Transformation in Business - John Houston

John Houston - Chief Executive Officer

Leadership teams are often tasked with guiding their organizations through transformation. You come upon something that just isn’t working anymore. Maybe it’s a process, a method, or perhaps even an attitude that needs more than just tweaking; it requires an overhaul.  Transformation is a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance. As any leader tasked with transformation knows, sweeping and dramatic changes do not come easily.

Scripture can teach us a lot about how the transformation process works. After all, Scripture itself intends to transform individual lives.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” 

Paul encourages the Romans in their process of spiritual transformation to start with their thoughts.  Throughout my career, I have been part of multiple company transformations.  In every case, the company and its people did not experience true transformation by only changing processes or in culturally shared language. That was all part of it, of course. But we accomplished true transformation when most people in the organization began to think differently.

A recent example of this is John Houston Homes. When I first joined the company in 2017, the company’s name was actually John Houston Custom Homes. We were a custom homebuilder then, allowing customers to select far more options on track builds than our local competitors. For some time, this worked for our company. However, we noticed we hit a wall with this approach and could not scale the business for growth. We realized we needed to make some thorough and dramatic changes. 

These changes included but were not limited to reducing the number of plans we offered, implementing new software for sales, purchasing, and construction that would automate our process more effectively, and training our teams to not think so “custom” anymore. The systems and process changes took time (the entire course of a year and then some), but the mental shift in thinking took much longer. Two years after dropping the word “custom” from our company name, we still had to undergo a new change initiative we titled SOBI (simplify our business initiative) to drive even more change in thinking and processes. It’s been a six-year journey, and the transformation is still underway. However, we’ve seen a significant shift occur over the last year, and it’s because the way our teams are thinking about sales and building houses is starting to match our new processes and systems.

We started Suit and Shepherd to help companies undergo missional transformation. What if the primary purpose of your business or organization was to reach people for Christ and Give to the Kingdom? What if every sale you made, product or service you delivered, was accomplished for that purpose? How would it transform the company? How would it change your customers? How would it transform your employees? We know that the transformation process starts with renewing your mind. Therefore, Suit and Shepherd is launching in 2024 with two key services to Christian business owners and senior-level leaders.

The first service is Suit and Shepherd Discipleship. This 12-month journey with CEO John Houston is aimed at challenging leaders to think differently. When leaders renew their minds according to God’s Word, transformation starts to happen in their lives personally. This paves the way for the company, as a whole, to begin their own transformation journey. 

The second service we are launching in 2024 is Suit and Shepherd Transformation. In this service, we assign companies to a Suit and Shepherd Guide dedicated to helping the leadership teams learn, design, and implement a strategy to help their company transform. We want to help leaders develop organizational cultures that support a mission to expand the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Please contact us via the tab above if you’d like additional information on Suit and Shepherd Discipleship or Transformation. Our prayers are with each of you today as you engage the Holy Spirit in your own personal and professional transformations.

Aunie Brooks

Executive Vice President

Suit and Shepherd