"To be successful, it has to be about everybody else" - Chris Odegard of Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply

In this episode of the Land and Lead podcast, Dr. Josh Elmore speaks with Chris Odegard, President and Chief Merchandising Officer of Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply. They discuss the challenges and strategies involved in leadership transitions, the importance of building a strong company culture, and the journey from the sales floor to executive leadership. Chris shares insights on hiring for cultural fit, the significance of trust in leadership, and the lessons learned throughout his career. He emphasizes the need for servant leadership and the importance of focusing on the success of others to achieve long-term success.

Transcript

Dr. Josh Elmore (00:00)
Welcome to the Land and Lead podcast, where we explore the real stories behind leadership transitions, the setbacks, strategies, wins, and moments of growth, all aimed at helping other leaders land well and lead effectively. I'm your host, Dr. Josh Elmore of Court Street Consulting. 

Today we're speaking with Chris Odegard, President, Chief Merchandising Officer, and part owner of Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply. Over the past 23 years, Chris has built a career rooted in serving customers, process improvement, and team development. Raised on his family's ranch in remote Northeastern Montana, Chris earned his degree from Montana State University's College of Business. He began his journey with Murdoch's as a part-time team during college and steadily the organization to lead it.

A committed servant leader, Chris is inspired by the work of Patrick Lencioni and embraces principles that foster trust, accountability, and cohesive teamwork. He is passionate about performing teams and empowering them through data-driven insights and streamlined processes to deliver exceptional results. His leadership is grounded in a deep respect for people, a love for rural communities, and an unwavering focus on operational excellence.

Welcome to the show, Chris. 

Chris Odegard (01:09)
Thanks for having me.

Dr. Josh Elmore (01:11) Sure. Happy to be with you and excited to hear about this kind of long tenure ⁓ at Murdoch's and kind of story there. us off from there, tell us more about Murdoch's.

Chris Odegard (01:21)
Yeah. So Murdoch's is founded 31 years ago by John Murdoch. He was in retirement and got bored and his wife, Norma said, you better go find something to do. He had a long history in the farm store industry and bought the store on seventh street in Bozeman in July of '94. And he knows how to be successful, knows how to really lead well. And began growing this company into the 47 stores in six states that we have today.

It's evolved a lot over the years and he turned it over to Rick Ungersma and MaryKay Yeley . And then now in our latest transition, I'm now leading the business and I joined them on the board and guiding this thing forward.

Dr. Josh Elmore (01:59)
Wow. Yeah, such a great story about kind of that early idea and just an expansion through growth. Can you share a bit about your background and your journey through various roles at Murdoch's?

Chris Odegard (02:11)
Yeah. Uh, so as you mentioned, I grew up on a ranch and, uh, came to Montana state for college and knew I had to figure out my own way. I was determined to be successful and wasn't necessarily interested in going back up to the ranch. It's pretty remote. And, uh, so I July 2002 in the store part-time Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. And I was very familiar with the product, of course, and I just really, really enjoyed it. 

Our company's focused on treating people right. We have a very healthy, strong culture. And ⁓ I really enjoyed that and had a couple of years in the store where I just tried to seize every opportunity to help had an instance where a customer caught me on a Saturday on the phone. He was upset. He didn't get his gun safe delivered and it was supposed to be delivered the Tuesday prior and nobody called, nobody, anything. I knew the problem. 

We, you know, the managers make commitments and put them on a board and nobody would organize it. And so I went and spoke with the assistant managers. They all happened to be in a meeting and I said, Hey, I work Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. And, you need me on the sales floor on Saturday, but not on Tuesday and Thursday. And so I drew a marker line down the board and said, here's Tuesday, here's Thursday. Only do what, one person only commit to what one person can do in a day. And, so it a win-win. 

I got to go get outside the store. You know, haul the flatbed and deliver product and stuff. So go meet customers that I grew up with, you know. so yeah, I began solving problems. ⁓ and that really helped me succeed in my career. I liked solving problems that made everybody's lives easier. And after a couple of years in the store, I got promoted to be in the office. Had no idea what I was doing, relied on a lot of very smart people to teach me and still do.

