gavin was known for fostering a trust-and-openness, high-performance team culture at Prominent Staffing Company. “Bring him on as CEO,” they said.

Stuart was disappointed. Gavin was not a younger version of himself—he was the opposite. Gavin had been immensely successful, but his credentials screamed, “Brand ambassador for organizational development and cultural transformation”—exactly what Stuart dismissed as warm and fuzzy nonsense.

For the love of big money, Stuart had to obey Wall Street’s diktat. And to stay seen as the man pulling the strings, he had to trust Gavin to make NOP a Wall Street darling again—but not for long if Gavin’s methods didn’t work.

Steve Gandara and his team at Excellent Cultures have spent nearly five decades building top cultures for top companies, delivering triple- to quadruple-digit ROIs.