Here’s the paradox of successful growth: the better you do, the harder it becomes to answer a simple question.
Ask your finance director what makes your company special. Then ask someone from the acquisition you completed last year. Finally, ask your newest hire.
You’ll get three different answers.
This isn’t about poor communication or inadequate onboarding. It’s about something more fundamental that happens when companies grow quickly and successfully: people lose track of who “we” are.
The symptoms are everywhere once you know what to look for. Different departments use different language for the same processes. New joiners take months to really “get” the culture, not just the job. Innovation ideas get stuck between teams who can’t quite align on “whether this is something we would do.” Remote workers perform well but struggle to feel genuinely connected to something bigger than their role.
What you’re experiencing is identity confusion – and it’s the hidden friction behind most of your operational challenges.
As you plan your Company Kick-Off, you have a choice: address the symptoms individually or solve the root cause that connects them all.
The underlying factor? Organisational identity
Most leaders and CEOs find themselves constantly fire-fighting workplace challenges. For instance:
- Collaboration problems? Team-building workshop.
- Innovation bottlenecks? Creative thinking session.
- Engagement issues? Motivation speakers.
- Integration difficulties? Culture alignment programme.
But what if there’s one underlying factor that, when addressed, makes all these challenges easier to solve?
As Mike Walker, MGN Managing Director, puts it:
After nearly two decades working with growing companies – from technology firms scaling regionally to manufacturing businesses integrating acquisitions – we've observed something very interesting. The companies that tend to thrive during rapid change generally don't attempt to tackle every challenge separately. They often focus on the underlying factor that helps everything else flow more naturally.
Mike Walker
Managing Director, MGN Events
Research confirms this isn’t simply business intuition. Studies show that “organizational identity can provide insight into the character and behavior of its members” and that “sustainable organizational identity is an organizational concept that shows how members of the organization perceive, feel, and think about organizational commitment and achievements”.
When people understand who “we” are, collaboration tends to become more natural. Innovation generally aligns with company direction. Change often feels more purposeful rather than disruptive. New hires typically integrate more quickly. Acquisitions usually blend more smoothly.
You can’t create company-wide commitment and cohesive momentum until people know who “we” are. And your January Company Kick-Off offers a key opportunity to transform identity confusion into competitive advantage.
You can't create company-wide commitment when people don't know who "we" are.
What is a Company Kick-Off?
A Company Kick-Off is an internal corporate event where organisations gather employees to launch a new business year, quarter, or major initiative.
Typically held annually in January or February, CKOs serve multiple purposes: communicating business results and strategic priorities, aligning teams around upcoming goals, recognising achievements, and providing face-to-face networking opportunities.
Common elements include leadership presentations covering financial performance, market outlook, and departmental objectives, alongside team-building activities, award ceremonies, and breakout sessions. The format varies from half-day meetings to multi-day conferences, depending on company size and objectives.
CKOs are particularly valuable for distributed teams, remote workers, and organisations that have undergone significant change, as they provide rare opportunities for company-wide alignment and relationship-building beyond day-to-day operations.
Three ways smart companies turn identity confusion into clarity
As an award-winning events company, we’ve worked with companies who’ve approached this challenge strategically. Rather than simply managing identity confusion, they tend to use it as an opportunity to build something stronger than they had before.
1. When heritage becomes competitive advantage – Case study
A UK estate agency celebrating 185 years needed to introduce complete business transformation across employees in multiple offices. With 550 employees across multiple offices, staff saw these as competing forces threatening their cultural identity.
The insight: Instead of choosing between the company’s tradition and innovation, help people discover how heritage becomes competitive advantage. The venue choice was everything – The Brewery in London’s Chiswell Street, built in the 18th century as the UK’s first mass-production brewery. It connected perfectly to their founder’s original choice between becoming a chartered surveyor or brewer.
The magic: Rather than corporate presentations about change, people explored the connection between their founding story and digital future. The venue itself sparked conversations about how their 185-year foundation gave them advantages that newer companies simply couldn’t match.
The transformation: “People stopped seeing heritage and innovation as competing forces,” Mike explains. “They began understanding how their history was their secret weapon for the future.”
2. Blending cultures to create a unified whole – Case study
A US digital advertising agency acquiring a successful UK agency had 44 days to merge 180 people from completely different business cultures without losing what made each team successful.
The insight: Don’t choose between cultures – create a new one that honours both. The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich became the bridge: 600 years of maritime heritage meeting American innovation, representing shared excellence rather than competing approaches.
The magic: Every design element told a collaborative story. Teal reflecting the company’s American branding whilst connecting to the maritime setting. Gold evoking the venue’s regal heritage. White representing shared future possibilities. Even the lighting scheme became part of building new identity – bathing the historic domes in the company’s signature teal, creating immediate visual connection between corporate identity and British grandeur.
