John Replogle visited Elon as part of the ‘Lessons from Leaders’ series.
John Replogle, partner at One Better Venture, a firm dedicated to developing mission-driven consumer goods companies, shared his managerial insights with senior business students on Sept. 19 as part of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business’ ‘Lessons from Leaders’ speaker series.
Prior to his work with One Better Venture, Replogle served as president and CEO of Seventh Generation, an industry leader in non-toxic home products, and president and CEO of Burt’s Bees. His career serving on executive leadership teams for consumer product brands with strong humanitarian values inspired his desire to mentor and grow smaller consumer brands that share those same philanthropic values.
Replogle began the discussion outlining his self-identified components to successful leadership: principles, people, strategic alignment, empowerment and communication.
He stressed the importance of defining a set of core principles for both individuals and businesses. “If you’re going to lead principle-based organizations, you need to know what your principles are,” Replogle stated.
Replogle asked students to consider the impact of their decisions and what role their morals play in the decision-making process.
“High moral code is in high demand and in scarce supply,” he said.
Principles, including the organization’s mission, vision and values, need to be communicated and understood throughout the organization, he said, to ensure employees stay true to them in both good and challenging times.
One must also make decisions in alignment with what the organization stands for. Leaders should make sure objectives are understood by all employees and strategically align with the organization’s principles, Replogle said. While fundamentally important, he noted it’s “remarkable how absent [strategic alignment] is in business.”
Other key components to successful leadership include people and empowerment. Replogle said leaders should identify talent, put them in meaningful roles, and create an environment where these individuals have the freedom to make choices and live up to their potential.
“Greatness is found through great people,” he said.
The final component to strategic management discussed was communication. Replogle noted communication is “vital for the business,” and asking questions leads to understanding what employees are working on, where the bottlenecks in the organization are, and how a leader can help his team.
Following the discussion, Replogle answered students’ questions about his previous business decisions, leadership attributes and career advice.
Replogle advised students to take risks and to not be afraid of making a mistake. “The biggest failure is the failure to learn,” he said.
Students were also cautioned to avoid letting their ego interfere with asking questions and making good decisions.
Leaders need to collaborate and exhibit curiosity and resiliency, he shared.
Robert Moorman, the Frank S. Holt Jr. Professor of Business Leadership and moderator of the series, noted the benefit of having the students hear directly from business leaders. He said, “John Replogle took our students directly inside his decision-making processes and taught them how their values can create sustainable businesses bent on improving the world.”