Executive Growth Circles

EGA members use proven Power of Peers methodology to address real-world challenges, co-create opportunities and scale innovations during Executive Growth Circles.

Through the use of Circles, the world’s most progressive platform uniquely designed for peer learning and collaboration, EGA group members globally can participate globally from home, office, the beach or anywhere.

Paradigm Shifted: How Global Leaders Thrive Through Change

When transformation become a necessity, 85 corporate executives committed to success through working in Executive Growth Circles to learn, co-create and implement culture shift, agile leadership, new business models, digitalization and innovative solutions.


What happens during an EGC?

EGCs are structured around a Specific Actionable Challenge (SAC) brought forth by one of the EGA members, i.e. challenge or an opportunity that he/she faces in the real world.

During the two-hour circle, members share insights and experiences along with what they would do if they were in the SAC owner’s shoes.

The EGA Catalyst facilitates the discussion and the solution of the SAC and ensures all members leave with a commitment to take action to explore and implement learnings from the EGC in their own environment.

See what they have achieved:

Business Need:

  • Turn a new circular rope venture into a successful business with the objective of achieving $1M in annual revenue in Year 1
  • Ensure that the company is future-proofed through scalable revenue model, access to committed customers and partners.

Specific Actionable Challenge:

What do I need to do to establish and build a company to turn the idea of circular ropes into a sustainable business with long-term positive impact on the environment?

Gained:

  • Learned from others in new ventures AND other recyclers/startups
  • New business partners/contacts from different industries ready to collaborate and invest
  • Valuable insights in how to structure the revenue model

 Results:

  • Successful negotiations with shipowners thanks to insights from EGC
  • A new opportunity to join a startup incubation program to hyper accelerate the company growth
  • Achieved real momentum with the startup and well positioned to reach the revenue goal of $1M
  • SAC Owner’s comments: “I am overwhelmed by the level of support I’ve received from the EGA community”

Business Need:

Navigating multiple priorities, including economic headwinds, skill shortages, and the need to chart a post-pandemic path forward by selecting the right role and creating and environment for success and impact.

Specific Actionable Challenge:

What is the most effective approach to select the right role and create an environment for yourself and others to thrive?

Gained:

  • Insights on how to achieve alignment between personal and company values
  • Structured approach to identify and assess the traits, values, pros, and cons of future roles
  • Tangible process to engage team members around motivations and gt more structured about finding the right ‘passion role’

 Results:

  • Environment of success that enabled the transition to a role with a higher impact
  • Future-ready organization with increased employee retention and improved quarterly results

Business Need:

A new way of prioritizing initiatives (both strategic and incremental) and aligning on what’s a priority for the organization.

Specific Actionable Challenge:

How to really engage team members (needing flexibility, purpose, fulfilment) in a hybrid environment that continuously changes?

Gained:

  • Advice on how to create ‘office of the future’ that combines collaboration and play
  • Coaching on how to exhibit and demonstrate the culture you want to build and make everyone part of the journey
  • Motivation to revise company values and strategic goals, reward systems to better fit the needs of changing workforce

Business Need:

A new way of prioritizing initiatives (both strategic and incremental) and aligning on what’s a priority for the organization.

Specific Actionable Challenge:

What’s the best approach align the organization and team on shared goals and how to motivate others to spend time on goal alignment?

Gained:

  • Real practical insights on how to implement the OKR framework in a way ‘that will stick’
  • Insights from other leaders on how to have conversations around goals with the team and leadership
  • Encouragement to create a plan with 3-6 tangible goals and gain commitment

Results:

  • 180 degrees change in the OKR program and strong team alignment around the shared goals
  • In SAC owner’s words: “Thanks to the EGC, I have the ‘juice’ I need to deliver on the strategy with our team.”

Business Need:

  • The organization was in top 25 employers globally
  • Needed to define a new approach to attracting and recruiting talent in the context of addressing current global macro-trends and becoming future-ready
  • More efficiency and effectiveness in strategic workforce
  • Consistent framework to ensure the right candidates are identified, attracted, and selected, removing bias from the process.

