Assembling Your Dream Team: P. Scott Bening On How CEOs Can Build and Lead High-Performing Executive Teams
I will forever be grateful to have had a boss and mentor like the late Herbert J. Siegel. While serving as chairman of Chris-Craft Industries in the late 1990s, he gave me my first real opportunity to run a business and coached me through my early experiences as an entrepreneur and leader.
Building and leading a high-performing executive team is crucial for any CEO or business leader striving to create a thriving organization. But what does it take to attract top talent, foster collaboration, and ensure long-term success? In this series, we will explore how CEOs and business leaders strategically assemble and lead dream teams that drive innovation, growth, and excellence.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing P. Scott Bening.
While President and CEO of MonoSol, LLC, P. Scott Bening led the scaling of the company from infancy to a global leader in the consumer goods, multibillion-dollar detergent market. Water-soluble unit doses, most famously known as Tide Pods, has become the global norm thanks to Scott’s mastery of partnership navigation, marketing strategies, unique chemistry, and engineering advancements. He is now CEO of MBS2 Advisors, an executive coaching organization that specializes in mentoring entrepreneurs, executives, and other business leaders. Scott is a proud graduate of St. Lawrence University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a board member of Butler University. In 2010, he was inducted as a Fellow in The Society of Innovators of Indiana, and was honored by the 111th Congress of the United States by Congressman Peter Visclosky. He is also a member of the Chicago Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1959, I am a proud American Baby Boomer who benefited from great mentors, a solid middle-class upbringing, and a strong family life. I consider myself a very lucky guy. From a young age, I was intrigued by science and ultimately chose chemistry as my vocation. It genuinely interested me, but just as importantly, in the 1970s, it appeared to offer a career path that could support the lifestyle I aspired to. My early goal was simple: purpose, financial independence, and a life free from debt. After graduating from Clarence High School in western New York, I earned my undergraduate degree in chemistry from St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, followed a decade later by an EMBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. My journey with MonoSol, the company that helped make Tide Pods a reality, began in 1989 and spanned thirty-three years. I never imagined running or owning a company, let alone building an organization like MonoSol. What I did dream of was taking control of my own destiny and striving for success. That ambition ultimately shaped my career in ways I never expected.
