Culture Architects David J. Friedman

David and Jim continue their conversation on the culture-building journey at Field Fastener. Jim shares his favorite Fieldamentals, visions for the future of the company culture under different leadership, and the easiest and hardest parts about culture-building in a family business.

In this episode, David is joined by Jim Derry, the CEO of Field Fastener. Since their acquisition in 1990, Jim and his brother Bill have grown the company into one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America, providing solutions for various C-class items and serving over 35 countries to date. The key to their success is their culture — and in this episode, Jim explains why culture is the “single most important investment” they’ve ever made.

In this second part, Kevin Schnieders fills in the details of his culture-building experiences at EDSI, and unpacks the title of ‘Chief Servant Leader.’ He and David discuss what it means to be recognized as a “cool place to work.”

In this episode, David welcomes Kevin Schnieders of Educational Data Services, Inc. Kevin started as a training consultant in 1994, working his way up to eventually become CEO in 2007 — or Chief Servant Leader, as he calls it. Under his care, today EDSI is not only a growing organization and provider of customized training and workforce development solutions, but also a top workplace. In part one, Kevin shares his journey into the leadership position, and his experiences in introducing intentional systems of culture in the company.

David continues his conversation with Saul Blinkoff. In this second part, Saul shares more leadership and culture-building experiences across different studios and projects, as well as his biggest learning about culture from his decades-long career in animation.

Here at Culture Architects, we also take time to explore culture from the perspective of other disciplines. For over 20 years, Saul Blinkoff — animator, director, producer, and life coach — has worked with some of the biggest names in media and entertainment. In this episode, he and David sit down to talk about what culture-building is like with creatives.