Stuart is a logistics platform that orchestrates last-mile deliveries for grocers, restaurants, and retailers, ensuring every package arrives on time and customers enjoy a seamless experience from order to doorstep. Now in its 10th year, Stuart employs around 160 people across four European locations.
The Challenge: Navigating Culture Transformation During Acquisition
As Stuart approached its 10-year milestone, the business entered a new phase of transformation. Following its acquisition by a private equity investor, the strategic focus shifted from growth to profitability, bringing new expectations, new goals, and the need for a different kind of culture.
For Stuart’s leadership, culture was the missing link between strategy and execution.
“Culture is the glue that connects strategy and execution. We knew the direction we wanted to go, but we needed clarity on the day-to-day behaviours that would get us there, and a way to measure if we were actually living them,” says the CEO.
Why Stuart Chose Culture15 to Navigate Culture Transformation
Stuart selected Culture15 because it offered a practical, data-led way to define, measure, and track the behaviours critical to successful transformation.
“I didn’t want another engagement survey. I wanted something that would let us select the behaviours that mattered most to our transformation and then track how well we were living them. Culture15 did exactly that.”
The platform’s simplicity, behavioural framework, and AI-driven insights allowed leadership to gain actionable feedback without burdening employees or creating manual reporting overhead.
Key Insight: Understanding their Culture Gap
One of the most surprising insights came from measuring how the organisation perceived ambition. The leadership team assumed ambition was already strong, but the data revealed employees focused more on immediate results than long-term goals.
“That insight was a wake-up call and reshaped how I communicate as a leader,” says the CEO.
Armed with this insight, Stuart balanced messaging between execution and future-oriented thinking, fostering a culture where ambition and risk-taking could thrive.
Creating a Common Language Across the Organisation
By defining anchor behaviours like accountability, learning, and ambition, Stuart created a shared language that aligned leadership and teams. Conversations became more focused and consistent, from all-hands meetings to performance reviews.
This clarity accelerated alignment across teams and helped the company respond more effectively to changes in market conditions and investor expectations.
How Culture15 Changed Leadership
Culture15 provided the CEO with ongoing feedback on how employees perceived critical behaviours, allowing leadership to adapt in real-time.
“Even as a CEO, I’m a work in progress, and Culture15 helps me lead in the way the business needs at that point in time.”
Advice for CEOs Looking to Navigate Culture Transformation
Stuart’s CEO emphasizes that culture must be a CEO priority and should be defined with engagement from the wider organisation.
“Culture sits in our OKRs and it starts with me and the leadership team. But defining the culture isn’t a top-down exercise; it’s about engaging the business to choose the behaviours that will make us successful together.”
The Impact of Culture15
“Culture15 is the platform that allows me to measure how things get done in my business, and to steer our culture transformation with clarity and intent.”
By providing a clear framework for selecting, measuring, and reinforcing behaviours, Culture15 helped Stuart successfully navigate culture transformation during a critical period of change.
Find out more about the Culture15 SaaS Platform here.
