Leadership Philosophy
Ambiguity is the enemy of great execution. McKillips believes that a leader's first job is to make the mission unmistakably clear — what we're doing, why we're doing it, and what winning looks like.
Strategy lives and dies in the spaces between conversations. McKillips has led teams of 17,000 people and learned that the quality of communication — not the quality of the plan — determines outcomes.
McKillips doesn't believe in incremental ambition. His operating principle means setting the standard so high that even falling short produces something extraordinary.
"The best experiences in the world are not designed by people who aim for good enough. We speak in superlatives because that's the only language guests remember."
— David McKillips, CEO Topgolf International
Across every chapter of his career — parks, IP, licensing, restaurants, venues — the through-line is the same: an obsession with how people actually experience a brand, and a refusal to settle for anything that merely meets expectations.
It's a philosophy honed across 17,000-person operating teams, billion-dollar P&Ls, and the kind of crisis moments that define careers. The principles are simple. The execution is anything but.