VST Venues: Transforming Culture Through Strategic Alignment and Shared Leadership

VST Venues is a dynamic and rapidly scaling business that operates within the hospitality and events industry, providing a portfolio of curated venues and exceptional experiences across the UK. Originally established in 2007 as a B2B lead generation agency, VST has since made a strategic pivot toward full-service venue management. This shift has brought new commercial opportunities but has also surfaced typical organisational growing pains, particularly as the internal culture tried to evolve at the same pace as the external brand.

As the company expanded, legacy start-up behaviours such as informal decision-making, personality-led leadership, and ad-hoc communication persisted. Against this backdrop, VST recognised the urgent need to proactively review and realign its culture, leadership practices, and organisational systems in order to really thrive at scale.

Overview of our Partnership

In May 2025, VST Venues partnered with The TCM Group to deliver a Culture and Leadership Alignment Lab, a comprehensive cultural diagnostic and strategy workshop. Rooted in the Transformational Culture framework, this initiative marked a pivotal moment in the organisation’s transition from a start-up agency to a mature venue management business. With culture recognised as a strategic enabler, the Lab aimed to surface key tensions, explore opportunities, and lay the foundations for lasting transformation.

Challenge: Culture Misalignment and Leadership Tension

Despite a strong foundation of values, quality, flexibility, ethics and professionalism – in fact VST was honoured with the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2024 award, the report identified some unspoken dynamics and areas where lived experience did not yet fully reflect the organisation’s aspirations. Key opportunities included:

• An opportunity to strengthen strategic alignment, ensuring people strategies support evolving organisational goals
• A chance to unify diverse leadership styles through shared behavioural standards
• A clear commitment to inclusion, with scope to broaden participation in decision-making
• A culture with strong psychological safety, poised to grow in confidence, consistency and cohesion

A central flashpoint was the dynamic between VST’s two leadership arms, one outward-facing, the other internally focused. Without co-designed leadership standards, differences emerged in tone, authority and direction, highlighting the need for greater alignment and shared modelling.

Insight: “Your People Are Your First Consumers”

One of the most powerful metaphors to emerge during the Culture Lab was the idea that employees consume leadership in the same way clients consume services. This reframing deeply resonated with the leadership team, especially as VST seeks to deliver premium, people-led experiences to clients. The team noted:

“I love the reminder that our people are consumers of our leadership… we must understand how we ‘sell’ it to them so they can model the experience we want to deliver to our clients.”

Culture Maturity: Early Adoption with Pockets of Strength

According to TCM’s Cultural Maturity Indicators, VST’s culture is currently in the “Transitional: Early Adoption Phase”. Standout strengths include:

• Psychological safety: Staff feel safe voicing concerns without fear of reprisal.
• Feedback receptivity: There is a healthy appetite for feedback, and some structures exist to capture and respond to them.
• Values-awareness: Leaders demonstrate a conscious commitment to ethical conduct and quality, especially at interpersonal levels.

Some development areas were highlighted, including strategic alignment, leadership consistency, and inclusion visibility.

Workshop Outcomes: Honest Dialogue and Renewed Commitment

The Culture & Leadership Alignment Lab facilitated by TCM was described by participants as a candid and hopeful session, that addressed issues in a constructive way. Key highlights included:

• A deep dive into the 7Cs Leadership Model, assessing Courage, Compassion, Curiosity, Connection, Collaboration, Communication, and Common Purpose.
• Identification of key cultural mismatches between stated values and lived experiences.
• A commitment to move from fragmented decision-making toward a co-leadership model, with a shared tone, language, and behavioural standard across senior leadership.

Leadership recognised that,

“Quite simply, the management team and the whole business need us using the same voice… in both our words and our actions.”

Next Steps: From Insight to Action

Building on the insights and momentum generated from the Lab, the following three priorities for development emerged:

1. Strategic Alignment and Shared Leadership Standards

A shift from individual leadership behaviours to collective modelling of shared standards, anchored in trust, collaboration, and follow-through.

2. Inclusivity and Voice

Embedding inclusive practices more consistently, ensuring all departments feel represented and valued in shaping the organisational direction.

3. Transformation Pathways

TCM recommended several targeted interventions to embed lasting change:

• Routes to Resolution Training: Supporting courageous conversations and restoring relational trust.
• Culture Catalysts Programme: Creating a network of internal champions to bridge formal values and lived culture.
• Strategic Away Days: Facilitated, values-driven retreats to reframe leadership expectations and re-energise the team.
• ENGAGE Framework Activation: Translating the new values, Execute with purpose, Nurture relationships, Grow every day, Act with integrity, Get things done, Empower each other, embedding them into everyday habits and leadership behaviours across the organisation.

Together, these actions offer a structured pathway to move from hesitancy to confidence, and from individual efforts to collective cultural leadership.

Reflections and Results (So Far)

The team’s feedback confirms the Lab’s value:

“It was a really helpful workshop, really insightful.”

While this case study captures only the beginning of VST’s cultural evolution, the leadership team has already demonstrated the clarity, commitment, and courage needed to steer the business forward. With new shared standards and a values-led approach taking shape, VST is well-positioned to embed a culture that truly supports its growth and reflects the experience it aspires to deliver to every client.