A Year In Reflection - From our CEO
As we come to the end of 2021, I can’t help but summarize this year into one word! And that is…Hope! At the end of 2020, there was cautious optimism but still so much fear of the unknown and the ambiguity that surrounded us all. The Covid “hang-over” was still very much prevalent in our world and in our businesses. Companies everywhere struggled to either find a way through to the new normal or struggled with the onslaught of new business, growth, and supply chain challenges.
We found ourselves not only in “survival mode” but also in a “servant leader” mode. Filled with empathy, we wanted to help, and help is what we did. As a business owner, I learned that the definition of success was NOT about the P&L statement. We acquired so many new clients where making money was NOT our top priority but serving them was. We learned that finding the best talent, which sometimes made our margins thinner, was the right thing to do for our clients and for our business. Getting through a global pandemic helped us realize that while the bottom line is important, it’s more important that we follow our motto “We lead with our values, we delight our customers, and we have fun.” Leading with our values came very natural to us because of the people we hired and threw ourselves into volunteer work and philanthropic efforts. Our 2021 client satisfaction survey came in at 100% customer satisfaction, which means we were delighting our customers. And our Best Places to Work award demonstrated that we were having fun! We lived our motto in 2021 more than any other year.
With movements like the “Great Resignation” and the “Turnover Tsunami” we helped clients understand that, now more than ever, is the time to focus on employee engagement. With a hybrid or fully remote workforce, many are struggling to be noticed, developed, and engaged in their work. To help address this we merged with Twomentor and started offering mentoring programs to address these issues and added our Coach 4 Success program to help coach and develop individuals. Both have been fabulous additions to our services.
2021 was certainly the year of change and change is what we do best. We have been working our entire careers to be ready to support clients going through large scale transformations and change. It’s not a part of what we do, it IS what we do! By introducing a new digital transformation platform, ATLAS, has helped clients integrate and house our organizational change model, templates, and executive dashboards. The work we have done for our clients has shaped who we are today. By pivoting, being innovative and agile, we were thrilled to be named and awarded not only the Best Management Consulting Firms in Ohio, but also the TOP 10 Change Management Firms in the country! We couldn’t be more grateful to our clients that teach US how to be better every day!
Finally, 2021 came down to leadership. Each person within the C4G family has proven to be a leader, to help us pivot, to help delight our clients, to help us innovate and to help one another be successful. I was fortunate enough to have received the award for the Most Admired CEOs from the Columbus Chamber, voted on from my peers in the community. While it was an award with my name on it, it could not have been achieved without ALL the leaders we have at C4G. It is truly and honor and a privilege to work for each one of them.
In summary, investing in our people, being servant leaders to our clients and empowering our leaders at C4G was our secret sauce this year! I challenge you to reflect and learn from this crazy year too!
I, along with the entire C4G family, wish you the happiest of holiday seasons and a peaceful New Year! I look forward to connecting with you in 2022, my door is always open to help, to serve and to innovate together.
Beth