Making an Impact
Written by Nicky Mih
Friday was the first time we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with Deloitte. Deloitte are a professional services network – they apply integrated, multidisciplinary approaches combining insight, innovation and market knowledge to support their clients in achieving their business goals. Each November, they hold an Impact Day to make a positive contribution, an impact that matters.“Impact Day is a very special day for our firm. It enables our 6,000-plus people to spend the day giving back to the community” says Deloitte Australia's CEO Cindy Hook.We wanted to be smart in our approach, so rather than painting walls or planting gardens, we asked ourselves, “how could we best utilise this opportunity, and get the biggest bang for the buck?”
The answer was obvious. Let’s use Deloitte’s best thinking and apply it to two of Free To Shine’s top priorities. Obviously, our top priority is always our girls and their welfare, but we’ve got that covered, and that’s obviously not Deloitte’s expertise. So let’s have them do what they do best, but for one day, do it for Free To Shine!So we asked them to apply their best thinking to:
- Our business partnerships - and help us develop our strategy for acquiring new partnerships
- Develop a marketing strategy for our campaigns and events
The first thing that stood out to me was how approachable, engaged, genuinely interested and passionate these guys were to work with us. This was even evident in our planning phone calls and emails leading up to the day. The team were terrific. First, they got some context on us and what we wanted to achieve – then they started writing all over their walls, diagrams and everything, as they began to map out a creative but strategic approach with us. We examined pains, gains and product; aspiration, where to play, how to win and capability; key partners, activities, resources, channels, cost structure, revenue streams and value propositions.
I loved their people approach. We had some top managers come in and work with us throughout the day and I particularly loved how they coached their senior consultants in a similar way we do with our Education Officers and Social Workers.To be totally honest, I thought corporations were probably a little bit stuffy, but in fact they’re made of people, and people are keen to make a difference. And Deloitte get this.And what did the team at Deloitte get out of the day? The satisfaction of applying what they are best at to Free To Shine, thereby enabling us to increase the scale of what we do. We’d say that’s a pretty great impact!Deloitte, we had an incredible day, thanks a million for choosing to spend your day with us and for sharing your experience with such heart and passion.#Deloitte #Impactday #makeanimpactthatmattershttps://au.linkedin.com/in/nicky-mih