How much better would the world be if everyone loved going to work? How much more engaged would we be? How much more efficient? That’s the vision of Mohammad Anwar and Chris Pitre (Softway Solutions and Culture+), two co-authors of the Wall Street Journal-bestseller Love as a Business Strategy. They want to revolutionize the way companies do business, by putting people at the center of every decision. But this idea didn’t come out of nowhere. It was born from the real life transformation of their company, Softway Solutions.

While we're taking a well-deserved Thanksgiving break, we’re telling that story: how a leader learned to appreciate his team and, in doing so, transformed his company and himself. This episode is a "best of" re-run from Season 3 and is worth every minute!

Mohammad founded Softway Solutions when he was 20 years old, and he’d grown the business to over 300 employees since its inception. But by 2015, the company had developed a toxic culture, and Mohammad was known for his unprofessional outbursts. With the business struggling, morale was low. Two weeks after Chris was hired, Softway Solutions laid off a third of its workforce by gathering them in a conference room and telling them all at once. Mohammad didn’t know if the business would last another month.

But then he had a realization, and together he and Chris went on a journey to institute a “culture of love.” Through slow, quiet work, Mohammad changed his behaviors and made Softway Solutions a place that employees loved. Success soon followed. Now, they help other businesses change their own cultures. In this episode, we’ll explore the leader’s role in a culture of love: their responsibilities, behaviors and how they stand to benefit.

So, join us, as we answer the question: “What’s love got to do with it?

Read the full show transcript.

Meet the Host

Ari Marin, SVP, Family Enterprise Advisor, Cadence Asset Management & Trust and the new host of Cadence Bank’s In Good Companies (IGC) podcast, says his idea of “good company” is being around creative, insightful people who enjoy sharing personal stories about the things that helped make them successful.

From 9 to 5, Marin is a Cadence Bank senior vice president and family wealth strategist, whose specialty is consulting with family-owned and small businesses. Now, he’s squeezing in IGC hosting duties, bringing in a new voice and fresh perspectives.

As a lawyer with a master’s in taxation from Villanova, Marin holds his own in the business world. But hosting IGC gives him a new way of engaging with entrepreneurs and experts to learn smart ideas and new ways of doing things.

Outside the office, Marin is a history fan and podcast aficionado who loves reading and exercising with his two dogs: Friday–aka “the angel”--and Mahla, the stubborn Shih Tzu with selective hearing.

Meet the Speaker

Chris Pitre is Vice President at Culture+ and Softway, co-creator and facilitator of Seneca Leaders, co-host of Love As A Business Strategy podcast, and WSJ Best Selling Author of 'Love as a Business Strategy,' He manages the company culture and works to ensure that all projects, interactions, and deliverables reflect the company’s human-first approach.

Chris is a student of the world and enjoys anthropology, history, travel, and culinary experiences. His interests in global cultures naturally led him to travel around the world co-leading change management and leadership through Seneca, Softway’s workplace culture program.

Prior to his role at Culture+ and Softway, Chris managed global business development for the creative and automation practice within Astadia, an IT service management company. There, his clients were in the

telecommunications, technology, and healthcare industries. He has experience in digital and social media, marketing, and communications.

Chris is a native Houstonian who loves everything Beyoncé. He has a B.A. in Business Administration from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Mohammad Anwar is the President and CEO of Softway and Culture+, co-host of Love As A Business Strategy podcast, WSJ Best Selling Author of 'Love as a Business Strategy: Resilience, Belonging and Success,' speaker, and a member of Forbes Business Council. He started Softway as a technology services company with his family at the age of 20 while pursuing his B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics at the University of Houston.

He is celebrated for creating and sustaining a humanity-centered culture at Softway based on the philosophy that love is a business strategy. However, there was a time when the company culture at Softway was so toxic that it almost caused the enterprise to fold.

He took full responsibility for the problems at Softway and knew that, as the leader, he needed to change for the company to survive. After deep introspection, he eventually turned the company around. From this experience, he also created a sister company of Softway, Culture+, and co-authored a WSJ bestselling book, Love as a Business Strategy.

When Softway began in 2003, it was a small company that created websites for merchants in Houston. Since then, it has grown to a Business-to-Employee solutions company that focuses on bringing technology solutions to others by building high performing teams to build solutions that speak to the human needs of your workforce - and business performance that speaks for itself.

In 2021, he formed Culture+ as a standalone organization fully dedicated to our mission: bring humanity back to the workplace. Culture+ provides Culture-as-a-Service to transform behaviors of employees and leaders - creating high-performing teams capable of achieving any business outcome.

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