Culture Beats Strategy When Leaders Live It — with Mike Ansay

Culture Has No Value If You Don't Live It: Mike Ansay on 80 Years of Give to Get

In this post: Culture beats strategy only when leaders live it, says Mike Ansay, CEO of 80-year-old Ansay & Associates. He explains how give to get, disciplined recognition, and patient acquisitions grew one file cabinet into a top 75 firm.

When Mike Ansay graduated from college, the family business he would one day run consisted of one file cabinet and one telephone. His father, 46 years his senior, shook his hand and offered no guarantees. What Ansay built from there became his proof that culture beats strategy, but only when leaders live it.

"He said, good luck. I hope you make it," Ansay recalled on Activating Greatness, the leadership podcast from Velocity Advisory Group. "He said, well, you're educated, from here on in, you figure it out."

His father had been a small-town banker in a community of 300 people, educated at a time when that was rare. He carried a core value that Ansay has spent his career turning into an operating system: give to get. Today the organization is 80 years old, employs about 300 people, and ranks in the top 75 in the country in its industry. When Ansay started in the late 1970s, it earned $11,000 in commission. Today, he said, that figure is about $63 million.

Culture Beats Strategy Only When Leaders Live It

Most companies, host Alec McChesney noted, treat culture as a few values on a wall that no one can repeat. Ansay locates the failure at the top.

"If you don't do what you say you're going to do and you don't live what it is you are, there's no way that you're going to create a culture for others," he said.

His test is credibility. People want to be respected, trusted, and appreciated, he said, and a leader who stops learning loses them. "You become hollow to people," he said. That is why Ansay still enrolls in executive programs at Columbia University. Seeing technology coming for a relationship business, he took a program there in 2017 on digitizing businesses and pivoted the business model.

Relevance, in his view, is the CEO's hardest job. "If I'm not relevant in what I'm doing, there's nobody gonna follow my leadership," he said.

Recognition as a Discipline

Belief has to be reinforced, and Ansay reinforces it on a schedule. Every month he receives a list of employees whom clients have praised for their service, and he calls each one personally to say thank you. He also writes personal notes, a habit he keeps every Tuesday.

"It takes a lot of work," he said. "You have to be disciplined."

The fun touches McChesney raised, including Bike with Mike rides with new hires and interns, a Wheel of Wow that spins for cash and days off, and a Grinch costume at Christmas, sit on top of harder structure. Bonuses tie to metrics such as client retention. Twice a year Ansay goes on culture tours, and the firm rewards its best performers with awards and trips.

McChesney warned that many organizations add a pizza party and expect every other problem to disappear. Ansay agreed the mechanisms work only because of what sits underneath. "Culture has no value if you don't live it," he said. "And it's not what I want, it's what people believe it is and what they support."

"If you don't do what you say you're going to do and you don't live what it is you are, there's no way that you're going to create a culture for others."

Mike Ansay, CEO, Ansay & Associates

Give to Get, in Practice

The give-to-get philosophy extends past the office. Ansay gives every employee four paid days a year to work for nonprofits. At an annual golf outing in the Eau Claire region, the local team raised about $10,000 for a family whose young son needed a transplant at a Milwaukee hospital. After a tornado hit the Appleton region, employees there asked to donate water and supplies.

"Our business is the community," he said.

The same approach shapes how he treats interns who may never stay. One, a Marquette University senior, found his direction during the internship, now works for a reinsurer in New York, and recently texted Ansay his thanks. Ansay counts that as a win. "You help people, they help you. It's just that simple," he said.

Three Years to Integrate a Culture

The philosophy faces its toughest test in acquisitions. Smaller agencies, Ansay said, are a lifestyle, and their clients are often their best friends. So he spends his early conversations with owners on "life after the deal," leveling expectations before anything is signed.

He does not insist on putting his name on everything. He cares that relationships stay intact, and he brings resources the smaller firm lacked. Then he takes his time. Many firms in his industry make changes quickly, he said, and that "causes different heartburn." His estimate is that it takes three years to integrate a culture, with a dedicated team, regular calls from Ansay himself, and an annual sales meeting to keep new colleagues connected.

That patience works as a growth strategy. Many new deals, he said, come from owners referred by friends who already sold to the firm. Their verdict is consistent: The company does what it says it will do.

Ansay calls the firm "patient capital." No outside investor dictates how fast it must grow. Even so, he said, it has grown between 7% and 10% a year over the last decade. "The formula works," he said. José Suquet of Pan-American Life Insurance Group made a similar case for consistency at scale in insurance.

The Founder Who Knows He Micromanages

Ansay is candid about his own risk. Asked what great leaders should do less of, he answered: micromanage. Having done every job in the business since the file-cabinet days gave him knowledge, he said, "but it doesn't give you the right to micromanage."

"Micromanaging can be the death knell, and I have that tendency," he said. His Columbia coursework helped him see the difference between a founder and a CEO, and that his role had to shift toward listening and helping people rather than fixing everything.

Listening is the habit he relies on most. That morning, his CFO had come to him frustrated by a technology problem. He listened and suggested they collaborate and get the right people in the room, and the tension eased. "So much of who you are is in the presence of where you are, with the presence of people," he said.

That CFO is his best proof of development. She started with Ansay as an analyst 21 years ago, and he invested in outside coaches to help her build on her strengths. "It's easy to tell people what they don't do right versus how do I help you get better," he said. Jason Casarella drew the same line between coaching and micromanaging.

Key Takeaways

1. Credibility comes before culture. Values on a wall mean nothing until employees watch leaders keep their word. Do what you say you are going to do.
2. Make recognition a scheduled habit. Monthly thank-you calls and weekly personal notes take discipline, and they build the trust that fun perks alone cannot.
3. Give without expecting a return. Investing in interns, community, and people who may leave pays back in reputation, referrals, and loyalty.
4. Integrate acquired cultures patiently. Level expectations about life after the deal, keep relationships intact, and plan on about three years.
5. Knowledge does not license micromanagement. Founders who know every job still have to trust competent people and shift from fixing to listening.

The Takeaway: Help First

Ansay closed with the idea his father handed him. "We're all on a journey, and the more you can do to help others, the better the rewards are throughout your life," he said. The give-to-get philosophy, he said, has been "ultimately super fulfilling," and life is about fulfillment, purpose, and peace of mind.

For leaders chasing strategy, that may sound soft. The results say otherwise. An organization that grew from one file cabinet to the top 75 in its field did it by keeping promises to employees, clients, and communities, one phone call and one note at a time. Culture beats strategy when it is the strategy.

Listen to the Full Episode

Hear Mike Ansay's full conversation with host Alec McChesney on Activating Greatness. Find it on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.