This book explores the fundamental causes of team failure and organizational politics through a narrative about a fictional company, DecisionTech, Inc. It outlines five dysfunctions: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. The book provides practical advice and real-world examples to help teams overcome these dysfunctions and become high-performing teams.
Jim Collins and Jerry Porras's "Built to Last" examines the characteristics of visionary companies, those that have sustained exceptional performance over long periods. The authors identify key principles that contribute to long-term success, including a strong core ideology, a focus on innovation, and a commitment to continuous improvement. They analyze a range of companies across various industries, identifying common patterns and best practices. The book provides valuable insights for leaders seeking to build enduring and successful organizations. "Built to Last" has become a classic in the field of business strategy.
In this book, Patrick Lencioni explains how to identify and cultivate the three essential virtues of an ideal team player. The story follows Jeff Shanley, a leader who must restore his uncle’s company’s cultural commitment to teamwork by identifying and building a culture around the virtues of humility, hunger, and smarts. Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for leaders, HR professionals, and team members to create a culture of teamwork. Ideal team players are described as humble (sharing credit and emphasizing team over self), hungry (self-motivated and diligent), and smart (emotionally intelligent with common sense about people)[1][3][5].
Josh Turley is CEO of RTA Fleet Management, a fleet management software company that his grandfather started in the 1980’s and ran as a small family business for decades. Then Josh’s father ran the business until 2015, never growing this slow, old-school business past $2 million in revenues. Josh had worked in the business before, but in 2016, Josh bought the business, to over as CEO and slowly began to make improvements—and mistakes—as they started to grow.
Josh had an ambition to grow the company and learn how to be a real CEO. They started retooling their code to build modern cloud software, investing heavily for many years. They transformed their leadership, staff, business model, pricing, marketing, tech stack, and culture as they grew faster. They also focused on state and local government fleets as they grew.
The bootstrapped company grew steadily, with 75 employees and a $15 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) run rate in 2024, supported by some debt. In 2025, Josh closed a $30 million investment round from Susquehanna Growth Equity, a practical growth equity investor that invests in steady SaaS businesses.
Josh is a long-time member of my Practical Founders CEO Peer Groups. He is an avid learner, attending conferences, reading books, hiring consultants, and continually seeking new knowledge.
In this episode, Josh also talks about:
- How difficult it was to transform an old business into a new one
- Why their Purpose, Values, and Mission drive successful hiring
- Why he chose to take on growth equity investors and de-risk with secondary investment
Quote from Josh Turley, CEO of RTA
“Every problem is a leadership problem. The biggest challenge in building a SaaS business is always the people—making sure you get the right people on the bus in the right seats. We’re at 90 people now, and there's no way I can manage 90 people myself. As the CEO, it all starts with you, then your leaders.
“Most problems I see are because we got the wrong person in the wrong seat. You can't outrun that, regardless of how good the product is or how strong your financial model is. It will always catch up to you eventually, and that causes more problems than anything.
“When you get a leadership team to be 100% aligned with one another, it doesn't matter what the market's doing. It doesn't matter what the product is doing. It will figure itself out. It's a forcing function to get that alignment, and then you just can't be stopped at that point.”
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