Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Specifically, what was that all about? What did you need to change in your style of operations?

Henry Albrecht: Since our product is about bringing culture to life and helping every employee improve, it has to be adopted at a pretty high level within the company to be successful. We needed the Chief Human Resources Officer, CEO, CFO, and others to be champions of the program. Are we hiring people who have the wherewithal and skills to get to that level? We have a Chief Operating Officer. That was a big step for us. We have a VP – Customer Success who came out of HR with 18 years’ experience. Those were just large executive, process, and technology investments.

Sramana Mitra: What else in the process of building the company is worth discussing or something that you learned that failed?

Henry Albrecht: We learned that you can’t make every customer happy. We’ve done very well at qualifying customers where we can surely be successful. If you have a horrendous culture and you’re not willing to take it seriously and then you put a well-being improvement program, it’s like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. It’s not going to stop the bleeding. You’ll have a really unhappy customer interaction. The thing that people don’t realize about that is that saying ‘No’ to 80% of customers might be the best way for you to succeed. The side effect of that is employee morale is extremely high. I think there is a connection there.

The other thing is we drink our own Limeade. Being in the business of employee well-being, we better be the best at this. I don’t know for the best or not, but I know that there’s no company that’s more intentional about their culture and how they bring their values to life than at Limeade. That focus, effort, and authenticity shines through when we show up for customers.

Sramana Mitra: What are you reading these days? You said you have a passion for literature?

Henry Albrecht: I’m reading psychology. Because I’m a self-improvement nut, I’ve been reading a lot about the stages of learning and development and how to interact with people. As we grow and scale our company, I’m focused a lot on being mindful of my own emotions and how I interact with people. Ultimately, I think all of those things make me a better dad, husband, and leader.

Sramana Mitra: No literature. It’s all self-improvement.

Henry Albrecht: I read a lot of novels as well, but your time for reading novels gets a little lighter when you have three children and a growing company to manage.

Sramana Mitra: Great! Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Long Journey To Realize a Vision: Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht
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