“Always Look Forward"
To this day, Tom Greco remembers wise words that his mother once spoke to him.
“Your eyes are in the front of your head for a reason,” he recalled his mother told him. “So always look forward.”
That’s a mentality that Greco carries with him in his current role as the president and CEO of Advance Auto Parts. He spoke as a part of our C-Suite Perspectives series.
Greco joined the company in that role in 2016 after serving as the CEO of Frito Lay North America, a unit of PepsiCo, Inc.
When he first joined Advance Auto Parts, Greco said the company was experiencing a large amount of turnover.
“It was a difficult time frame,” he said. “We live or die by what happens in our stores. When you lose someone who works in our stores, they go to our competitors.”
Greco set out to change the company culture.
“The first thing I did was I hired a head of HR and we went to work to find a leadership team to do what we needed to do,” he said. “I’m very proud of my leadership team. The first thing you have to do is have people on your leadership team who can get the job done.”
In the area of people, Greco talked about the importance to his company of “championing inclusion,” referencing how Advance Auto Parts has hired talented female executives.
Other aspects of the company’s value and mission include accountability, acting with urgency, growing talent, and, as Greco’s mother once told him, moving forward.
Greco said the turnover rate has dropped significantly and the company is growing.
In November 2018, Advance Auto Parts announced it would move its corporate headquarters to Raleigh, bringing 435 new jobs and marking the first Fortune 500 Company to call Wake County home.
“It’s so attractive to live here because we have great schools and such a strong technology base to tap into,” said Greco.
We want to thank him for sharing the story of Advance Auto Parts and his perspectives on the importance of company culture.
If you would like to read more about the discussion on social media, check out our C-Suite Perspectives Twitter hashtag, #CSuitePers.
We also want to thank our event sponsors for their continued commitment and support. Their partnership with us makes our C-Suite Perspectives series possible.
Our next C-Suite Perspectives will be on Aug. 23, also at The Umstead Hotel and Spa. We will hear from Martha Frye, senior regional vice president for the Southeastern Regional Operations for Nationwide Insurance. Register today to discover what she has learned on her corporate journey.
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