CULTURE FUELLED GROWTH

DATE: 14 October 2020

HOST: David Webley, Founder & MD of Granite Consulting

GUESTS:

Con Mouzouris, CEO, Mantel Group

Caroline Henshaw, Head of Culture and People, Mantel Group

This conversation shares the journey and insights of the Mantel Group, and its use of a Principle based culture to drive substantial growth (0 to 300 team members in just three years), as well as be awarded one of Australia’s Top 10 Places to Work.

INSIGHT 1

People are more engaged in small organisations. This type of engagement is able to be maintained in a growing organisation by limiting the size of each division to an optimum scale of ~150 people (as per Dunbar theory), a level up to which people are able to have meaningful relationships with each other.

INSIGHT 2

One advantage of remote working has been to create a level playing field between team members. Prior to COVID, people working in remote locations were alone when dialling into meetings where the rest of the team were co-located. Under COVID and the remote working practices it has introduced for most people, everyone is now dialling in and no-one feels on the outer.

INSIGHT 3

An uncompromising culture provides not only a sense of identity internally, but is also outward facing and something customers are able to recognise as an organisation they wish to do business with. A strong culture that is defined by Principles also means there is less need for internal rules and policies as the Principles themselves are able to guide the right behaviour.

TABLE OF CONTENTS (PODCAST @ Spotify)

09m45 Nurturing Culture

11m45 Uplifting Trust

13m30 Mantel Group Principles

17m45 Top 10 Places to Work

21m00 House of Brands

36m00 Mental Health

39m15 Customer Relationship

46m15 Future Plans

48m15 Difficult Stakeholders

49m15 Talent Acquisition

51m30 Resilience to Growth

This conversation was part of an online forum that took place on Wednesday 14thOctober 2020, with attendees joining and posing questions from all around the world.