In this new episode of Mastering Workplace Culture, hosts S. Chris Edmonds and Mark S. Babbitt welcome Tom Milar, Founder & CEO of Eqvista, an equity management and private market valuation platform serving more than 25,000 companies worldwide.

Tom's leadership philosophy challenges many modern workplace assumptions. While some organizations become trapped in meetings, bureaucracy, and lengthy approval cycles, Tom believes great companies move quickly, learn constantly, focus relentlessly on customers, and empower talented people to make decisions.

Drawing on his experience building companies across Europe and Asia, scaling remote teams, and leading rapid growth, Tom shares practical lessons on accountability, execution, learning, and customer success.

One theme appears throughout the conversation:

Culture follows execution.

When people understand the mission, embrace ownership, and focus on solving customer problems, growth follows.

✅ Why Tom chose entrepreneurship over large organizations
✅ How mission and urgency shape workplace culture
✅ Why learning matters more than credentials
✅ How Eqvista built a high-performance culture
✅ Why great people attract great people
✅ The leadership value of learning through mistakes
✅ Why customer focus drives every important decision
✅ How startup culture differs from traditional corporate culture

One of Tom's most memorable observations:

"If you hire good people, they hire good people."

S. Chris Edmonds
Mark S. Babbitt

Tom Milar
Founder & CEO, Eqvista

00:00 MWC Intro
00:45 Meet Tom Milar
02:00 Why Tom Chose Entrepreneurship
04:00 Mission, Vision, and Urgency
08:00 Building Eqvista's Culture
10:00 Revenue First, Meetings Second
12:00 Why Learning Beats Experience
14:00 Growth Through Constant Adaptation
17:00 Corporate Culture vs. Startup Culture
20:00 Building Teams Around Speed
23:00 Why Great People Attract Great People
25:00 Letting People Learn Through Failure
27:00 The Role of Leadership in Culture
30:00 Why HR Problems Rarely Appear
34:00 Coaching Through Ownership
36:00 Revenue-Oriented Leadership
40:00 Common Sense as a Leadership Tool
46:00 Life Beyond Work: Coaching Youth Hockey
50:00 Final Leadership Takeaways
50:45 MWC Outro

• Great cultures require clarity and urgency.
• Continuous learning creates competitive advantages.
• Customers drive priorities.
• High performers attract other high performers.
• Leaders create growth by trusting people to learn.
• Common sense remains one of the most underrated leadership skills.

Which leadership principle drives the strongest workplace culture?

Share your biggest takeaway from this conversation with Tom Milar.

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📤 Share this episode with a founder, entrepreneur, executive, manager, coach, or culture champion who believes great organizations are built through ownership, speed, and execution.

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In this new episode of Mastering Workplace Culture, hosts S. Chris Edmonds and Mark S. Babbitt welcome George Bickerstaff, former Fortune 10 CFO, investment banker, board chairman, healthcare leader, author of more than 40 books, and founder of the Global Leaders Network.

Over a remarkable 40-year career, George has served on more than 40 corporate and nonprofit boards, led global organizations, raised hundreds of millions of dollars for strategic initiatives, and built one of the world's most influential executive communities. Yet his guiding principle remains surprisingly simple:

Find good, smart people doing interesting things and help them.

Throughout this fascinating conversation, George shares lessons about trust, leadership, governance, board effectiveness, organizational culture, executive decision-making, networking, faith, and the importance of helping people connect, share, and evolve together.

One theme appears again and again:

Trust is the foundation of everything.

George discusses:

✅ How great leaders build trust over time.

✅ Why integrity compounds and dishonesty destroys credibility quickly.

✅ Lessons learned from working directly with Jack Welch at General Electric.

✅ How boards fail when people protect positions instead of solving problems.

✅ Why passive-aggressive leadership behaviors damage organizations.

✅ How leaders recover from mistakes while maintaining trust.

✅ Building global networks that connect leaders across industries and countries.

✅ The relationship between trust, culture, and faith.

One of George's most memorable observations:

💬"Connect, share, and evolve."

That philosophy guided his leadership career and ultimately led to the creation of a global network of executives, directors, CEOs, CFOs, investors, founders, and leaders representing a significant portion of the world's economic activity.

