Brighton Summit: How to inspire a vision

Sharing your vision with your people

Brighton Summit panel chaired by Si Conroy. Panellists included Imelda Glackin, Martlets CEO, Antony Ribot, ribot CEO and Clive Martison, Sales Director of Domestic & General.

Great way to kick off the afternoon session: Si Conroy has 3 secret facts about the three panellists but who do they relate too?!

• absolute fear of bats
• used to be professional show-business dancer
• phobia of moving cheese

Antony Ribot 'we exist to create showcases - experiences and tools that raise the bar, functional and affordable'

His team always seek continual improvement and look to create a valuable hook.

ribot is a 9 year old agency that have worked with both big and small companies across the globe, but their people are their brand and ensuring that the company vision is clearly understood will enable the agency to continue to grow and win contracts.

Why do we need a vision:

Change is the only constant

Vision guides us and the team to make better decisions

Vision creates a sense of energy, you need to believe in what you are doing

As a team they have some practical team meet ups;

• An annual Q&A session with team 
• Ri- fresh monthly lunch with team 
• Ri- cap at the end of every week
• Start the week by having breakfast with the team 

Every interaction with the team is important and the vision must always be in your thought process.

Antony went on to say that distraction does impact the maintenance of a company vision - and it is imperative that you don't try to do everything at once because you will lose your source of energy that drives the vision of the business.

Passion is at the heart of ribot - driving the vision and making sure everyone is clear on the direction is key.

Imelda Glackin explains that as a charity they have to be 'entrepreneurial every day of the week'.

The Martlets is trying to lift the mood surrounding the work that they are trying to achieve - the vision for the organisation is that everyone in the city engages with the charity comfortably and safely.

Fact: every single person is going to die - but not many people talk about it.

Imelda went on to explain that they have a fantastic team that supports people to engage with their life changing experiences.

The Martlets has brought 44 Snowdogs to town - why?

This is how they share their vision - making sure everyone in Brighton is aware of the organisation and that they are interested in what matters to everyone.

What motivates, what inspires and what drives - the brand is your people and your vision should represent this.

Imelda says 'we are the community and the Snowdogs campaign is a way of helping the Martlets engage'

'You can't let your vision interrupt opportunities and can never lose your passion for the why'

Clive Martison has a strong and clear vision. How do you turn a 'sell sell sell' operation into a customer centric organisation - where you truly put the customer at the heart of every decision?

D&G have just under 3,000 global staff including a 900 strong team in a Brighton - with a team that big how do you ensure the vision is heard.

Clive explained that demands and expectations are higher than ever - service is the biggest differentiator but how does D&G do that? Through their people!

The right people must be there at the start - they must share the aspirations of the organisation.

Their language across all platforms contains positive language which ensures that the people of D&G must have that positive deep and sincere language.

Even as a big firm they don't get it right all the time, you must realise mistakes and react to them quickly. Listen to your people - you can make changes to make the organisation better.

Training within the organisation implores the company vision from the very start - they have team leaders rather than managers as leaders show people the way.

Great people - great service. This is the simple and powerful strap line that is embedded in everything they do from training to contract-winning.

They invest in their team and believe it is important to stop and be energised as a team - enabling them to connect and communicate constantly. 

Have a vision, a promise and purpose - love your people and love your customers.

Si Conroy picked out that each panellist said that;

'the vision was important for you as a leader'

'a good leader should never be far away'

To end the session, we found out the answers to the 3 secret facts;

• Clive was the dancer
• Imelda has the fear of bats
• Antony has a phobia of moving cheese
   

Live blogging by Vicky King, Marketing Manager, Plus Accounting

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk