BI: Welcome to Business Innovators Magazine…Please introduce yourself and a brief thumbnail of your background.
TD: Hello, my name is Tom Dutta. I am the Founder and CEO of KRE-AT ™, Public Speaker, International #1 Best Selling Author and Motive Leadership Expert.
I am a business mentor and executive coach, with more than 30 years’ experience helping build and grow companies in Canada and USA. I bring leadership experience from Financial Services, IT, TELCO, Not for Profit and Mental Health sectors. My career includes senior roles in many of Canada’s prestigious companies including President and CEO and Chairman of the Board.
I am also the son of Fijian parents with roots back to India. Being born in the UK on a military base I immigrated to Vancouver British Columbia Canada in the late 1960’s and am married to my wife Anna of 21 years with three wonderful children.
BI: Why did you decide to leave a paid secure Executive career and start your own company?
TD: Most executives I have met and coached are on this unthinking treadmill of life. I was one of them until I fell into the leadership and life graveyard a decade ago.
Through an almost ten-year journey of self-discovery, I realized what I thought I was supposed to do in my career wasn’t what I was meant to do. I had a dream of working less than 100 days a year, living my life with passion and purpose but my way.
My peers challenged me saying that success could only be achieved working 80 hours a week, that a 6-figure income required giving up life balance. I was tired of being a frequent flyer versus a frequent father.
Then in the summer of 2007 everything changed…a series of parallel events left us living in quiet desperation and I had no choice but to find a new pathway. What I discovered in part along my journey was that I was born to be an entrepreneur…my core MOTIVES were about teaching and helping others…and that a quality of life and quantity of stuff was possible.
Some might say I stumbled out of the leadership graveyard and started my own company. I would say that I got tired of my BS story and decided to change. I love being an Entrepreneur CEO and it feels like home!
BI: What would you say is the area in business that you are most passionate about and why?
TD: I help leaders stay out of the “Leadership Graveyard” by discovering the MOTIVES behind their behavior. I bring real life experience to mentoring/coaching as I’ve been in their shoes and in the leadership graveyard. My passion is driven by a purpose to help people discover true happiness from the inside out. I was raised by a militaristic father who was a sloppy drunk. I discovered through success and failure that the rules that governed my youth didn’t work in leadership. After falling into the leadership and life graveyard, I decided to establish a way to share my gifts with others in business. This passion is linked to a burning desire to transform others.
BI: How are you different than your competitors?
TD: Our unique approach “The Way of the Quiet Warrior™” is the world’s only program that focuses on identifying MOTIVES of our clients and providing them a path to clarity, happiness and unlimited success. The 6 Phases of this approach begins with a focus on THE SELF where we use science to uncover motives, natural talents, strengths and limitations…we go further than any other program in the market to take the final step and help our clients develop Character. They do this by finding the antidotes to their Character flaws, and we have online tools through our strategic partnerships to monitor progress. Most leadership development firms focus on telling leaders what their behaviors are, setting goals etc.…we go far deeper and take the HARD journey to developing a Charactered leader. Our work transcends into life and is generational. We believe there are four languages spoken by leaders and most only understand how to speak one…this leads to massive failure in many careers. We have unlocked the mystery behind WHY leaders fail and use science to develop people. I like to say “Success feels incredible, happiness lasts a lifetime”.
BI: Please tell me about any recent business accomplishments that you are most proud of and why?
TD: After three decades of work as a hired executive, I discovered a void in leadership development. In 2016 I launched a new company KRE-AT™ to fill this void. On November 10th at the prestigious Terminal City Club in Vancouver Canada, 100 top executives filled the Presidents room as KRE-AT™s business model was revealed. Since then our work has caught the attention a leading University and businesses looking for innovation in leadership development. In fact, at the University level, we took 10 Deans through an experience that was transformational for their own leadership.
We have been recently featured on Global News & CKNW’s Leadership Series for our work “Avoiding the leadership graveyard”. This was significant because only a short list of top leaders from the business community was featured. A short audio was produced and can be found on our website BOOK page under my speaker kit.
