Companies are mirror images of their leaders, no matter if it’s a successful or struggling business, according to James Teat, president, Axcess Technology Source LLC, Carrollton, TX, in Culture as a Competitive Advantage.

“If they’re on board the ship, they need to know where it’s headed, and that’s the job of the leaders … to set the course and maintain it,” Teat says.

This is especially critical for family-owned companies that handed down leadership over the generations without much thought for who is taking over or why.

“So many third-generation businesses fail because they lose sight of what made the company great to begin with, and a lot of times they take things for granted," Teat says. "They’ve become privileged; they don’t get out and have a strong working relationship with the people that are in the warehouse or driving the trucks or in the sales field.”

When leadership focuses on building a strong culture, it can help keep everyone up and down the organizational chart working toward the same goal – a strong company.

Read more about leveraging leadership and culture in Culture as a Competitive Advantage from MDM's 2017 Distribution Trends Special Issue.