Every business – whether a start-up or multinational company – needs a clear Vision, an understanding of the company’s core Values and a business strategy, on why they’re in business and what staff needs to undertake to achieve those company’s core goals.  

In 1943 Abraham Maslow wrote a paper on the hierarchy of needs all about “A Theory of Human Motivation”, where he analysed what motivates ‘employees’ and the philosophy behind ‘reward and recognition’.  We’re not suggesting one needs to ‘get that deep’ into your staff work ethics however, whether you’re employing 5, 50, 500 or even 5,000 staff every employee needs to ask themselves:-

·       What do you want me to do?

·       How do I do it?

·       Why is this objective important?

·       How will I know how I am doing?

·       What’s in it for me?

Although some city venues are well established and have a very distinctive strong brand presence amongst ‘corporate event buyers’, we sometimes find that event staff ‘lose focus’ on their roles and who are there core Sales Channels!

So when GFG start’s an assignment – a Sales & Marketing audit or a strategic Business development Marketing plan – the first thing we ask the CEO,

“When did you last undertake an internal SWOT analysis or maybe an ‘off-site’ meeting involving all your key staff”  

The answer often varies from ‘occasionally’ to several years ago, when we appointed a new COO.  Well in our opinion it should be an annual disciplined task ideally, three months before the new financial year begins.

Based on personal experience and having worked for a huge US Motivational House many years ago, I always remember the CEO saying to a packed assembled audience on the last day of the annual sales conference,

“You’ve listened to our current financial performance, our business successes, future plans to maintain our continued growth – so now you all have to ask yourself a key question?

One question we often ask ourselves,

Are you on the ‘BUS’ and excited about our future plans? If the answer is YES, then we’re delighted to have you on board! However, if your answer is ‘I’m not sure’, he then said………………

“Well there’s the EXIT and now’s the time for you to get off!! As a company, we don’t support or carry uncommitted passengers!

That’s the Americans for you, but in conclusion the key message from GFG is that it’s so important that every Venue has a clear ‘PLAN’ in place, your event staff have contributed to the content and finally have ‘signed up’ to the plan.

Then if you’ve ticked ‘all those boxes’ you should have a team who are fully committed to achieve your vison and help you achieve your business goals.