driversselect
How a discount auto retailer used TED* to transform company culture — and saw profits soar 9x and revenue per employee triple the industry average.
The Challenge: Finding Company Purpose Through Purposeful Leadership
driversselect is a discount retailer focusing exclusively on one-to-three year old vehicles with no reported accidents and still under the original factory warranty. Built around the four tenets of Conscious Capitalism, their stated purpose is to "infect the world with highly contagious care" — a culture so distinctive it earned them the Dallas Business Journal Best Places to Work award two years running.
Founded in 2004, driversselect grew from zero to over $70 million in just three and a half years. "I thought I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve in business," says Steve Hall, CEO. "Yet, I wasn't enjoying it. I wasn't proud of what I was building or the impact I was making."
Then, in 2008, the financial crisis broke the driversselect model apart. Steve saw it as an opportunity and spent the next two years exploring how to put the pieces back together in a fundamentally different way — enrolling in the Integral Leadership Program at the Stagen Leadership Academy, where he encountered conscious culture leadership and the TED* framework for the first time.
A passing remark by a Stagen colleague — "leaders deserve the organization they get" — shifted everything. Steve had assumed the answer was to hire better people. "What I really needed," he realized, "was a better CEO." He understood that what he modeled would be what got implemented across the company.
"I thought I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve in business. Yet, I wasn't enjoying it. I wasn't proud of what I was building or the impact I was making."
Key Issues
- Purpose & Direction
- Leadership Mindset
- Cultural Alignment
Context
Rapid growth brought financial success but hollow leadership — the CEO recognized he needed to rebuild the company around conscious culture and higher purpose.
The Response: TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic)
The TED* component of the Integral Leadership Program included weekly coaching calls and gave Steve the opportunity for deep, deliberate practice. "I realized how contagious my energy was. If I showed up as a Victim, it created more victim mindsets. But if I shifted into being a Creator, it led to more people adopting the creator mindset."
Steve began to see that becoming a close-knit group was essential for driversselect to excel. Shared language played an important role, and the TED* framework was a vehicle for that. It also supported the company's core value of "Learn to Earn" — shared learning as the foundation of culture.
Another insight: people show up to work with a finite amount of energy. "If that energy is burned up persecuting and rescuing, we're not going to have high performance. But if we can invest more of our time in being co-creators, coaches, and challengers, we're going to sell more cars and do it better."
Today, driversselect runs a 13-week Foundation Leadership Course each quarter — open to the entire company, from entry-level positions to senior managers. The TED*-based drama triangle section consistently generates the most engagement. Additionally, any employee can attend the two-day TED* 'Deeper Dive' workshop with TED* certified facilitators.
"What I really needed was a better CEO. I knew that what I modeled was what would get implemented. If I showed up like a Persecutor, people would repeat that behavior."
The Results: 9x Profit Is Just the Beginning
Profit increase
Profit grew 9x after embedding TED* deeply in company culture and leadership development
Revenue per employee
Nearly $2 million per employee — more than triple the automotive retail industry average
CEO approval rating
97% CEO approval on Glassdoor, with an overall company rating of 4.6 out of 5
Bringing TED* into the driversselect culture has been enormously beneficial. The supportive environment allows people to be vulnerable — as they honestly share experiences, everyone learns, increasing productivity and reducing the time and cost of resolving errors.
The results speak for themselves: engagement numbers are "off the charts," profit is up 9x, and revenue per employee is more than triple the industry average. The cultural transformation attracted outside attention too — driversselect was acquired by a Fortune 300 public company, with their unique culture cited as a key consideration. And everyone stayed on.
driversselect was named a Dallas Business Journal Best Places to Work winner in both 2016 and 2017, earning a 4.6 Glassdoor rating and 97% CEO approval — metrics that reflect not just financial performance, but a workforce that genuinely loves where they work.
"It's a journey that's never complete," says Steve. "We're playing the long game and will keep investing in our stakeholder community. It's only been seven years, so there are lots of opportunities for improvement as we take the next steps in infecting the workplace with highly contagious CARE."
"Our profit is up 9x since we incorporated TED*. And our revenue per employee is more than triple the industry average. The engagement numbers are off the charts."
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