297: Tero Isokauppila - CEO Of Four Sigmatic: Principled Based Leadership

Commonalities of sustaining excellence:

"They love what they do" -- Love the process. The work
Humility/Excitement to learn -- they know things will change and they must adjust
Listen more than you talk.
Curiosity -- The Dalai Lama exemplifies this very well.
Able to adjust -- Madonna is a prime example of being able to adjust and reinvent herself

How being a 13th generation farmer from Finland helped set the course for Tero's life -- "I have domain knowledge."

Finnish people consume more coffee per capita than anyone in the world

The idea of putting mushrooms in coffee came because of this

Super foods help with:

Four Sigmatic is a company built with super foods

The beginning -- "It all comes down to value generation. If you want to generate value, you have to see what others don't yet see."

Culture -- "You need to rally around people who believe in the mission."

Find believers and sponsors as your first employees -- his founding team were former teammates

The hiring process and qualities they look for. Four lenses:

Can they do they job? -- Skills
How will they fit in our culture? -- Fundamentals
What do they cost? -- Financially and emotionally
What is their growth potential?
They must be "extra good" at communication - written and verbal. How do they write emails? Must be extra organized.

"Culture exists whether you want or not. It is what it is."

Their principles:

Examples of innovation