To be innovative takes bravery, and we’re massive fans of brave business. We genuinely believe that through a culture of bravery, people will try new things, create better ideas and products and help to build a better, more inclusive, business. The reality is that sometimes people fail, ideas don’t work out, and what seemed like a good idea before the event, turns out to be far from it in hindsight. We believe that a business’s approach to these failures defines it in success.
At EEF Venues we have tried to create a culture of brave business, where people are rewarded for their endeavour and not just for the end product. We want creative people to be brave enough to try truly ground breaking ideas, not too scared of consequences to stick to small innovations, and to do this takes the right culture.
The right culture means humility, so we’re also happy enough to make our failures as public as our successes, our customers like that we try new things, they appreciate that we’re constantly making efforts to improve our business and the product we offer them; we’re a confident company that knows we succeed more than we fail, so why not be human enough to share our efforts, for good and bad. It’s an important part of building a trusting relationship with our customers on a long term basis.
So, what does this all mean, ideas, endeavour and bravery? Here’s an example; someone had the idea of creating Beetroot popcorn in our Woodland Grange venue. A bold idea, and something most events businesses would immediately shelve, after all, it’s incredibly easy to make the decision for the customers that they would automatically hate it, without even asking them. But we didn’t want to do that, why? Because its innovative, it may get a few more people to try popcorn – which is a slightly healthy alternative to other snacks – and it certainly created a lot of water cooler style conversations at the venue.
Did some people hate it? Absolutely! Did some people really like it, fortunately enough, yes. What was most important though was that it started conversations between everyone involved in the event. There are lots and lots of similar examples of day to day ideas that we try, subtly, throughout our venues. Some are incredibly successful and become a fixture of day to day life, others fail and go into the history books.
We’ve never been a business that wants to stop trying; in this world of millennials, authentic effort is appreciated, not derided; confident businesses should be transparent about the ten things that fail to allow one thing to succeed. It’s a nice way to do business and for our clients to see us. We strive for perfections, but we do it with personality.
This is why we’re launching the Endeavour Series of Events, where we’re looking to encourage our clients and others around the industry to unleash some of their own business bravery. The series starts on the 11th July at Broadway House, the theme will be Endeavour’table, encouraging bravery with food at events. We have some great speakers, some amazing food – although we promise not to experiment too much – and we’re looking forward to some lively discussions.
We hope that everyone has a great time, but regardless, we’re brave enough to give it a try. That’s what endeavour means to us.
To book tickets to the first of the Endeavour Series, click here.