Growing a business is a little like raising a child. From the early days of worrying if you’re going to inadvertently harm your “baby,” to the stressful highs and lows of navigating the changes that come raising a successful business, we’ve had an eventful 16 years at The Roundtable. In celebration of our anniversary week, we thought we’d take the opportunity to look back at a few of the milestones along the way and share some of the lessons learned.
The Toddler Years (2011-2014)
Once you manage to get your fledgling business past the third-year milestone, the pieces start to fall into place around, what Jim Collin’s coined, your hedgehog model: what you’re passionate about, what you can be best in the world at, and what you can get paid for doing. Thanks to a business coach who told me that what I was trying to do as the go-to organization for high potential talent was “too f*cking complicated,” I doubled down on what I was truly passionate about: peer group coaching. The start of 2011 saw the launch of our first corporate peer coaching program and the rest is history.
Milestones:
- Going Corporate. In 2011 we launched the first PepsiCo Foods Canada Leadership Roundtable program with eight fantastic leaders: Julie Sirois, Mike Flanagan, Mike Hall, Matt Hall, Claudia Calderon, Lynn McIntosh, Dan Bruce and Bob McCusker. 14 years later, that program is still going strong.
- Making It Into a Textbook. Our peer-based coaching approach to leadership development was featured for being innovative and impactful in the university textbook The Context of Canadian Business. Ironic for our organization, which once featured the tagline “Leadership isn’t learned in a binder!”
- The Roundtable Recharge Unconference: Held In 2014, our first Roundtable Recharge Unconference brought together 30 of our program alum and in 2019 we had a sold-out crowd of 75 at our 5th anniversary offering. As one of our members said, “I think I got TOO much value!”
Lessons Learned:
- Don’t Limit Your Thinking. I had originally conceived our Roundtable for Leaders peer program as an open-enrolment program. Thanks to a fabulous partner in Janey Piroli (then) with PepsiCo Foods Canada, I saw how impactful the program could be in companies. Today, over 95 percent of our Roundtable programs are delivered in partnership with corporate clients, and I owe it all to Janey who had a bigger vision for what we were doing than I did.
- Bricks and Mortar has Its Place. You can build a culture virtually but I found scaling easier with a home base. At the end of 2014, we decided took on permanent office space. It’s helped our junior employees could get the support they need to scale more quickly. It’s also provided our team with a place to come to collaborate. We’ve always operated as a hybrid workplace but, personally, I like the grounding effect of a hub that we can all circle in to when we need.
- Know the Business You’re In. Running our PowerRoundtable breakfast series seemed like a great idea until people started thinking that we were an event company and not a coaching company. We put our event series to bed at the end of 2014 which allowed us to focus on our core business instead. Sometimes to grow, you must let go of some of your cherished ideas.