And, really what drove the success was just trying to find ways to make, to help us serve customers better. Right. And so when you're in the store, the customer is right in front of you. Right. And when you get into the office, having been in the store, helped me realize that really our customers, those folks that are facing the customers, right. So folks in our stores. And so I was hell bent, frankly, on how to make their lives easier, how to help them out. I didn't mind working hard to do that.

Taking on extra burden if I knew that it was going to exponentially help, you know, as we grew stores, it would just, I was, was, you know, at first it was five or 10 stores, you make their lives easier, now, you know, 47 stores. And of course there's much larger retailers than us, but the ability for the support function in the home office to really like focus our work on making the lives easier for those facing your actual customer. So, I have a serious passion for that.

and ⁓ also helping my peers make their lives easier as well.

Dr. Josh Elmore (04:45)
So how many years were you on the floor, right? You said you went into the office. was that block of time before you went into the office?

Chris Odegard (04:53)
Yeah. So I did two years on the sales floor, my junior and senior year of college, halfway through my senior year is when the opportunity in the office came up. so I, vividly remember sweeping the sidewalk on a Sunday, I had volunteered to take a couple extra shifts looking over at the office thinking I'm starting there tomorrow morning and I have no idea what I'm doing. And, so yeah, that was a interesting time. And then while I was in the office, I was a buyer.

So I bought all kinds of stuff. ⁓ lot of it, I was, I was anchored in apparel, then anything that was a problem. Som, buying and getting live chicks to the store or Honda power equipment or any, anything was a challenge. Gun safes were a challenge for, for a time. And, ⁓ I really liked to take on the challenge, figure out what was wrong, whether it might be a people problem, team problem, dysfunction, et cetera, or it was process problem or, or lack of looking at the data correctly.

Any or all of the above and I like to really figure those out and then correct them and then enable a really good team or a good leader to kind of take it over. It's not it's not my thing to kind of keep it just running. It's it's got to evolve and And get better something some exciting transformation, right? I'm not the one to just keep it running.

Dr. Josh Elmore (06:02)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, and so you're you find yourself in in the office, ⁓ you're post grad, and you you've gone through several different roles to now your president role. What were those different roles and kind of how did they manifest?

Chris Odegard (06:10)
Yeah, so five years as a buyer, I had a vision for how to make things better. We had a number of buyers and we all reported to the president at the time and that became overwhelming for him. And, so I was promoted to lead the soft goods team. That's apparel and footwear in our business. And, that's a key differentiator for us at Murdoch's and, ⁓ we knew how to buy a lot of apparel, but we, we were buying way too much and not necessarily the right stuff.

And so that was quite the task and apparel is very subjective. It's extremely challenging to get the right stuff and keep your finger on what the customers want. ⁓ so we were able to really deliver some increased abilities and data that were transformative and some process changes that helped us scale. So did that. I think the key thing in that transition though, because I was a peer amongst buyers and I was also by far the youngest.

Is, you're the young gun. Everybody else is much older than me. And then you get put into a leadership role and you have a whole team of folks that are older and have more experience than you. And, ⁓ that was an incredible challenge and really, I just doubled down on what got me there, which is serving customers. Right. And when I got into that leadership role, my customers were then my direct customers were the team that reported to me. And so anything I could do to make their lives easier to.

Dr. Josh Elmore (07:17)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Odegard (07:33)
You know, there's areas where you have to hold them accountable. Like that's just, that's the hard work you have to do. And then there's other areas where, man, I can, I can really press in to this and clear up the dysfunction and allow these team members that happen to report to me to be more successful. So, ⁓ that, that makes a difference because they're all looking for you to be the arrogant, young buck that's just, you know, power hungry, et cetera. That's what they're looking for. And that's obviously what you want to fight against ever being. And everybody has an ego, but,

Yeah. And I just related it to, and I was a buyer and I thought of my customers as the, ⁓ the store team members, right? ⁓ same thing in leadership was my customers are the ones that are directly depending on me. And, so yeah, I've had a passion for supporting them. And as they would tell you, I also very much hold them accountable and challenge them. but, ⁓ oftentimes things are harder than they should be. And I think, I feel like it's leaders jobs to clear that up and really create a clear forward path for the team to go down. They still have to do the work to get there, but yeah.

