Irresistable Companies, Extraordinary People.
On April 7th, SVI delivered its ADVANCE experience to the up and coming leadership at MARS Advertising. The ADVANCE experience is designed to re-connect participants with what drives them, what keeps them awake at night, what gets them out of bed in the morning, and how that intersects with their role at work.
Participants during the ADVANCE were asked to answer three key questions: What are you good at? What makes you come alive? And, how do you uniquely meet the needs of your organization? These are three powerful questions that start the conversation around how to be truly extraordinary.
SVI has delivered the ADVANCE many times, but April 7th was different. At MARS, the ADVANCE was simulcast internationally to nearly every satellite MARS office. There were participants at the MARS home office in Southfield MI as well as participants in Chicago, Oakland, Toronto, Bentonville Arkansas, Minneapolis, Atlanta and New York.
The information specialists at MARS burned the midnight oil to put together the infrastructure for the meeting to happen. Each location had a camera and a microphone to allow people to participate as though they were all in the same room. The ability to see all the participants opened a level of communication that a simple conference call could never match.
Murray Williams, Director of Media and Communications for SVI said, “It is easy to take this kind of thing for granted, but today we were able to connect people separated by thousands of miles so they could take part in this experience. When I stop to think about it, it is really quite amazing.”
The ADVANCE was a day-long experience which kicked off a nine-month process for the participants at MARS. Over the next nine months, the participants will continue to meet in smaller groups to ensure the progress will continue long after the ADVANCE experience has past.
Mike Thompson, CEO of SVI, and facilitator of the ADVANCE said, “We aren’t interested in mountain top experiences that are easily forgotten. In order for leadership in an organization to become truly extraordinary the momentum started at the ADVANCE has to be continued. Participants must keep the conversation going. There must be accountability between participants for lasting change to occur.”
SVI has other ADVANCE’s scheduled, but due to the scope of the MARS ADVANCE, it won’t soon be forgotten.
Special thanks goes to Bill Davidson of MARS for providing technology expertise and support.
Every year in mid-December, the entire SVI office shuts down and heads to Mount Magazine in the Arkansas Ozarks for our annual meeting. I always look forward to these times because we get to celebrate a great year, plan for an even greater year, and connect with each other. Murray, our marketing and communications director always creates a crazy video that recaps the year, Autumn, our research director, conducts her interpretive dance, Jason, our technology director, cooks some mean steaks on the grill—and everyone has a blast.
We always spend two days at Mount Magazine. The first day is dedicated to full-on playtime and the second day is dedicated to the business. This year, we enjoyed a beautiful ice storm that made this place look heavenly. Check out some of the pictures.
The SVI team left the annual meeting excited for 2009. Below are a few of the strategies that we’ll be pursuing over the next 12 months.
Client Value
• Enhance and commoditize our training & development systems
• Collaborate strategically and operationally with our client (go deep with them)
• Move from diagnosis to prescription in our research and analysis
Growth
• Grow through the Organizational Champions brand, acquisitions, and partnerships
• Build infrastructure and capacity
• Integrate and innovate our products and services
Profit
• Expand the value proposition
• Build efficiency through volume and continuous improvement
Onward!
Our Clients