🎙️ Hosts

S. Chris Edmonds

Mark S. Babbitt

✨ Featured Guest

George Bickerstaff

Former Fortune 10 CFO, Board Leader, Author, Investor, and Founder of the Global Leaders Network

⏱️ Key Moments

⏱️ 00:00 MWC Intro

⏱️ 02:00 Meet George Bickerstaff

⏱️ 03:30 Finding Good, Smart People

⏱️ 06:00 Why Trust Matters

⏱️ 09:00 Trust, Integrity, and Leadership

⏱️ 10:00 Lessons From Jack Welch

⏱️ 18:00 Passive-Aggressive Leadership

⏱️ 24:00 Spotting Trust and Integrity Problems

⏱️ 29:00 Building Trust Through Accountability

⏱️ 34:00 Leading Through Difficult Decisions

⏱️ 39:00 Chairing the International Vaccine Institute

⏱️ 46:00 Creating the Global Leaders Network

⏱️ 54:00 Building Tables, Not Skyscrapers

⏱️ 56:00 Faith, Leadership, and Meaning

⏱️ 58:30 Final Leadership Lessons

⏱️ 01:00:00 MWC Outro

💡 Key Takeaways

✅ Trust grows slowly and disappears quickly.

✅ Great leaders solve problems rather than protect positions.

✅ Integrity compounds over time.

✅ Strong cultures require transparency and accountability.

✅ Networks create opportunities when people connect, share, and evolve together.

✅ Faith, purpose, and meaning help leaders navigate complexity and uncertainty.

In the newest episode of Mastering Workplace Culture, hosts S. Chris Edmonds and Mark S. Babbitt welcome Dave Brown, a globally recognized brand strategist, entrepreneur, agency founder, and former worldwide FMCG leader at WPP's Brand Union. With more than 35 years of experience helping organizations such as Unilever, Nestlé, Heineken, Reckitt, and SABMiller build iconic brands, Dave shares powerful lessons about leadership, culture, creativity, trust, and organizational growth.

Dave's journey spans the creation of Brown Inc., the pioneering days of digital branding, the growth of international agency teams, the realities of managing global creative organizations, and his current work with Everland, one of Scandinavia's leading branding consultancies.

Throughout the conversation, one theme emerges repeatedly:

Great cultures happen when leaders align people, purpose, and performance.

Dave discusses:

✅ Building global teams across different countries and cultures.

✅ Why financial silos often undermine collaboration.

✅ The difference between being a supplier and being a true partner.

✅ Creating psychologically safe environments for feedback.

✅ How leaders build trust through behavior and consistency.

✅ Why curiosity fuels innovation and creativity.

✅ How AI should amplify human creativity, not replace human judgment.

✅ Why culture ultimately determines the quality of work and relationships.

One of Dave's most compelling observations:

💬"Clients aren't suppliers. They're partners."

And another:

💬"Success comes from human first, AI second, human third."

🎙️ Hosts

🎙️ S. Chris Edmonds

🎙️ Mark S. Babbitt

✨ Featured Guest

Dave Brown

Brand Strategist, Entrepreneur, Agency Founder, and Global Creative Leader

⏱️ Key Moments

⏱️ 00:00 MWC Intro

⏱️ 01:00 Meet Dave Brown

⏱️ 03:00 Founding Brown Inc. and Challenging Agency Norms

⏱️ 05:00 Building International Agency Hubs

⏱️ 06:00 Brown Interactive and Early Digital Innovation

⏱️ 09:00 Growing a Global Creative Business

⏱️ 11:00 Building the Brand Union Network

⏱️ 12:00 Why Financial Silos Damage Culture

⏱️ 15:00 Creating a Borderless Agency Model

⏱️ 19:00 Brown & Co. and The Virtual Agency Revolution

⏱️ 24:00 The Listening Safari

⏱️ 29:00 Suppliers vs. Business Partners

⏱️ 31:00 Why Everland Stood Out

⏱️ 34:00 Building Client Trust Over Decades

⏱️ 39:00 Leadership, Creativity, and Talent Development

⏱️ 41:00 AI, Design, and Human Creativity

⏱️ 49:00 Life Beyond Work: Cooking, Painting, Music, and Cars

⏱️ 52:00 Final Leadership Takeaways

⏱️ 53:00 MWC Outro

💡 Key Takeaways

✅ Leaders create culture through behavior and trust.

✅ Collaboration requires structures that reward teamwork.

✅ Great client relationships develop through partnership, not transactions.

✅ Curiosity and creativity fuel innovation.

✅ Honest feedback helps people grow.

✅ Human judgment remains essential in the age of AI.

💬 Join The Conversation

Share your perspective in the comments below.

📣 Don't Forget To:

👍 Like this video if you believe culture drives performance

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🔗 Share this episode with a founder, executive, entrepreneur, creative leader, agency owner, or culture champion committed to building organizations where people and performance thrive together

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