"Success starts with the people."
Meet Jim Estill – owner and CEO of Danby Appliances. They sell about 2,000,000 appliances per year – mostly fridges, freezers, wine coolers but also window and portable air conditioners, dehumidifiers(the common theme – they have compressors). And microwaves, stoves, dishwashers, laundry, etc.
Jim has been an entrepreneur for his entire life. Growing a technology distribution business from the trunk of his car to more than $2 Billion in sales. He is an investor, advisor, and board member to many technology businesses, including Blackberry – formerly Research In Motion (RIM) – where he served as a founding director for 13 years.
He has also written two books. One on time management called “Time Leadership: Using the Secrets of Leadership for Time Management,” and more recently “Zero to $2 Billion: The Marketing and Branding Story Behind the Growth.”
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We’re happy that you could join us today! Please introduce yourself to our readers. What’s your story?
Jim Estill: I started my first company from zero and grew it to $2 Billion in sales. Invested in, mentored, and was a board member on over 150 start-ups including Blackberry where I was on their board before they went public for 13 years. I retired and sat on the board of Danby Appliances. The CEO resigned so I said I could run it for a while. I got back to running a company and decided that was my next decade gig.
Then the owners asked me to sell it. I asked “for how much” – they told me and I bought the business. Danby makes and sells about 2,000,000 appliances per year – fridges, freezers, wine coolers, etc.
CEOs and leaders usually have different motives and aspirations when getting started. Let’s go straight to the beginning. What was your primary goal for starting your business? Was it wealth, respect, or to offer a service that would help improve lives?
Jim Estill: My primary motivation when starting my business was independence. I wanted to feel in control.
Tell us about 2 things that you like and two things that you dislike about your industry. Share what you’d like to see change and why.
Jim Estill: I like that our industry (appliances) is old and slow. It gives companies like ours opportunity to innovate. I like that our industry is quickly moving to more environmentally friendly solutions. It allows us to have a positive impact on the world.
I dislike that margins are low in appliances. I guess the advantage of this is it forces us to be good and efficient. I dislike the supply chain dependencies this industry has. This makes it harder to innovate.
Companies around the world are rapidly changing their work environment and organizational culture to facilitate diversity. How do you see your organizational culture changing in the next 3 years and how do you see yourself creating that change?
Jim Estill: The pandemic forced an involuntary change in all companies. That made it perfect for us to launch diversity initiatives and change the culture for the positive. Demographics in North America are also bad so companies everyone they can get. This helps diversity happen easily.
According to the Michigan State University “An organization’s culture is responsible for creating the kind of environment in which the business is managed, and has a major impact on its ultimate success or failure.” What kind of culture has your organization adopted and how has it impacted your business?
Jim Estill: Our culture is hardworking and efficient. Transparent. High communication. And interestingly we have a culture of failure – meaning we try things. Fail often, fail fast, fail cheaply. Having a failure does not make us a failure.
Richard Branson once famously stated “There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.” and Stephen R. Covey admonishes to “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers. What’s your take on creating a great organizational culture?
Jim Estill: This is highly relevant to everything we have been doing. Success starts with the people. So we are investing in our people and their development. We also practice Servant Leadership.
I always say don’t treat people the way you want to be treated. Treat them how THEY want to be treated.
The overwhelming majority of more than 9,000 workers included in a recent Accenture survey on the future of work said they felt a hybrid work model would be optimal going forward, a major reason for that being the improved work-life balance that it offers. How do you promote work-life balance at your company?
Jim Estill: We ask, we listen and we hear what people want. I also model healthy behaviors. We lead by example.
Flex hours are one of the best things companies can do. It allows people to look after their personal lives on the schedule they need to.
How would you describe your company’s overall culture? Give us examples.
Jim Estill: Collegial – we often speak in terms of Team Danby. We deliberately try to work together.
Entrepreneurial – EG – we assembled 10,000 ventilators to help the pandemic and this is not our business. We believe successful companies do tough things. An example of this is running our own fleet of trucks rather than just contracting our everything.
Communication – we try hard to be transparent. We share financial statements quarterly with the whole company at town halls.
It is believed that a company’s culture is rooted in a company’s values. What are your values and how do they affect daily life at the workplace?
Jim Estill: Our tagline is “Do the Right Thing”. It is on our website, building, and cards. This really sums it up. On a personal basis, I work solely for the good of the world.
An organization’s management has a deep impact on its culture. What is your management style and how well has it worked so far?
Jim Estill: I am the opposite of a micromanager. I try to practice Servant Leadership. I view my job as helping my team be successful.
As you can tell from my answers, I am also not a formal or bureaucratic person.
Every organization suffers from internal conflicts, whether functional or dysfunctional. Our readers would love to know, how do you solve an internal conflict?
Jim Estill: Talk. It ties to our culture of communication. We also try to seek a win-win.
According to Culture AMP, Only 40% of women feel satisfied with the decision-making process at their organization (versus 70% of men), which leads to job dissatisfaction and poor employee retention. What is your organization doing to facilitate an inclusive and supportive environment for women?
Jim Estill: There are a lot of women in leadership positions at Danby. Every voice is heard.
What role do your company’s culture and values play in the recruitment process and how do you ensure that it is free from bias?
Jim Estill: There have been many articles written on Danby’s charitable efforts. This tends to attract people who want to be part of that.
Our interviewers and culture committee are of mixed genders and races. Because Danby is so multicultural, this does not seem to be an issue for us.
We’re grateful for all that you have shared so far! We would also love to know if there was one thing that you could improve about your company’s culture, what would it be?
Jim Estill: I am impatient. We are fairly fast but I wish we were faster. Companies with sense of urgency win.
This has been truly insightful and we thank you for your time. Our final question, however, might be a bit of a curveball. If you had a choice to either fly or be invisible, which would you choose and why?
Jim Estill: Invisibility would be cool. (pre-pandemic – I used to fly almost every week and it was not that fun)
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Jim Estill for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jim Estill or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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