Dr. Josh Elmore (08:33)
Yeah, that's super powerful, the idea of thinking about your customers. You're on the floor, your customers are the people coming through the door to buy something in the store. And now you're in a management position, you've switched gears and your customers are now the employees you work with. ⁓ Really important mind shift for ⁓ folks that are moving into management roles. And so you're a buyer. What happened next?

Chris Odegard (08:41)
Yep, so I led purchasing or led soft goods for 10 years. Um, had just outstanding, made a big difference. We landed some major brands that have, um, that are still big anchors for us today. And, uh, then around 2015, 2016, I began leading all of hard goods or all of product, all of purchasing. and that was through a series that we added a category, we added firearms, which was a significant challenge for our business. 

And really challenged our ability to manage inventory. And so, I had figured out, that was my number one priority on the soft good side was really the long-term inventory management, ⁓ merchandise, financial planning. And, so brought those tools to bear then on the hard good side and, really then started bringing in some outside talent, which was new for our company. ⁓ it's challenging because a lot of us had grown up within the company and nobody could really see what our biggest weaknesses were.

Um, everything thought everybody thought everything was so that was, I'll never forget. I had a store manager that, um, was pretty upset with me that we were hiring a leader of buyers role called the divisional merchandise manager from the outside. And, uh, there was a little bit of shame put on me for having grown up in the company, but yet bringing in an outside leader, uh, um, for such a key role, right. When people have been working hard for decades and why not them? Right. 

The key difference was just seeing the gaps, right? When you grow in retail, the way you did it when you were five and 10 stores is not how you can do it at 47 and certainly not how you do it at 2000 plus, I'm sure. Navigating that in a company with a very strong culture and initiating or, bringing the individual into the culture in the right way.

And also bringing their strengths and not just perpetuating the way we do things today. That was challenge, but it's paid incredible dividends for the company. And it comes full circle, right? When you hire those folks that were upset with you, they get it in the longterm, but they just couldn't see where you were going in a five to 10 year period. It wasn't right in front of them.

Dr. Josh Elmore (11:00)
So how do you do that? You said that you were successful there. How were you successful?

Chris Odegard (11:05)
The interpersonal focus on their relationships and how they present themselves. That's it matters most. So I'm very passionate about, ⁓ Patrick Lencioni's ideal team player and he talks about being, you have to be humble, hungry and people smart, right? So the right balance of all three. if you, for instance, if you're not humble, but you're hungry and people smart, those folks can be very difficult in your organization, cancerous, frankly. And, ⁓

So finding the right individual that had the right level of humility and also drive and also as people smart and could build relationships. ⁓ that's the start of it. And then a ton of time spent and spent on the little things, right? How their tone of voice and how they talk to somebody, spending a lot of time telling stories about how we treat people, right? We, we are certainly the opposite of corporate. We are very much family and focused, but with accountability and oftentimes those don't go together. 

And a lot of times is my experience and talking to many folks out there. Family or smaller business can be absent of accountability and expectation of achieving goals and results. And we are striking the balance of both. Right. Whereas if you're corporate, you're assuming man, it's cutthroat. You got to hit your results, et cetera. 

And so I always talk about ditch to ditch, like you're driving on a road and we are trying to stay right on the road and not go into one ditch, which would be too kind and no accountability. And the other ditch would be just reckless abandon to hit your goals or else, right? Yeah, helping folks they bring their previous culture with them in the previous companies, their previous, their beliefs of what executives are like, what executives expect, ⁓ their beliefs and how, especially in other retailers, how do they treat their stores? How do they treat their store team members?

Do they treat it like an inverted pyramid, like you serve them and you wouldn't be here without them because you frankly wouldn't, or do they treat it as a, know, I'm, I'm on this level of the company, so do not challenge me. Right. So a lot of time spent on that. ⁓ and you don't always get it right when you have to, you know, exit folks quickly if you don't get it right. But, and what's funny about that is when you get it wrong and you have that individual in your company, that's just not fitting.

And it's painful for everybody. When you do exit them, it's, it's like reinforcing to the culture. When everybody, it's almost like a good mistake. You bring them in, everybody's like, man, they just, that person here, she just doesn't fit. They're out for themselves. when you do exit them, it gels everybody together even closer because they've had a taste of what not good feels like. Right. 

