Why Growing a Business Is Easier Than Making a Profit — Ep 39, Huntly Christie, CEO Christie Lites

Show notes

In this episode

Growing a business is easier than making it profitable. Huntly Christie explains why a full warehouse diary can hide a weak business, and how keeping Christie Lites focused helped it expand internationally.

Huntly founded Christie Lites in Toronto in 1985. What began in a garage became an international stage-lighting business, but the company did not get there by trying to offer everything. As it grew, Huntly narrowed its product range and worked to make its operations more consistent.

In this conversation with Ben Payne, he explains why customers ultimately want a reliable result, why his rental reps have the authority to solve problems, and why he regards cost as his most important competitor. They discuss the danger of repeatedly accepting work too cheaply and the difference between having equipment out on a job and actually making money.

Huntly also talks candidly about COVID: the closures and layoffs, the assumptions he got wrong, and how anxiety affected his leadership. He explains why he now tries to accept a difficult situation sooner and concentrate on what he can do about it.

In this episode:

• Growing internationally while keeping a narrow focus

• Making different locations work to a common standard

• Giving customer-facing people authority and support

• Why activity and revenue do not guarantee profit

• Cost, pricing and the value of customer relationships

• Leading through a crisis you did not expect

• Technology, live events and why Huntly still loves the work

• Using both instinct and data to make decisions

The business takeaway: understand the cost and complexity of the work you accept. Huntly's personal advice is equally direct: do what makes you happy.

Time Codes

00:00 Why the problems never stop

00:40 Introducing Huntly Christie

01:34 From drummer to lighting entrepreneur

04:47 Expanding from Canada into America

07:02 Why Christie Lites stayed focused on lighting

10:55 Helping customers without offering everything

12:08 Lessons from expanding internationally

13:21 Building one consistent operating system

15:32 Moving into the UK

18:46 Giving your team authority to serve customers

22:17 Investing in equipment and supporting designers

29:43 The changing economics of the lighting business

31:19 Why being busy doesn't mean being profitable

33:31 Competing against cost

35:04 Stayzee sponsor message

35:38 Supporting the podcast

36:14 Pricing, relationships and winning work

39:19 Scaling without adding complexity

41:27 When COVID stopped the industry

42:56 Closures, layoffs and difficult decisions

45:33 How anxiety changed Huntly's leadership

47:49 Accepting problems and moving forward

49:57 Technology and the future of live events

54:12 Where AI can help the business

56:28 What the next decade could look like

57:59 Why Huntly doesn't want to retire

59:58 Huntly's biggest business takeaway

1:00:46 Rapid-fire questions

1:02:46 Gut instinct versus data

1:03:17 Growth versus profitability

1:04:08 Health, habits and giving up alcohol

1:05:40 Ben's closing thoughts

Guest links

Huntly Christie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/huntlychristie

Christie Lites: https://www.christielites.com/

Listen next

Sam Tamplin — How to Scale a Business to 100 Staff (Without Losing Control): another lighting-business founder on managing growth.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ZHRFIz3cVmVQgUkKoZMp3

Dave Coull — How to Build a Strong Business Culture That Actually Works: continue the discussion about trust and leadership as a business grows.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6oR9msiM3EwKRB8d3EGX9p

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