I-ology 2016 Wrap up – One CEO’s reflection on success and the process of continual learning

It was an incredible year at I-ology. And like most years running a small business, 2016 was filled with both great accomplishments and tough lessons. Both of which will be used to fuel I-ology’s continued growth.

The 2016 vision was to create a living, breathing organization. Grounded in our core competency as a high quality digital consulting firm, with expertise in custom web development and web integration whereby all team members have the ultimate opportunity to promote to partner and participate in company profit sharing and continued organizational sustainability.

Our accomplishments included delivering more robust custom web products to our highly valued client base. We expanded our core service offering to provide a more robust line of digital marketing services desired by most of our clients. Most importantly, the success of these client relationships can be measured by their progress in Digital Transformation, whereby in partnership we helped clients transform part of their organization to better serve their audiences.

We documented our processes, created operational efficiencies, and dialed in critical success measurements for our work product, as well as for I-ology’s overall company performance. All of this hard and focused work resulted in growth for I-ology’s top and bottom line.

Some of our greatest accomplishments evolved around team expansion, which also presented us some of the toughest lessons, especially for me. We were incredibly successful in recruiting some top talent in Digital Strategy Consulting, Digital Marketing, Software Development, Front-end development, as well as, Accounting. However, we also faced the trials and tribulations of integrating new team members with more tenured team members that struggled to embrace the changing cultural landscape. I personally learned the tough lesson (and not for the first time) that if I’m not reinforcing our core values someone else might be infusing his or hers. I take personal accountability for not reinforcing those values, for not keeping my finger on the pulse of those core values, and for stepping over some clear signs of culture breakdown. The people lessons tend to be some of the toughest lessons, but they also present the greatest opportunities for any professional services company.

From a historical perspective, 2016 was one of I-ology’s most successful years, but with a new lens I am more committed than ever to making 2017 an even better one. We have a great opportunity to dial in the successful parts of a solid business model but also work on building a culture of ‘high trust’ that is the foundation of any long-term great company.

As a team, we move forward with more passion and excitement. I am more grateful than ever to continue forward with 18 years of ongoing learning and evolving as a leader, a solid value-aligned set of customers, and a very remarkable team!