And then, when you do take that tough fact, it's never fun, right? To promote someone to customer, but, ⁓ you do it, does protect the culture even more. Cause people have a greater appreciation for, what you have and that it is special. I've experienced that too, where you've been with the company a long time and you just take for granted the way that you're treated.

The way that the owners and everybody makes decisions about supporting. It's easy to take for granted if you haven't jumped companies.

Dr. Josh Elmore (14:12)
Mm hmm. Yeah. And so, you're navigating these hard challenges of hiring the right people from the outside. You're learning who fits and who doesn't with this really strong culture. And you're also, I imagine, and you can let us know, learning stuff about yourself, learning stuff about your own leadership style. And how did those lessons that you learned about helping people fit inform your own transitions and your own style of leadership as you worked into the presidency role?

Chris Odegard (14:19)
Yeah, it really gave me a big focus on trust that, you're constantly building trust through all your actions or you're not. But the importance of it. And that came out in a lot of the conversations is just, and it's oftentimes absent in other companies, right? People just, they come in to do the job, but they trust that they're, you know, nobody's really out looking out for them. And, ⁓ it's the opposite here. Truly. 

We very much need to be able to trust each other. We run pretty lean and so can't have weak links. And you also can't treat anybody terribly and expect them to trust you again. So helping those outside folks understand and learn that. And then also just reinforcing that in how I behaved and how I treated folks, right? 

Certainly along the way I've had my moments of, maybe an emotional outburst or being overly passionate about something and saying something that I regret, which there's plenty of those that people in the company will tell you about. But having the humility to just admit your mistake and own it and learn and grow from it and make commitments that you're going to follow through on and learning and growing from where you stumble. That's the most important thing because really they all want you to succeed when they believe you care and know that you care.

They want you to succeed, they just don't want you to succeed at their expense. They want to be able to succeed with you.

Dr. Josh Elmore (15:58)
Yeah, that's a big lesson, sure. There's something that I imagine comes with time and hence your need to kind of socialize people to the organization and that big task of socializing. So, quick recap of what roles have you gone through in the organization?

Chris Odegard (16:06)
Was in the store for two years as a team member on the floor, purchasing specialist in the office and then buyer that was within a five year time frame. And then I led soft goods. Then I led all of product and became co-owner. So I was on the ownership team and the leadership team as we led the company for about 2019 through last spring. And during that time we had obviously the COVID crisis and then we didn't ERP change.

Which was a self-invoked crisis as well. ERP changes are incredibly difficult as a company. And we got the last spring and it just became clear that the committee style leadership wasn't getting it done for uf. We had at the time an ownership team of five and then a leadership team of an expanded group. So kind of two layers of leadership. 

And, ⁓ we did that for about five or six years. And so I led, we led as a group for awhile. And so we flipped the model and our two major owners, and Rick & MaryKay and their families, they'll own the company forever. And we set up a board and then I obviously Rick and MaryKay are on the board. And then I have a seat on the board as leader of the business. And then we have the leadership team. 

So it's much more simplified than kind of a committee of five and a committee of, you know, expanded number of folks up to 10, you know. So, that was quite the transformation and a lot of change for folks. and that was a big test and, certainly made easier by a very strong leadership team and also a leadership team that knew what my goals were and that was to just eliminate dysfunction, create clarity, help people, help people be more effective. Let's get to our goals easier and let's make some decisions much more quickly and clearly. And it's hard, harder to have accountability when you have a, have committees, right? 

So we're striking a better balance between having input from a lot of folks, which is very much needed. And then also having the decision and having a forward path. So been a pretty special change. It's been great really, but it wouldn't have happened without one, strong team. And then two, a lot of trust. I mean, there's when you really consistently are focused on supporting and serving and solving problems and it's not about you. It's easy for people to trust that. Yeah. You're going to treat them right. And you're going to keep doing what you've done for the last 22 years prior to that change.

Dr. Josh Elmore (18:41)
Yeah, and so, right, thinking about that new format, that new context, all of the different dynamics that you've gone through, and thinking about that current role of president that you're in, and chief merchandising officer and co-owner, right, what makes your current role different from past roles, and how have you managed that change?

