Improving a business’ strategy and vision and relating this to the customer through experience design is the name of our game, but last week it was time to put these principles into practice at the annual Great Fridays strategy day. With a number of new faces having joined the team in the last year, it was important to ensure everybody was up to date with the company’s vision for the future and to remind everyone of the fundamentals of the brand.

The day was held at Mottram Hall in Cheshire giving everybody a chance to step out of the office and have a change of scenery. Founders Matt and Rob started the day off with a brief history of the company and went on to tell us about all the exciting things that Great Fridays will be working on and doing later this year, which we’ll be sure to keep you posted on!

Before the day itself, Matt Farrar, Founder set everybody the task of finding a person that represented the Great Fridays’ brand and another person that was anti-brand. Experience Designer Danny Rooke kicked off proceedings on the day with Douglas Adams as his pro-Great Fridays persona reflecting our nature of championing new and emerging technologies. Anti-Great Fridays was Dr Robert Atkins for being a fad, using questionable research and most importantly discouraging people from eating cake.

Steve Black was our guest speaker for the day. Probably best known for his work with Jonny Wilkinson, Steve spends his time coaching sports and business professionals around the world making him well adept at teaching us a thing or two about motivation and teamwork within a company. Breaking into groups we discussed a number of topics from what we thought made up the Great Fridays subculture to personal improvement and the best ways of learning. Steve wrapped up the afternoon, with some final thoughts and pieces of inspiration for the team to take on board and put into practice once back in the studio.

With these thoughts at the forefront of our minds it was time to head back to Manchester for a look around the new office for those Londoners who hadn’t had a chance to see it yet and for food at our soon to be new local, the Oast House.

The day was a great opportunity for everyone to participate in building upon the Great Fridays brand and to be part of the shared vision for the company. Chris Hughes, Director Of Experience Strategy said ‘As the business grows, it’s important that we reinforce our commitment to our staff and share with them our plans for the future and the importance of our team in making it happen. The opportunity to work with Steve Black, a world renowned Elite Performance Coach,we hope demonstrates this commitment and positions our business strongly to take on the challenges presented to us by our clients’.