Specific Actionable Challenge:

How to design and continuously improve our recruitment process?  What tools and techniques can I used to source talent, identify & attract the right candidate and remove bias from the process?

Gained:

  • New ways to attract talent – including a referral program, leveraging ESG position, global bootcamps and traineeships
  • Clarity around achievable plan and OKRs to focus on
  • Insights from peers of external perception of the organization as a brand

 Results:

  • Member incorporated EGA insights into HR strategy which got directional approval
  • With continuous support of EGA community, translated strategy into portfolio projects, ‘lighting many fires’ at once
  • Achieved real momentum – recruitment now high on the organisational agenda & seeing early results with quality of applicants

Business Need:

  • The organization is a global shipping company
  • Needed to get senior leadership team to see value in a new product – circular rope
  • To establish a successful pilot and scale by creating a sense of urgency

Specific Actionable Challenge:

How can I, as a leader, create a sense of urgency and influence others (such as ship owners) to change behavior – for a positive impact on the environment and sustainable business?

Gained:

  • Confidence to stand up and be the champion for change at the organization
  • Advice on how to structure passion into a project – SWOT, value chain, risks, budget, goals, requirements
  • Step-by-step approach for setting clear concrete goals and actionable plan for each week
  • Insights on how to make the senior leadership see the problem – ‘change or be changed’

Results:

  • Successfully launched the Circular rope project
  • Got invited to the UN Ocean Conference to present the project and inspire other global leaders
  • Got awarded a grant to launch and lead a new venture fully focused on sustainability

Business Need:

  • Slow growth in customers and sales post COVID-19 pandemic
  • Needed to rebuild the employee motivation and engagement to achieve high perfromance, despite remote working
  • Due to recent merger, needed to establish one culture and ways of working across the organization

Specific Actionable Challenge:

How to build and maintain a company culture of family-feeling and high performance to achieve goals in Post COVID -19 world?

Gained:

  • Insights on how to align people’s personal and company values
  • Framework to empower people; define culture; agree on USPs and have top leaders own the challenge (3C Framework)
  • Coaching on how to best hold 1-1s sessions with seniors to understand their desires; gain their support in building success

Results:

  • Member incorporated EGC insights and went on to hold 1:1 with leadership team and a company-wide retreat
  • Updated the company USP and restructured teams to better serve the customer
  • 30% increase in sales and 100% increase in employee satisfaction
  • Went on to successfully complete two more mergers

SAC Owner’s feedback: “I leave each EGC energized and inspired. Gaining global perspectives and accountability for application of learning in the real world is highly unique to EGA.”

Business Need: Gain mid-management commitment to achieve transformation and revenue goals defined by corporate leadership.

Obstacles to Success:

  • Disconnected employees – lacking interest and involvement
  • Separation between strategic planning and day-to-day operations

Challenge: Engaging mid-level managers and employees to gain commitment to new business model.

Gained:

  • Confidence to move
  • Insights of tools that have assisted other leaders in gaining commitment to change
  • Perspective – to ask more questions, engage team members and empower for long term transformation

Result: 

  • Greater understanding of the need to change within the team. Increased empowerment of mid-level managers to achieve long term objectives for growth.

Business Need:

  • Reshaping to meet the needs of the future
  • Reorganizing to ensure serving new stakeholders
  • Developing ways to ensure the organization has the right people, skills and structure for innovative working

Obstacles to Success:  

  • Keeping people motivated to step up, understand where they are and what they need
  • Continuing to engage with positive company culture while cultivating digital practices within the organization
  • Overcoming the impact of Covid-19 on employees and their abilities to perform

 Challenge: 

How can leadership encourage and engage its employees so they feel valued as the business transitions into the digital space?

Gained:

  • Scheduling one-on-one meetings to understand individual employee needs
  • Gaining perspective on balancing the demand for in-person office experiences versus working remotely

Result:

  • Resolving the digital challenges and making organizational changes to achieve future growth.

