Welcome to another episode of the Leadership Project, this time we talk with Peter Cleary, the founder and CEO of Zinc Group.

Zinc is a brand activation business specialising in promotional marketing, relationship marketing, and licensing, with the motto: 'We make brands seen, heard and remembered'.

After leaving a large corporate in 2004 Peter seeing out the 'gardening leave' period wrote up a business plan.  Unusually this business plan was based on what the business would be like to work in, with who and what the culture would be.  Then the business was formulated around those principles.  

To illustrate the success of this approach, Zinc has been acknowledged as one of Australia's best places to work on the BRW list in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015 for companies with less than 100 employees.  As a consequence of that - a rapidly growing business. 

In our conversation we discuss Peter's path to start and as CEO of Zinc Group, starting with Values and Culture. Reversing the corporate mantra of happy shareholders, happy clients then 'staff or teams'.  Evolution of the culture of Zinc based on "Shared Value" and Conscious Capitalism.  Peter's leadership development, the importance of and adaptive, flexible business model with the right leadership group.  As well as what is exciting Peter about Zinc today and so much more. 

Show Notes:

• From corporate to founder to CEO/Managing Director [2:04]
• First Mentor - Peter Grogan [2:25]
• Large corporate 'experiences' [3:05]
• "Garding leave" then making a conscious career decision through experimentation [4:10]
• "What I realised... it wasn't so much what I did, it was how I was doing it that was actually more important" [4:52]
• Writing a Business Plan about the type of business I always wanted to work in [5:20] 
• Starting with culture before business offering [5:58] 
• "Imagine if you had a place where people actually could sincerely give a shit about each other" [7:33]
• Intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically motivated [8:00]
• Reversing the Mantra - Shareholders, Clients and Staff [8:40]
• How has the culture matured/evolved since the beginning to today? [10:30]
• The philosophy of "Shared Value" - Michael Porter  [11:50]
• More on Shared Value: http://sharedvalue.org/about-shared-value
• "Capitalism doesn't have to be a zero sum game" [12:19]
• Conscious Capitalism [12:45]

• Like minded businesses [12:54]
      - Swisse - Radek Sali  
      - Intrepid Travel - Geoff Manchester
• Formal development Vs Self development [15:00]  
• "The best thing I ever did" - Business Coach [16:52]
• MBA and/or Business Coaching/Mentoring? [17:30]
• You never stop learning [20:17]
• Greatest leadership challenge [20:49]
       - A business adaptive and flexible to change
       - A leadership group to help lead that evolution
• What characteristics do you look for in a leader (if you were to replace yourself as CEO/MD?) [22:20]
• "Sometimes you need to lead and sometimes you need to follow & picking that can be a challenge" [23:16]
• Retention at Zinc - a retention rate that was too high. [23:35]
• Culture meetings & the evolution of benefits - "shared value" at Zinc [25:45]
• What's exciting you about Zinc at the moment? [29:50]
• Fewer clients - Jerry Maguire moment [31:56]
• Asian expansion [35:55]
• Culture during an acquisition - Origination CRM (OCRM) [37:27]   
• Leadership in the future of an ever changing world [41:00]
• Where is the next generation of leaders going to come? [42:24]
• Environmental & Social impact - responsible business [45:46]
• Social levy: Cambodian Kids Foundation [46:05]
• Carbon offsetting [47:18]
• Bcorp   [47:54]

In the last 15 minutes Peter made a great point by asking the following question:

Where is the next generation of leaders coming from considering the recent changes in online, mobile device based social media?  The Social and environmental impacts, addressing the wealth gap....  These are emerging issues today, but critical for tomorrow.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments for this podcast episode, on Facebook Page or Twitter (@matcoolahan).

A very big thank you to Peter Cleary for his time, experience and insights. Thank you too for listening to this episode of the podcast.  

If you enjoyed the interview, subscribe on your podcast player of choice!  or share it via social media, recommend it or leave the podcast a rating in iTunes or Stitcher, it only takes a minute or two and it really helps the show be discovered by more like minded people.

Check out Zinc Group on zincgroup.com - particularly their about page on their website as it contains their values statement, an informative video titled "We put people first so great things follow".  

All references and resources are linked in the show notes, they can be found at the website: leadershipproject.co/podcast.  Whilst on the website check out the blog, I have been working with artist Cons Balaquena to create a series I am calling "Quotables". Which are quotes from the podcast inked out in comic strip form.  I am also splicing the images and adding the original audio as a short video on specific points made during the interviews.  The art can be purchased as framed prints or canvas via our Society6 page - the links are on the blog post.

You can find the leadership project on Facebook - search the words "Leadership Project Page" - Like us there for updates.

To connect with me, I am on LinkedIn as Mat Coolahan
on Twitter you can find me: @matcoolahan.  

The Leadership Project is on Instagram - search for me there as the leadership project - spelled out as one word.  Why Instagram? simply - it is great for engagement, I am currently posting leadership quotes, including quotes and insights by the podcast guests. 

As always our theme song was written and performed by The Freak Fandango Orchestra.