The transformation: By evening’s end, it wasn’t about American practices versus British approaches. Both teams had discovered they were creating something entirely new that unlocked possibilities neither could achieve alone.
3. When strangers become collaborators – Case study
A technology company needed 47 international journalists to move beyond professional courtesy to genuine engagement – the difference between polite coverage and passionate advocacy.
While this was a media-facing event, the thinking behind it applies just as powerfully to company kick-offs. The goal is the same: to bring people together, foster connection, and create an environment where individuals feel part of something bigger. Whether it’s uniting distributed teams or setting a shared direction for the year ahead, carefully crafted experiences can spark alignment, energy and a genuine sense of belonging.
The insight: Create belonging, not just hospitality. Every detail had to reinforce shared experience rather than corporate presentation, building professional bonds among people who start as strangers.
The magic: Scottish cashmere scarves and traditional English tea in hotel rooms. Dinner at The Ivy Bath Brasserie where sophisticated food encouraged natural conversation. A gala dinner beneath the wings of the last Concorde to ever fly, complete with experiences designed to spark genuine connection. Each element built toward the same goal: helping diverse individuals discover common ground.
The transformation: The measurable results – 100% would attend again, 90% scored the event 10 out of 10 – told only part of the story. More importantly, it demonstrated how intentionally designed experiences transform professional relationships.
The companies that tend to thrive during rapid change generally don't attempt to tackle every challenge separately. They often focus on the underlying factor that helps everything else flow more naturally.
Mike Walker
Managing Director, MGN Events
Why January becomes the foundation of strategic partnership
January Company Kick-Offs offer unique psychological conditions for identity transformation. People return refreshed, naturally reflective about the year ahead. Individual renewal meets organisational opportunity.
But what progressive companies understand: your January event isn’t the solution – it’s the foundation for ongoing organisational evolution.
Many organisations have discovered that identity transformation requires systematic reinforcement rather than single interventions. The challenge isn’t lack of understanding – it’s that identity work is inherently complex and requires sustained attention to create lasting change.
Traditional approach: “Here’s who we are, here’s where we’re going, here’s what you need to do.”
Strategic identity approach: “Let’s discover together who we’re becoming and what that makes possible throughout this year and beyond.”
Research on transformational change shows that “the most successful transformational changes happen when leaders take the stance of supporting processes for deep listening that allow the emergence of new narratives and collective meaning-making and action”. When people help create organisational identity, they don’t just understand it – they own it, defend it, and build upon it in everything they do.
The systematic approach that creates competitive advantage
As strategic advisors, we work with leadership teams to understand how identity clarity supports business objectives throughout the year – from quarterly alignment sessions to acquisition integrations building upon established foundations.
Before January: Understanding where identity gaps exist across your organisation. What makes some people feel like insiders whilst others feel like outsiders? Where do different departments use different language for identical concepts?
January catalyst: Your Company Kick-Off creates shared experiences helping people understand and shape who “we” are becoming. Rather than presenting finished strategies, we design collaborative sessions where teams contribute to refining direction.
Ongoing reinforcement: Identity work continues through quarterly reviews, team integrations, strategic planning sessions – all opportunities to reinforce and evolve the foundations established in January.
The strategic advantage: When your people genuinely understand who “we” are, decision-making accelerates, innovation improves, collaboration flows, and change happens more smoothly.
Modern workforce research reveals that “millennials… no longer conceive of their work as a means to earn money but also as an opportunity to contribute to society”. When organisational identity connects individual purpose with collective mission, engagement transforms naturally.
People stopped seeing heritage and innovation as competing forces. They began understanding how their history was their secret weapon for the future.
Mike Walker
Managing Director, MGN Events
Ready to begin strategic partnership?
Our methodology has been refined through nearly two decades working with growing companies.
As Runnymede Business of the Year 2023 and Growth Award winners, we’ve successfully helped reconnect teams, and have delivered identity-building experiences for 100-600 person teams across the UK and internationally, supporting companies through multiple growth phases, acquisitions, and strategic transformations.
As one client noted:
This was the third event we've had the pleasure of working on with MGN Events, and once again, they absolutely smashed it. Their creativity, attention to detail, and dedication to creating a memorable experience for our employees truly shines through in everything they do.
ITS Technology Group
The question becomes: continue hoping organisational identity will sort itself out or actively design the systematic approach that crystallises who you’re becoming together.
Your January Company Kick-Off could be the foundation moment when identity confusion transforms into competitive advantage. Let’s explore how to design that transformation as the beginning of ongoing strategic partnership.
Discover our approach to strategic company experiences.
Call 01932 22 33 33 or email hello@mgnevents.co.uk, or fill out the contact form at the end of this page.
Gary,
Marketing Manager
He crafts content, spots trends, and finds creative ways to connect the dots – all while making sure the MGN brand shines across every platform.
