EEA PurposePoint CEO Profile: Charlie Malouf’s Journey to Purpose Leadership

This Enterprise Engagement Alliance YouTube Show tells the story of one executive’s path to Purpose Leadership and how its principles helped turn around a struggling company.

Charlie Malouf’s journey to Purpose Leadership didn’t come easily. He is CEO of Broad River Retail,  one of the largest and fastest-growing, independently owned and operated Ashley furniture store licensees, founded in 2023, with more than 30 stores and growing in the southeast US.

Broad River Retail was doing just fine, he says, and had even survived the Great Recession when, in 2015, the company nearly collapsed, due mostly to a failed ERP (enterprise resource planning) software deployment and a poorly timed acquisition.

“Had we not broken all our bones, I don't think we would have had the willingness to test and experiment like we did. I mean, if you reframe failure not as an identity, but as a data point, that just became information for us to learn how we could grow and get better. So, it's the best thing that ever happened to us.”

In searching for a new path, Malouf says he was inspired by the Conscious Capitalism movement.  He conducted a listening tour of the stores. “We started by developing a new purpose statement and by investing in our people following the spirit of abundance and mutual prosperity. We went from a human resources-based company to a human capital company, and started with raising the pay for our employees and developing career paths for everyone.”  

He notes that were his company publicly held, the share price surely would have collapsed on the decision to increase employee pay at a time when the organization was in a near crisis mode.  Being a private company, it “wasn't shackled by Wall Street expectations. We’re running this company for the next quarter century, not the next quarter, and so we can take a long-term view. S what we did we thought was right and fair.”