About 10 years ago we merged an established Swiss company in the biotech laboratory field with a US start-up – I have to say that this was done against the will of the Swiss team. The cultural differences could not have been any bigger. The Swiss team was heavily engineering focused and was lacking in creativity…

When brothers Ernest and Charles Wilson founded Ernest Paper Products in 1946, they didn’t know they were also creating a culture. What these two decorated WWII veterans did understand were the values instilled in them at a young age: always put people and family first, and make real connections. The philosophy worked.

Siren Design plays in the commercial interior design space and ‘ideas’ are an essential ingredient in what we do. A lot of our success can be attributed to empowering our people to utilize their talents to bring these ideas to life. In the early days, we definitely had that start-up mentality where we asked questions, challenged the status quo, welcomed change, and embraced our mistakes––all with an absolute burning love for what we do.

I spent the first two decades of my career at leading experiential marketing agencies and was growing increasingly frustrated by what I saw. Agencies were drowning in a sea of sameness with no clear differentiator in terms of products and service and there was a growing emphasis on the bottom line. Consequently, this was having an adverse effect on both the quality of work and employee morale. I believed I could do better.

As a leader in a few professional organizations, I have access to some of the world's most influential and innovative business leaders. But what about our employees? Why not share the knowledge, experience, and advice of successful people with them? That was the thinking behind the creation of our Lunch with a __________ program, a series of monthly lectures presented by select individuals with a proven track record in their field.