Glued To Your Goals - Dean van Zyl - Leaders Who Scale - Episode # 013

Leaders Who Scale

Planning for even one year down the road for your business is not an easy thing to do. However, Dean van Zyl, the Founder and CEO of National Adhesive, subscribes to a vision that is focused even further into the future as a means of picking the way to get there. Find out how far ahead your vision needs to be for optimal planning, how to differentiate in a crowded market, and what makes up the core of your company’s culture.

Takeaways:

• If you are competing in a crowded market that is confusing to the consumer, use your messaging to educate them on what the right use of the product is and how to use it. This can be a very valuable tool for differentiating your product within the market.
• What mediums are you using to communicate with your current customers? Will these same formats and messaging provide value to the next generation of customers?
• Write out your vision for where the company will be 3-5 years from now in terms of culture, scale, etc. Then work backward from there to see what you need to start doing now to reach that vision.
• Having a deeply thought-out vision allows the entire team to align together and move in one direction more easily. They are able to refer back to the vision and use that to guide their decisions.
• Don’t just sign up for the first tool that you see! Take the time to figure out what you actually need to accomplish with the tool and then consider which tool will be able to help you accomplish the task.
• Culture is not instilled, it is created and developed by leadership. If the culture resonates with people, you know they are a fit in your company, whereas, if it doesn’t resonate with them, their best fit is probably elsewhere.
• If someone does something using a different process but still arrives at the same result, it does not mean the way they got there was wrong. This is crucial to realize before you start delegating tasks to your team.

Quote of the Show:

• “Take care of our people, that the most important thing for me because if I take care of them, they'll take care of the business” - Dean van Zyl

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanvanzyl-na/
• Company website: https://nationaladhesive.com/

Shout Outs:

• Predictable Success by Les McKeown

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/337eea2a-f8ab-4b4f-8a36-fe4143b5913b
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leaders-who-scale/id1609131634
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5PFtdxDlXcnaojG8jJk74T
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGVhZGVyc3dob3NjYWxlLmNvbS9mZWVkLnhtbA
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/mPuQUwfVfz0