Kathryn Nason
Lead for 50^th Anniversary of Intel

Anniversary planning takes time. Most large companies begin planning for a significant milestone 1-2 years prior to the launch date. There’s so much to think about, even at a high level- the purpose of the celebration, the main audience, main tentpole activations, among other things. But what happens when you don’t have a couple years? What happens when you have 8 months and no solidified direction? Laying some key groundwork can help establish boundary conditions to accelerate your planning into execution.

Determine the Primary Audience

An anniversary can be focused on many different audiences– customers, partners, employees, retirees– and focusing on all can feel like you’re trying to boil the ocean. One of the main reasons we had so little time in the planning process was due to some starts and stops in deciding on our key audience. Our early efforts were on how to make this meaningful to our end customers. The ideas were difficult to execute and costly for the size of audience we were trying to reach. Once we determined our 110,000 employees were our primary audience, we were able to better identify how to make decisions and our boundary conditions.

Establish your Review Committee

Determining the best leaders to make decisions affecting your audience is key to having a successful implementation. Make sure this group is diverse and can represent the different populations. In the case of Intel, we relied on our Executive VP of Sales and Marketing, the head of our Corporate Services, our Chief People Office, Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Manufacturing SVP and the CEO’s Chief of Staff. Each of these individuals promised to be engaged, responsive and representative of their specialty and their respective audience. Additionally, they were diverse in gender, race and had a global view which was core to delivering to our diverse audience.

Enact your Guiding Principals

Anniversaries can take any and all forms. Your guiding principles establish a litmus test to filter the ideas that come at you during the implementation process. Intel’s guiding principles were:

1. Egalitarian- with 110 sites in 30 countries, with a subset of software, manufacturing and product engineers and business functions, we wanted everyone to have a comparable experience, regardless of what level or group they worked in.
2. Memorable- celebrate doing wonderful in the world and innovation while also reflecting on our history and the excitement of the future ahead.
3. Cost effective—we wanted to be sure to stay within the budget parameters that we had established from the beginning.

Guiding principles help to manage scope, provide tests to disposition ideas quickly and are tools to help with influential people who may being putting their own personal interests first.

By establishing these three structures you can determine what is actionable in the time you have been given. Once we determined our audience, our review committee and our guiding principles it was easy to decide on the rest.

Intel’s 50^th anniversary theme was Do Wonderful, riffing on a founding father, Robert Noyce quote, “Don’t be encumbered by history, go out and do something wonderful.” It included 5 audience centric tentpoles that complimented a core value of volunteerism which we called the Intel Involved Volunteer Challenge, Winners of Wonder. This was the opportunity to take 2 weeks to give back, which allowed employees, customers and retirees a chance to share their Intel story online and through video. There were also celebrations around the world with prizes and a ceremony webcast for all employees to enjoy.

All this, along with a Guinness Book of World Record winning Drone Show, a dancing bunny man gif, a cake contest and Nasdaq bell ringing at our corporate headquarters was executed within 5 months within budget, a feat that would never had been possible without a sound structure.

By Kari Evans
Executive Director, Bicentennial
University of Virginia & Milestone Master with Anniversary University®

Kari Evans was a key speaker at The Anniversary Forum in 2019 and is a Milestone Master with Anniversary University conducting Anniversary Visioning Workshops.

Institutional anniversaries offer a unique opportunity to engage and connect with people attached to, or who feel an affinity for, your organization, brand, or mission.  Creating meaningful roles throughout the planning and implementation of a milestone celebration can bring these individuals closer to the institution, fostering and enriching relationships which when stewarded well, can result in assistance facilitated programming, shared messaging, and advocating for the future.

For non-profit organizations this deepens connections, which may translate into future volunteer efforts or financial support.  Naturally, efforts to engage audiences occur at any time, but milestones, like a centennial or bicentennial, are touchpoints for stakeholders that encourage reflection, connection, and aspiration.

When considering stakeholders to invite to collaborate or contribute to your milestone anniversary celebration, focus on what, when, and who.

WHAT

Their role must be relevant and meaningful.  Whether a corporation or non-profit organization, if you ask someone to join an effort, be prepared!  Know what you need at each stage of planning and implementation and be thoughtful about what you ask of each stakeholder.  Do you want advice, advocacy, or active participation?

