We recently sat down with one of our long-term clients Angela Santiago, CEO/co-founder of The Little Potato Company (LPC) to talk about the incredible growth of the company – from a single field in Alberta, Canada to shipping her product across North America – and her unexpected journey to become an amazing CEO.
Today, LPC products are in about 20,000 stores in North America, with annual net sales, over the last 12 years, growing on average almost 20%.
Meeting 15 years ago, when she attended a Rockefeller Habits workshop I gave in Vancouver, Canada, marked the beginning of our professional relationship. To this day, I continue to be impressed with her open, generous approach to growth and leadership, and the tremendous growth of the company.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll share a series of blogs about her experiences as a leader well-rooted in strong values and a sense of purpose. In this blog, we talk about the factors that contributed most to LPCs impressive growth and her abilities as a leader.
Very often, leaders look at growth in terms of increased revenue, expansion of branches, markets or products, or acquisitions. While these are true, Angela Santiago also considers these more foundational factors that contribute to her clarity and capability, as a leader:
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- An incessant curiosity that had led to finding people she can learn from, creating a supportive Advisory Board, joining peer groups, and taking the Harvard leadership program. For Angela, learning never stops.
Hear more about the biggest impacts on growth:
About what she learned to trust about herself:
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- Clarity of purpose and values. These frame the culture of LPC and bring agreement and alignment to every level of the company. To a person, her team knows why they do what they do, and how they want to treat each other.
Listen to Angela talk about those purpose and values:
And the purpose of potatoes:
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- An ability to see how BHAGs show the way towards opportunities for people, and how they are such a simple way to demonstrate and track growth.
Listen to Angela talk about creating her not so little BHAGs:
Most important, she recognizes that growth is the result of what happens outside of business, by intentionally finding out how to be a better leader and a better person. This includes therapy, ‘figuring out her own stuff’ to be the healthiest person she can be.
For more, here are links to our recent LPC Case Study or watch the full interview with Angela below.
Other Blogs
- How Do You Know You Have the Right Core Values?
- Core Values as a Safety Issue
- Your Business Purpose: No Small Potatoes
Older Podcasts
Lawrence & Co’s work focuses on sustainable and enhanced growth for you and your business. Our diverse and experienced group of advisors can help your leaders and executive teams stay competitive through the use of various learning tools including workshops, webinars, executive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.
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