Every quarter, we all get together under one roof for our Quarterly Kick Offs. We discuss our progress in the last three months relating to all of the different sectors of our business: sales goals, personal achievements, active and completed projects, and more. We also talk about what’s coming in the next quarter and expectations behind our business and growth as a company. In between all the business, we have some laughs, chat with those we don’t get to see often enough, and enjoy the good times! The QKO’s are a pretty cool part of Penrod’s culture!
But one of those quarterly meetings in particular is a special one: our Yearly Kick Off. Not only do we discuss our quarterly accomplishments and goals, but we review our performance from the past year and preview the next year’s ambitions, objectives, and destinations of where we want to go as a company. And we all still get to have those laughs and good times as always!
We celebrated our Yearly Kick Off last week and had a bunch of notable moments that we highlighted and also happened to blog about. So here are a few of the things that we talked about at the YKO!
Expansion
This year, we were thrilled to expand our company to two new cities: Minneapolis and Dallas. We won’t be stopping at just those locations this year too. Stay tuned to our social media channels and our blog to learn more about where we go from here!
Achievements
We had a number of big awards and achievements in 2017 of which we are very proud. It all started with being named the Best Place to Work for Young Professionals in Wisconsin for the second year in a row! Then, we became Salesforce Gold Partners, a huge milestone in our company’s journey from the very start in 2012.
Thirdly, we joined the INC 500, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States, ranked at #442. This accomplishment, along with the others, have been hugely exciting, and we can’t wait for where we end up in 2018!
New Practices
In 2017, we began a new Marketing Services practice that features expertise in Marketing Cloud and Pardot. This feature, in addition to our proficiency in other areas of Salesforce such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and others, helps fill out our portfolio and cements our status as a premier partner with Salesforce. We can’t wait to continue expanding upon our new Marketing Services outfit in 2018 and more years to come! Read a recent blog by our Vice President of Marketing Services, Justin Piehowski, and learn more about what Pardot can do for you!
Dreamforce
As we do every year, we journeyed to San Francisco and joined thousands of others for Dreamforce, Salesforce’s premier conference filled with learning, innovation, giving back, and lots of fun. Read up on our experience at Dreamforce, and check out our YouTube channel to see it for yourself! We’re already getting amped up for DF18 coming up in September this year!
The Gift Bag
At every YKO, we hand out a few goodies to our employees–nothing too fancy, just some small items to inspire and show our appreciation.
This year’s special swag item was a pair of custom socks made by Sock Club (famed Slack sock makers). And if we say so ourselves, they’re some pretty nifty socks indeed!
We also handed out two books we would recommend to not only our employees, but to anyone in business. The first, No Ego by Cy Wakeman, focuses on how to give leaders the tools to dispose of unproven HR practices and turn your office into a productive and happy place. It teaches accountability and self-awareness in your whole team, which is central to our newest company mantra, “Culture + Accountability = Success.”
The second book gifted to employees was What the Heck is EOS? by Gino Wickman and Tom Bouwer. This short and quick read dives into the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and easily explains high level points on why EOS is important at all levels of business and benefits everyone from executives to employees.
Team Building
Finally, we had a couple of team-building moments during our Yearly Kick Off week. We enjoyed some time at the Escape Chambers, attempting to escape from various scenarios ranging from “The Heist” to “The Containment Room” in 60 minutes or less. Some escaped. Some did not! At the very least, we all had a good time.
We also volunteered with the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County. We learned more about the struggles that families can face and the needs that exist around our communities. Together, we helped assemble “snack packs” for students in an area school.
We could not have asked for a better Yearly Kick Off. Between all the information and numbers, we had a pretty good time! 2017 was a wildly exciting year for us, and we’re anticipating that 2018 will be even better!