DB Latimore Professional Services Group
Bridging Strategy and Culture through P.E.O.P.L.E.^®

It’s a Tuesday morning in a bustling downtown office, and Daphne B. Latimore sits across the desk from a client, deep in conversation. The air is filled with the hum of the city outside, but inside, in this small conference room, all that matters is the problem at hand.

One of DB Latimore Professional Services Group’s clients is a fast-growing tech company. Although the company has a solid expansion strategy, it is struggling to build the culture that can support it. In front of Daphne, there’s a whiteboard full of notes, arrows, and ideas. It’s not just a session about numbers and policies; it’s a conversation about how to connect people to their work in a way that goes beyond tasks and compliance.

With her calm demeanor and deep insight into organizational behavior, Daphne is going beyond just talking strategy to lay the groundwork for something more profound: organizational transformation. She’s been here many times, helping companies bridge the divide between high-level strategy and the day-to-day reality of their employees. Today, in this room, the conversation isn’t about implementing a plan; it’s about how to make that strategy live and breathe within the company’s culture.

This is the essence of what Daphne does best. She’s not just a strategist; she’s a people-first leader who understands that without a strong culture to back it up, even the best strategy will fail. What sets Latimore apart is her ability to shift how leaders think about leadership, culture, and strategy.

“You see,” she explains to her client, “strategy is not just about what’s on paper. It’s about how people connect to it, how they embody it. When you get the culture right and help people see how their daily actions tie into the bigger picture, the strategy becomes alive.”

This way of thinking led Latimore to create DB Latimore Professional Services Group, which integrates organizational strategy with culture through its solution, P.E.O.P.L.E.®. When first introduced, the model stood for Policies, Processes & Procedures; Efficiency of Services; Optimization of Resources; Product or Service Affinity; Leadership is Communicative & Collaborative; and an Engaged Workforce—a framework rooted in compliance and operational clarity. Over time, Latimore refined the model to reflect how culture and behavior drive execution, evolving into the current definition: Productivity, Empowerment, Organizational Strategy, People-Focused Culture, Leadership Development, and Engagement.

Today, Daphne integrates tools like Equitable Excellence™ and culture diagnostics to help leadership teams measure what they value and hard-wire aligned behaviors into execution. This evolution underscores her philosophy that people are not just recipients of strategy but active participants in making it real every day.

From HR Professional to Organizational Strategist

Daphne’s career didn’t begin in strategy. Her first foray into the corporate world was in Human Resources. For many years, HR was seen as a back-office function focused on compliance, policies, and administrative duties. But Daphne saw something more. She recognized that the true power of HR lay in its ability to shape culture and create environments where employees felt seen and valued. As the workplace evolved, Daphne evolved with it.

“I started in HR when it was very tactical,” Daphne recalls.

“It was about enforcing policies, managing employee relations, and handling compliance. But as the workforce changed, I realized that HR couldn’t just be about managing the process— it had to be about empowering, coaching, and ensuring people understood how their work fit into the organization’s larger goals.”

That realization was pivotal. HR had to become a strategic partner in the organization’s success. Over the years, Daphne’s role grew to reflect this shift. She began working closely with leadership teams to integrate culture with strategy, helping them understand that their workforce was not just an asset to be managed but the key to the organization’s success.

The Birth of P.E.O.P.L.E.

The turning point in Daphne’s journey came when she realized that the core challenge for organizations was not simply implementing strategies but making them a lived experience for employees.

That’s when she created the concept of P.E.O.P.L.E., a solution that takes a holistic approach to organizational change.

P.E.O.P.L.E. focuses on aligning organizational strategies with employee behaviors and actions. It ensures that daily work connects with the company’s overarching goals, values, and mission. This approach transforms how employees view their work and its purpose.

“P.E.O.P.L.E. is really about making strategy not just a top-down directive but something everyone in the organization can engage with and feel connected to. It’s about culture, yes, but also about ensuring that culture supports the behaviors needed to bring that strategy to life,” says Daphne B Latimore, founder, managing partner, and organizational strategist at DB Latimore Professional Services Group.

Through P.E.O.P.L.E., DB Latimore Professional Services Group helps organizations navigate the complexities of aligning strategy with culture. It begins with understanding the organization’s culture and identifying the behaviors that must be nurtured. Once this alignment is established, the solution integrates those behaviors into leadership practices, ensuring that leaders not only oversee tasks but also guide their teams through coaching and mentorship.
The Post-Pandemic Workforce

The COVID-19 pandemic created seismic shifts in the way we work. Remote work became the norm, and employees suddenly found themselves disconnected from the culture they once shared with their teams. For many organizations, this moment revealed that their culture wasn’t as strong as they had believed. In this new virtual world, it became clear that productivity would falter without a strong connection between employees and the organization’s mission.

Daphne saw this gap immediately. “Culture was lost during the pandemic because work became task-driven, not relationship-driven,” she explains. “People could complete tasks from home, but they weren’t building the connections that make culture come alive. We realized that when employees aren’t engaged with the organization’s values and mission, it’s not just productivity that suffers—so does the connection between employees and their work.”

DB Latimore Professional Services Group stepped in to help companies transition from remote, task-driven work to a more connected, relationship-focused approach. The firm’s work centers on rebuilding culture, helping organizations navigate the challenges of remote work, and thrive in an increasingly digital environment.

“We started asking, ‘How do we bring people back together when they’re dispersed across different locations?’” Daphne recalls. “We realized that the key wasn’t just having people in the office; it was about creating a shared experience and ensuring that everyone understood how their work fit into the company’s overall strategy.”

Documenting a Legacy of Leadership and Strategy

Her 2025 Leadership Trilogy—Human Capital at the Core, You Should Be a Coach, and The Power of Presence—translates that philosophy into playbooks leaders can apply immediately, from aligning culture with strategy to coaching for performance and showing up with presence.

The trilogy’s first book, Human Capital at the Core, tackles the relationship between culture and strategy. The second, You Should Be a Coach, focuses on the importance of coaching in leadership development. The final book, The Power of Presence, is written for HR professionals and aims to help them elevate their role from administrative to strategic.

“The leadership trilogy is my way of documenting everything I’ve learned over my career and passing it along to the next generation of leaders,” Daphne says. “It’s a real-world application. I want leaders to be able to pick up these books and immediately start using the tools and frameworks I’ve developed.”

A Legacy of Change

Now, as Daphne looks toward the future, she’s transitioning into a new phase of her career: advisory and consulting. While she will continue to coach and work directly with organizations, her focus is shifting toward helping companies develop long-term, sustainable strategies for navigating the complexities of the modern workplace.

“As much as I love working with leaders personally, I’m ready to take on more of an advisory role,” Daphne says. “The world of work is changing so fast, and organizations need experienced leaders who can guide them through these changes. I want to help businesses adapt and create cultures that will thrive no matter what the future holds.”

At the core of all Daphne’s work is a simple yet powerful truth: people are at the heart of every successful organization. Whether through P.E.O.P.L.E., her leadership coaching, or the frameworks she’s developed, Daphne remains steadfast in her belief that when people are empowered and connected to their work, they drive business success.

“Strategy can only succeed when it’s connected to the people doing the work,” Daphne concludes. “The future of work is human-centered, and that’s where we’re heading. By focusing on people, we’re ensuring that organizations will survive and thrive.”