AJF Growth Consultants

Executive Summary

Scaling Pelican Water, multiple platform builds, and a $60M Nestlé Waters North America division proved that systems alone don't deliver results — people do. By applying a talent magnetism philosophy focused on aligning natural strengths and creating repeatable promotion pathways, execution cultures were built at speed.

The result: lower turnover, stronger pipelines, and frontline credibility that translated into faster, more reliable scale.

Many sponsors and operators underestimate the fragility of execution without the right team mix. This case shows how disciplined recruiting, training, and promotion can embed culture as a competitive advantage.

Challenge & Starting Point

Residential services and water platforms often suffer from critical people problems:

High turnover in sales and install roles

Weak leadership pipelines, forcing expensive external hires

Cultural fragility, where pressure to scale undermines execution discipline

At Pelican Water, across national and regional home improvement platforms, and within a $60M corporate division at Nestlé Waters North America, the challenge was consistent: create cultures that attract, align, and elevate the right people — fast.

Strategy & Transformation Overview

Recruit for Complementary Strengths

Focused on hiring teams where roles matched natural tendencies — for example, galvanizers in sales, detail-oriented leaders in installs, and steady executors in service.

Promote from Within

Designed clear career ladders: Field Installation Trainer (FIT) → Installation Manager pathways reduced reliance on external hires.

Train with Purpose

Training programs respected how different types of people learn and execute, building confidence and buy-in.

Cultural Guardrails

Embedded White Glove CX standards that gave technicians pride and consistency, even under speed pressure.

Execution Examples

Pelican Water – Screened field personnel (sales and install) for high customer-facing skillsets, which made adoption of White Glove CX a natural process rather than a forced overlay.

Regional/National Home Improvement Platform – Created a structured path for contract installers to join as FITs, with FITs promoted into Installation Manager roles. This enabled rapid market expansion with trusted leaders moving out to launch new branches.

$60M Division (Nestlé Waters North America – Office Coffee Service) – Re-engaged 125 previously unmanaged technicians by introducing SOPs, direct material controls, and cultural guardrails.

The shift restored pride and accountability, turning a disengaged workforce into a reliable execution engine that supported a full division turnaround from losses to profitability in under two years.

Results

Talent magnetism delivered measurable transformation across multiple platforms

Key outcomes included:

Turnover: Reduced by more than 20% in frontline roles

Leadership pipeline: 80%+ of Install Managers promoted internally from FITs

Execution reliability: New branches reached steady-state performance 30–60 days faster

Profitability: $60M division restored to profitability in under 24 months

Cultural alignment: Technician pride visibly increased; customer trust reinforced through consistent field behaviors

Lessons Learned: The 5 Pillars in Action

Customer Acquisition – Strong sales leaders improved conversion discipline

Sales Execution – Teams balanced with complementary strengths executed consistently

Operational Excellence – FIT → Install Manager path and SOP-driven technician re-engagement delivered steady leadership

Tech Enablement – Training content and CRM integration reinforced cultural expectations

White Glove CX – Talent pride and culture alignment made CX non-negotiable at speed

Key Takeaways

What is "talent magnetism"?

Talent magnetism is the ability to systematically attract, align, and elevate complementary strengths into high-performance teams. Unlike charisma-driven leadership, this is a structured process that ensures roles are filled by people whose natural strengths match the work.

When applied consistently, it reduces turnover and accelerates cultural adoption.

Why focus on natural strengths?

When people work in roles aligned to their natural tendencies, energy and pride replace burnout and friction. Sales teams thrive when built around galvanizers, while service roles excel when staffed by detail-oriented executors.

A modern tool for this is Patrick Lencioni's Six Types of Working Genius, which provides language and structure for identifying and balancing strengths across a team.

How do you scale people as fast as systems?

Systems can be replicated instantly, but people require time and trust. The answer is to create structured promotion pipelines, codify culture through repeatable training, and reinforce behaviors with tools and guardrails.

This allows human capacity to scale in parallel with marketing and operational investments.

What's the risk of ignoring culture?

If culture is ignored, execution quality collapses under growth pressure. Turnover spikes, frontline credibility erodes, and the cost of external hiring balloons. Worse, customers notice — leading to damaged reputation and reduced trust that can take years to rebuild.

Conclusion

At AJF Growth Consultants, we help platforms scale not just through systems, but through people. That means identifying the right mix of strengths, building pipelines that turn frontline roles into leadership feeders, and embedding cultural guardrails that protect CX even under rapid expansion.

Whether you're running a $20M platform or a Fortune 500 division, talent magnetism is the difference between fragile growth and sustainable execution.

Building Execution Cultures Through Talent Magnetism