Organisations today face constant change, rising expectations, and bold strategic ambition. Yet too often results fall short.
In our experience, the gap is rarely strategy. It is culture: the everyday behaviours, alignment, and shared belief that determine whether progress truly happens.
We help leaders strengthen and evolve their culture so their organisation can move forward together with clarity, energy, and measurable performance.
“Culture is not an initiative. Culture is the enabler of all initiatives.”
Larry Senn
Why do clients come to us ?
“Our culture
isn’t being lived”
“We’re at
a crossroads”
“We need to change
our mindset and attitude”
“We’re not as aligned
as we should be”
Leaders reach out when they suspect that their culture is hindering performance. This is often brought into sharp relief by changing circumstances – a new team, the rise of competition, external world events, along with opportunities.
“Culture defeats tactics, it defeats strategy. Culture changes everything.”
Seth Godin
How we help you improve your culture
Whilst every engagement is tailored, our work usually focuses on one of 4 critical shifts.
We help you diagnose what is holding performance back
We help embed new ways of working
We help leaders to lead their culture with intensity
We help activate culture champions to accelerate change
Why our work works
We are a small consultancy that specialises in culture. We start at the beginning of the journey with you and follow it through. There are no hand-offs.
We build close, trusted relationships with our clients over years. We see driving culture as a capability leaders can build and sustain. Culture is a collective experience.
We both have 4 decades of experience in culture. The models we’ve created are now principles. We are an accredited partner with the Barrett Values Center.
We work from diagnosis to design to implementation, from the boardroom to the factory floor. Culture is a matter of head, heart and hands. Culture is action.
Through different projects we have :
Enabled a global workforce of 8000+ to focus on one critical approach – to become bolder in all aspects of its operation and performance.
Re-ignited belief and energy in an organisation’s creative confidence following major integration and change.
Unified merged leadership teams following an acquisition around shared behaviours and clearer collective identity.
Generated enterprise-level innovation delivering over $100m in incremental value.
Over 3 years worked with a legal leadership team, equipping them with a sense of purpose, identity and skills to influence without authority.
Helped lay the tracks for huge media transformation in a top 100 FMCG by working with the core team to lead the agenda at pace.
Some of the clients we have worked with
“If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff will just take care of itself.”
Tony Hsieh
Our conversations
“Teamship is when everyone takes responsibility for the success of others, not just their own task.”
Keith Ferrazzi
Our team
Alastair Creamer
Co-founder
My working life has followed a single thread: helping people and organisations unlock their creative potential. Moving from the arts into business, through Sainsbury’s, the London College of Music and Media, and then seven years at Unilever building Catalyst, an award-winning cultural change programme, I’ve spent decades understanding what happens when creativity gets squeezed out of institutional life, and what it takes to bring it back. That work became my own consultancy, taking me across the world coaching individuals, teams and whole businesses through change. In 2012 I co-founded Eyes Wide Opened, a coaching programme for people at professional crossroads, now centred on personal purpose. I am, at heart, a creative person: classically trained musician, writer, painter, carpenter, cook. These days my deepest joy is my garden, a passion I owe entirely to my wife, Jane.
Doug Milliken
Co-founder
I co-founded Creamer & Milliken in 2023 out of a conviction formed over decades of Fortune 500 leadership: that culture is the most critical, and most under-managed, driver of sustained business performance. For 35 years I led Marketing and Transformation at Clorox, shifting the company from mass to personalised marketing and generating over $50m in incremental profit in the process. That track record led to co-leading Clorox’s Enterprise Culture initiative, transforming an 8,000-person organisation toward a Growth Culture, simpler, faster and bolder, and cementing everything I believe about what culture can do. Earlier in my career I worked in advertising and marketing research and taught as an Adjunct Professor at INSEAD, holding an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern. I live in Northern California with my wife; our three children are nearby. Outside work I’m learning piano and guitar, biking, hiking, and rebuilding our property after the 2017 wildfires.
Gabriele Amtmann
Professional Coach
For over 25 years, I have been navigating, exploring and shaping culture across teams and organizations. After graduating from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Political Science, International Relations, I went on to get an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management. With my sights set on international travel, I moved to France and spent the next several years leading multinational teams evaluating financial practices around the world. Sun and family ultimately drew me back to California, where I spent the next 20 years at Clorox driving financial growth, building familiar brands like Clorox, Kingsford, Hidden Valley Ranch and Glad, and leading transformational culture initiatives. My passion is bringing about positive cultural transformation – helping individuals and organizations create a successful and collaborative culture together.
Owen Johns
Professional Coach
Hope made real: I help leaders bring their hopes to life. At Unilever, at William Grant & now at Ocean+Sky. In the UK and around the world, I’ve led & supported change.
At Unilever, I transformed brands & businesses. I’m proud to have initiated Dove Men+Care. At William Grant & Sons, I revived innovation in a sixth-generation company. I’m proud my team created new brands including Aerstone & Discarded. At Ocean+Sky, I support FTSE, family & founder business serve their customers. I’m proud to be a long-term partner of Creamer & Milliken.
Charlotte Guibordeau
Marketing Specialist
I am a creative explorer, working in the worlds of design, marketing and social media. I love meeting new people and helping them show the best version of themselves.
I grew up in the Pacific islands, studied in France, work in London and live in Ibiza. I am passionate about people and their cultures whether it may be for companies or for countries. Seeing how people work together towards a bigger purpose is what inspires my design and marketing mindset.
As I do with my travels, I like to keep things organised and structured so that you can enjoy the beauty of the moment. I take my computer to places that inspire me, creating visuals and sharing creative ideas, and come back to London from time to time to make sure I don’t lose touch with the core team.
Sacha Wells
Executive Assistant
At heart I’m a bit of a contradiction, a creative and an organiser and have been in all its many shapes and forms for 30 years. I’m passionate about creativity and new ideas, and am experienced in delivering the structure and logistics to turn them into reality. My career as an Executive and Private PA has allowed me to experience a wide and interesting variety of companies and private individuals: from the BBC through to change culture, oil and gas companies, finance, a digital brand agency, an artist and a screenwriter. When I’m not keeping the team in check I’m inspired by the theatre, photography and typography as I passionately believe creativity should always be at the heart of everything we do.