Chris Odegard (18:51)
Yeah, I think within the first few months, I realized that it's incredibly lonely. You do not have a peer to vent to. And that, that was stark. always prided myself and tried to have a large network of folks to reach out to and certainly found with other leaders of companies that, ⁓ that, that is very much a fact, a big factor. And so, ⁓ that led me to joining YPO, Young Presidents Organization. So.

Newly on board of that. it's already been exceptionally powerful as a network to speak with folks who are expected to have the answers, right? The buck stops with you. You have to rally the team to deliver the results or overcome the challenges. So, that's been fantastic to reach out to other folks because nobody really has the absolute answer.

The secret out nobody wants to admit probably but there's unanswered questions all over the place, but we're finding ways forward through really good conversations as a leadership team and and seeking knowledge wherever we can get it.

Dr. Josh Elmore (19:51)
Hmm. And so you're in your current role. How long have you been in the role?

Chris Odegard (20:03)
Became official May of last year. yeah. Still a year. Thanks.

Dr. Josh Elmore (20:05)
May of last year. All right, so just passed to the year mark. All right, congrats.

So what are some wins and setbacks? And how did they manifest in this year?

Chris Odegard (20:16)
A win would be the effectiveness of our leadership team. they'd all, I know they'd all raise their hand and say, that's the number one win.

We really were able to rally together and sort through our biggest issues and really started attacking them and having really lengthy discussions about the details of why things were or were not working and what we're gonna do about it and make commitments, clear commitments, and then follow up on them. So that was exceptional.

Setbacks? That's a more challenging question.

Dr. Josh Elmore (20:46)
Sure. As it relates to the transition in particular, you know, like you have a new level of responsibility. What is, what's something that was hard that's been, you you're still navigating even potentially?

Chris Odegard (20:47)
Yeah, I think a significant setback is just realizing the, how many of the answers you don't have and appreciating that and navigating that with your team. There's humility and then there's so much humility that they wonder, should you be in this role? Right. but, ⁓ I have no problem asking anybody learning from anybody. So, and then Rick and MaryKay have been outstanding as well about guiding and giving feedback on their perspectives when they led the company.

Just a few months after we had our CFO give her notice, she'd been with us for a long, long time, outstanding individual, and she had decided to ⁓ step back from the company. And that was ⁓ certainly not planned on. And happy for her, but it was certainly a challenge in leading. And we were in middle of an acquisition retail operation in Texas, which made it extra challenging.

You do look around as a new leader and you think, man, people on the bus, right? ⁓ So there's always that question in the back of your mind when you have a long time leader that says ⁓ that they don't wanna keep going. Quite the challenge to fill to with the, with the finance team. Thankfully we have been able to do that, but that was certainly first year setback that, challenged me and challenged the trust that folks have that you're going to find somebody, right? Are you going to find that right person? Um, and internally folks had agreed that we didn't, we had to look externally for that role and, which increases the risk, of course. And, uh, thankfully we were able to land an outstanding individual that fits our culture very, very well and is, not missing the beat. carrying on forward in an even stronger way. It's great.

Dr. Josh Elmore (22:48)
Yeah. And that's challenging in the sense that you have culture that exists on long-time partners and long-time employees, but you also built the muscle in the organization prior for external hires. So, you kind of set yourself up for success a little bit there. Is that right?

Chris Odegard (22:55)
Yeah, yep. think folks have understood balance, right? Respecting the culture, keeping it, and having your culture defined so that it's not just carried by folks in their head. Really defining on paper what your culture is, how you treat people. That's super important, which helps guide and allow folks to transition in or out long as you hold them accountable to operate and treat each other by your defined ways of behaving yeah that's been outstanding

Dr. Josh Elmore (23:34)
So it sounds like, across all of your different roles, you've had opportunities, right? You mentioned that first buyer opportunity where all of a sudden you're the manager and your customers are now your team and the team development you had to do there. You mentioned the merchandising role where you had to place a new leader from the outside.

And when you get to this top role, you have kind of the support of owners company and you have this leadership team that you're developing. ⁓ What skills did you acquire? So it sounds like those are experiences that would help inform your current leadership style and your current practice. What do you hold on to that's like a through line through the whole time that you've been in the organization that really captures the essence of how you lead?

