McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown counts racing legends like Mario Andretti and Ayrton Senna as his on-track heroes, but off-track, the racing executive has an unconventional business role model.
In an episode of Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast released this week, Brown said rock legend and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons gave him useful business advice.
“People that don’t know him might have a certain image of him, but you know he’s literally a rock star, so there is that, ‘I gotta kinda be a rock star’ [vibe], but he’s an unbelievable business person,” Brown said. “One of the things he said to me was never show up late to a meeting, so if you have a meeting with him, he’s always 5 minutes early. He speaks seven different languages. He is very intelligent. He knows exactly what he’s doing.”
Brown, who oversees McLaren’s Formula 1 and IndyCar teams, is wrapping up a banner year. Last month, the papaya-clad F1 team won the sport’s Constructor’s Championship, marking the first time the outfit has won back-to-back team championships since 1991. Brown’s two F1 drivers are in a dead heat fighting for the Driver’s Championship, with only three races to go this season. McLaren’s 61-year-old F1 team is now valued at $5 billion, which, as of September, is a record valuation for an F1 team.
Simmons knows a thing or two about keeping a legendary brand alive. After founding Kiss in 1973, the tongue-wagging, make-up-donning rockstar conceded the band only had a handful of hits, and “it’s been the brand” that has given Kiss its lasting impact in music, Simmons said in a recent NorthBay Biz interview.
“When he kind of gets into the shock and awe, that’s very deliberate, and he’s a rock star, and he can do things that some of us can’t do because that’s part of his brand and image,” Brown said.
Beyond selling Kiss’ catalog last year for $300 million, Simmons is also the cofounder of Motion Wealth Management and was an early buyer of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The rocker and businessman is worth an estimated $400 million.
“He’s great with kids, loves his racing, and he keeps things simple like, you know, he stays on brand and message—repeat, repeat, repeat—and, yeah, he’s an interesting guy,” Brown said of Simmons. “So I’ve got a lot of time for him.”
Brown’s leadership philosophy
Brown, who has helmed McLaren Racing since 2018, has put his own leadership sensibilities to the test and has been credited for the team’s turnaround. He praises a “no-blame” work culture for lifting the team from dire financial straits and allowing them to be repeat championship contenders.
“I always say around the factory: ‘Mistakes are okay, just don’t make the same one twice.’ So everyone kind of gets a free pass, as long as it was an honest mistake, they were trying,” Brown said. “I’ve made 1,000 mistakes, and I’ve learned from all those. So I’m okay with mistakes, just learn from them.”
When Brown joined McLaren nearly a decade ago, the team was in denial of its shortcomings after a switch in engine provider didn’t yield the intended improved results. At the end of the 2020 pandemic-stricken season, McLaren was so financially desperate it sold part of the team to American sports investment group MSP Sports Capital.
But a culture of accountability without pointing fingers soon began to transform team performances on race weekends, a key metric in attracting team sponsors. Brown remembered one grand prix weekend in Russia, when the team traveled with the wrong rear wing—a piece of a race car crucial in gaining an aerodynamic edge. After a dismal Friday performance during practice, an employee held up their hands, admitting to the mistake, Brown said. It allowed the team to pivot and ship the correct rear wing by Saturday, and finish in fifth place for the Sunday race, a solid result.
“The fact that someone put up their hand gave us a chance to fix it,” Brown said. “And it was the difference between having a terrible weekend and a good weekend.”