Business Need:  Innovate and build on strong growth in revenue to enhance market position and retailer success through strategic investments and marketing approaches.

Approach: Leverage annual strategic planning process to identify strategic investments and plan new marketing approaches  for the next year.

Obstacles to Success:  

  • Past planning processes led to task list and budget allocation not new ideas
  • Need for creativity and out of the box thinking

Strategic Actionable Challenge:  Apply strategic thinking concepts to gain greater results from the annual strategic planning process.

Gained from EGC: 

  • Proven techniques to approach strategic planning from a new ‘out of the box ways’
  • Insight on power of asking good questions and examples to use
  • Enthusiasm and support for doing things differently

Result: 

  • Highly successful strategic planning events leading to new ways to approach the market do things differently over the next year.
  • Culture change across organization – asking open ‘big picture’ questions during meetings
  • Organization-wide commitment to innovation through strategic thinking. answer

Business Need:  Hire and develop a sustainable leadership team, allowing founder to drive the business forward through fundraising and strategic leadership.

Approach:

  • Identified under-performers in current team
  • Defined three key roles for future

Reached out to network for potential candidates

Obstacles to Success: 

  • Time needed to manage out under-performers
  • Limited funding for salaries to attract quality hires
  • Unsure of methods to evaluate candidates

Challenge:  Select and onboard mid/senior level team members to take on daily responsibilities allowing founder to drive company’s growth

Gained: 

  • Insight on new ways to address compensation issues
  • Techniques to effectively deal with under-performers
  • Inspiration to step back, consider objectives and plan hires around long term goals.

Result: 

  • On-boarded operations, supply chain and content editor – highly qualified and skilled team members
  • Managed out under-performers in a win/win manner
  • Stronger culture through releasing toxic people (under-performers)

Business Need:  Define and prioritize needs and effective ways to implement financial and operational recovery plans for struggling YMCAs.

Approach: Engage local leaders to define unique recovery plan for each area– gaining corporate support.

Obstacles:

  • Resistance to change from traditional inside our funding model
  • Selection of YMCA leaders in light of broad-scale needs

Specific Actionable Challenge:  How to select regions and prioritize resources while addressing longer term need to change funding model.

Gained: 

  • New perspectives and insights to accelerate mindset change
  • Proven techniques for selection and prioritization of local need

Results: 

  • New perspectives and insights to accelerate changing corporate mindset
  • Global leader commitment to definition of new funding model

What Members Gained From EGA Membership

Kjetil Ulving-Tufte, Vice President Strategy and Business Development at Schneider Electric

Kristian Sarastuen, Chief Executive Officer at Burson Cohn & Wolfe

“Insight and perspective of peers who bring diverse perspectives is critical when faced with complex innovation challenges.” 
Siddi Wouters, RaboBank
“EGA membership is more important than ever to get out ‘the box’; gain insight and perspective. This is a highly unique way to understand how others in different countries are dealing with change and innovation.”
Dan Robinson, Hill Medical
“My success in rebuilding the team and increasing revenue and reputation for BCW is due in large part to the insights and support I have gained through my EGA membership.”
Kristian Sarastuen, BCW Nordic
 “I leave each Executive Growth Forum with energy, inspiration and action to move forward into the future with confidence and peer support”
Thomas Kohl, LinkMobility
 “By working with real-world cases and sharing our actual learnings (successes and failures) in Executive Growth Circles, we learn ‘real time’ while actively taking initiatives forward.”
Rune Johansen, Technip FMC
 “The EGA is the only place I can really share what doesn’t work with trusted peers – this has been highly instrumental in development as a leader – way more valuable than a course or study group.”
Tara Sticker, ProMed

Join an upcoming EGC

Want to experience the Power of Peers by collaborating with global leaders in and EGC? See the schedule of upcoming Circles and apply for a space. Our Catalyst will be in touch to complete your qualification.

EGC Schedule