Build The Company You Want to Work For with Dave Smith

<p><strong>Host: </strong>Carrie Tuttle</p><p><strong>Guest: </strong>Dave Smith</p><p>Dave Smith set out to build the company he always wanted to work for. Twelve years later, he&#39;s still building and growing it.</p><p>Dave started his career as a Master Electrician and has spent more than 25 years in industrial electrical construction, moving through service, operations, and general management roles. He was being groomed to lead a $100 million business inside a much larger company when he was recruited to build a new industrial electrical group at another contractor. In 2014, he co-founded Stratus Electrical &amp; Instrumentation, an employee-owned company that now serves renewable energy, industrial, commercial, mining, agriculture, food and beverage, and power generation clients across Western Canada. He also supports four related ventures, each built around leaders he trusts.</p><p>Carrie and Dave dig into the leadership decisions most founders don&#39;t talk about openly, like choosing business partners, recognizing when a partnership no longer fits, and acting on it before it hurts the team. He shares when they opened a new Edmonton office just before its anchor project was cancelled. </p><p>Dave talks about why he believes employee ownership changes how people think about their work, and how he uses DISC to build a leadership team with a real mix of perspectives.</p><p>If you&#39;re a founder figuring out how to share ownership, build culture, or step back from the day-to-day while still supporting your people, Dave&#39;s stories offer a practical look at what that takes.</p><p><br></p><p>QUOTE-WORTHY MOMENTS:</p><ul><li>“Personality, your ethics and morals… really need to align in the partnership. It&#39;s a marriage.”</li><li>“Go into it with the expectation you&#39;re gonna win, not just hoping for things.”</li><li>“It&#39;s all about people and putting people in the right place and supporting them and challenging them and empowering them.”</li></ul><p><br></p><p>EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:</p><ul><li>Leaders take different strengths from different mentors and shape their own style.</li><li>Business partners need to align on values and personality, not just competence.</li><li>Adding a partner works best with genuine buy-in from the whole ownership group.</li><li>When a partnership no longer fits the business, acting quickly protects the team.</li><li>Close relationships at the top can keep team concerns from reaching the leader.</li><li>Employee own