Chris Odegard (24:21)
Abiding by our values. A key set of our values are is GET, golden rule, excellence and trust, treating people by the golden rule, expecting excellence in each other and trusting that they're going to do that. So, staying consistent to speaking to that and operating and acting on that, that's been the backbone of how I've been able to get here. and folks that will embrace that will be successful here.

And embrace our mission of being the best and earning the admiration, respect and smiles of our customers, team and supplier partners as the leader in our industry. If they can embrace that. They'll be successful here. And certainly that's what's gotten me to where I'm at. 

Dr. Josh Elmore (24:55)
Hmm. And so, you know, we're coming closer to the end of the conversation. And there's a question that I like to ask all my guests. In the 1980s, John Gabarro ran a few studies focused on general managers and presidents as they pursued new roles and wrote the results up in the book, The Dynamics of Taking Charge. 

Gabarro explained that an executive has fully taken charge when they have mastered the new assignment in sufficient depth to be managing the organization as efficiently as the resources, constraints, and the manager's own ability will allow. Thinking about this definition where 100% is having fully taken charge in your assignment, what percent would you say you're at now?

Chris Odegard (25:36)
Uh, that's hard north at 80, approaching 90, but I don't think I'd ever go over 90. I, don't know that you can get to a hundred. But it is, that's well stated efficiently as know, everything allows. I think a little bit of a difference is I wasn't just new into the company. I'd been, part of shared know, kind of teams. 

And so, it wasn't a major leap. was more just a reformation and a more clear organization structure. So, yeah. know. I don't, I think getting to a hundred percent is, that would take the fun out of it. There'd be nothing to learn then you would just have it figured out. I don't think you ever get it figured out as that was a new challenge, which is what makes it fun. And I was, always engaging.

Dr. Josh Elmore (26:04)
Yeah. And so, thinking about, right, there's other leaders out there that have been in an organization for a long period of time as well, right, rising up through the ranks. 

Chris Odegard (26:28)
Yep, yeah, longer than me, for sure.

Dr. Josh Elmore (26:33)

I mean, well, sure. not. Maybe they've only been there for 15 years, right. But they're rising through the ranks nonetheless, and they're coming into new role requires them a different perspective, the same way that you took that different perspective from, on the floor your customer is the person walking through the door to manager where your customer is now your team member. What advice would you share with leaders that are navigating a high stakes role transition?

Chris Odegard (26:58)
Oftentimes, and I've done this in my past where you get this promotion and who are you thinking about and who's the, who's the focus on? It's on you. You got the promotion, you know, exciting for you. It's about you and, really in order to be successful, it has to be about everybody else. It can't be about you and ⁓ that that's so key. 

And when I, you know when I see folks it's, it's tough when you see folks that are, that are focused on themselves and it's natural for people to do that. But really the key to success is focusing on everybody around you and remembering that there's folks next to you or previously next to you as peers that didn't get it. Right. And, that's tough. And my goal has always been to make sure that they felt like over time, it was the best decision that could have been made. 

Because their lives got easier. They were more successful. Um, they were able to grow thereafter. Um, and that that's what builds really true long-term success uh, a really good culture is focusing everyone else and serving solving their problems and helping reach their goals, which then in turn just helps you. So.

Dr. Josh Elmore (28:05)
Super powerful, yeah. And that goes back to that servant leader mindset ⁓ that was shared at the top. Well, is there anything, Chris, that you'd like to share with our listeners before we head out of here?

Chris Odegard (28:16)
Yeah. Check out Murdochs.com or if you're in any of the six states we operate in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Idaho, or Texas, we would love to welcome you in as a customer. we have a pretty amazing, fun retail shopping experience, great brands, great people to help you. And we would love to welcome you as a customer. Anybody listening.

Dr. Josh Elmore (28:34)
Yeah, Give Murdoch's a visit. Well, thanks, Chris. I really appreciate taking your time and coming on the show and sharing all of your wisdom with other folks that are navigating hard role transition.

Chris Odegard (28:46)
Yeah, yeah, thank you.

Dr. Josh Elmore (28:47)
Thanks so much for listening to the Land and Lead podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Josh Elmore. Tune in next time for more stories from leaders navigating high stakes role transitions.