Welcome to another episode of the “Only The Strong Survive” podcast, where host Dan Kahn sits down with leaders and entrepreneurs from some of the most dynamic brands in America. In this episode, Matt Stevenson shares his journey to president and CEO of Holley Performance Brands and the many lessons he learned along the way.
Matt’s deep-seated fascination with cars wasn’t born in a boardroom but handed down directly from his father, igniting a lifelong passion for anything with an engine. That obsession eventually drew him to Flint, Michigan, where he attended GMI, the historic General Motors Institute, now known as Kettering University. But while the campus was dominated by mechanical engineering students buried in blueprints, Matt intentionally took the road less traveled. He was one of the few business and marketing students on campus, determined to understand how to drive the industry forward from a business perspective.
That strategic pivot kicked off an incredible corporate journey. Matt got his feet wet at Mack Trucks during college, later rising to lead the Daimler light truck group before making strategic moves to Bridgestone and even running Terminix’s residential pest control business. From there, he transitioned into the hyper-competitive private equity world, successfully executing a massive operational turnaround as the CEO of the legendary Blue Bird school bus company. Now at the helm of Holley and its over 70 brands, Matt brings his unique business-first perspective back to his automotive roots.
Click on the icon above to listen to the entire in-depth episode, and here are our top five takeaways:
A customer-centric approach is critical for success.
Fast movers have a competitive advantage.
Events are key to staying close to your customers.
Staying close to your frontline workers is important.
Leaders need to adapt their style to fit the situation.
The Customer is Everything
One thing that Matt learned very early on in his career is the importance of taking a customer-centric approach. For any business, keeping the customer happy is always important. Happy customers become brand advocates and repeat purchasers, helping drive steady growth.
“The customer is everything, especially in our business, where we have multiple sets of customers. There are not just our enthusiast consumers, but also our distribution partners, installers and national retailer partners,” said Matt. “You always have to put yourself into the shoes of what that customer is looking for and how best to serve them.”
Move Fast to Make an Impact
Over his career, Matt has turned multiple businesses around from loss leaders to profit centers. One way he has accomplished this is by cutting through red tape to make decisions much faster. Then, he empowered his teams to do the same.
“Over the years, when I was at certain companies, I saw them become slower and more bureaucratic. Ultimately, everyone likes to make an impact. Those who move fast can have a competitive advantage,” said Matt. “So that is why I look at how I can empower my team and how we are able to cut the bureaucracy out to have a team that works closely together, has clear transparency of what the goals are and then can just get it done.”
Events Are Critical
Holley’s LS Fest started in 2010 and is now a multi-city event series that draws well over 100,000 people. For Matt, events are critical not just for celebrating customers, but also for staying close to them. And the closer you are to your customers, the better you can serve them.
“For us, it (Holley LS Fest) is a way to stay close to the customer, and it is a way for us, in some regards, to give back. We are doing a lot more focus groups there and getting direct product feedback,” said Matt. “Our team just loves it. Being out of the office and talking to our customers, there is no better day.”
Support Your Frontlines
For big organizations, staying close to workers on the “frontlines” is just as important as staying close to customers. As companies grow, more layers are naturally added between the top and the bottom. But without effective communication channels, leaders can miss out on important feedback from workers closest to products and customers.
“If you can have that mindset of how to support the people on your frontlines who are talking with the customers or working in facilities or developing great products. How do you support them in that servant-leadership mindset and take out obstacles?” said Matt. “When I say that good ideas sometimes go to die in middle management, it is not that there are bad people by any means in middle management or those middle layers. It is just that they can get stuck if there are not the right lanes and structure for them to communicate what needs to be done.”
Nails and Hammers
One of the most important lessons Mat has learned over his long career is that leaders need to constantly adapt. Not every situation requires the same leadership style. And using the wrong leadership style in certain situations is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
“There is a time and place for certain types of leadership. When you are in a firefight, there is one style of leadership. If you are kind of neutral, there is one, and if you are in growth mode, there is another,” said Matt. “Not everything is a nail, and everything can’t be a hammer.”