• Advice – to engage stakeholders in an advisory capacity, create opportunities to share ideas and solicit feedback.  This could include creating an advisory board, administering a survey, conducting social media outreach, hosting brainstorming parties and town hall-style conversations.   Advice could be sought on goals and objectives for the anniversary, collaborative partnerships, and feedback on germinating programming efforts as well as suggestions for creative new ideas.
• Advocacy – if the intent is for stakeholders to advocate on behalf of your organization or anniversary celebration, consider first what you need.  Perhaps your commemorative effort needs a champion to spread the message, secure funding, or represent your organization’s interests with local government, the media (earned, paid, or social), or the community?  Be explicit with the end goal and ensure your stakeholder is well versed in the institution’s mission as well as the goals and objectives of the milestone commemoration.
• Active participation – the staff dedicated fulltime to a milestone celebration may be small.  Therefore, to sustain months or even years of programming, you will need partners to assist with coordination.  Invite colleagues across the organization to host programs, build upon existing efforts that peers have underway, which can be rebranded, and a create a menu of options enabling stakeholders to “own” as aspect of the anniversary.

WHEN

Timing is, as they say, everything.  The purpose of stakeholder involvement will drive timing.  Advice may be needed early in the process, when the goals and objectives of the milestone, as well as the scope of programming, are still being formed.  When goals have been defined, organizational leadership will be committed to move forward. When the plans are in place, advocates and active participants are needed to secure funding, spread the message to the community, and begin implementation.

WHO

Finally, take advantage of different audiences throughout your planning and execution stages.  Some may be obvious.  At a university, this includes faculty, staff, students, as well as alumni, parents, and community members.  But this is also an opportunity to reach new audiences.  There may be individuals who are not yet vested in your organization but who are a natural fit.  Consider institutions with similar missions who can partner on distinctive programs during the anniversary.  If there is specific research or subjects for which your institution is revered, find individuals who share that passion and tap into new opportunities to collaborate.  Be open to an unusual alliance; unconventional partners may evolve into new stakeholders by the end of your milestone celebration!

By involving stakeholders across the scope of your anniversary, you can widen the reach and impact of the commemoration, develop creative new ideas not conceived by the core administrators of the celebration, and ultimately, deepen individual connections to the institution into the future.

By James Quincey, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company

Coca-Cola began in 1886 not as a company, but as a single drink. I doubt the man who created Coke, John Pemberton, could have imagined he’d invent something that would endure for 133 years and counting.

Coke – the drink, that is – is still around because Pemberton invented a great product. But it took much more to make Coca-Cola into a great, global company.

Today, I’m thinking back on one of the biggest moments that shaped The Coca-Cola Company we know today. It was 100 years ago this year, when Ernest Woodruff led a group of investors who bought the company and took it public.

Before Woodruff was involved, Coke was only available in six markets outside the continental United States. The company would add nearly 20 markets in the first decade after going public, quickly establishing the foundation for what would become a global business.

The Purpose of Coca-Cola

To state the obvious, a lot has changed since Coca-Cola’s initial public offering in 1919.

Back then, we only sold Pemberton’s original product. Today, we’re a total beverage company that’s present in almost every beverage category. We sell more than 500 brands and 4,300 different drinks worldwide.

More than 700,000 people in our system help deliver our brands to customers and consumers in more than 200 countries and territories every day.

While our business has changed, our purpose as a company has remained remarkably consistent. We refresh the world and make a difference with our brands, beliefs and values.

Uniquely Coca-Cola

Looking ahead, the world faces myriad challenges, as does any global business. We have to ask ourselves: Is the original purpose of the company still valid? Should it evolve as the world evolves?

We believe The Coca-Cola Company’s purpose is still to refresh the world and make a difference. It’s uniquely us. It’s why we exist, and it’s needed now, more than ever.

In doing so, we’re thinking expansively. It’s about how we refresh people in both body and spirit. It’s about how we refresh the planet and limit the footprint we leave behind. It’s about how our business system refreshes the communities we serve. It’s about how we and our bottlers refresh, inspire and develop the employees who work with us.

Our Next Stage of Growth

Our vision is to craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love. We do this in ways that create a more sustainable business and better shared future – to make a difference in people’s lives, communities and our planet.

Achieving this vision also means nurturing a culture to make it possible. Culture is multi-faceted, though it’s ultimately about the right behaviors for each situation. It’s an expression of who we are.

This is hard to define in its entirety, and it’s ever evolving. While there are many valuable aspects of our culture, two actions make the biggest difference. They are acting with a growth mindset, which means taking an expansive approach to what’s possible. It’s the essential, animating force behind building a better future.

It’s also about being clear about the conscience we follow. Our world is ever-more interconnected and transparent. Our clarity of conscience means having the compass to do the right thing. We have a long history of acting with honesty and integrity. When we’ve fallen short, we’ve made corrections.

A Moment to Celebrate

We’re pausing to celebrate our 100th anniversary because it’s a milestone. A single $40 share from 1919 would be worth more than $18 million today, for someone who had the discipline to reinvest their dividends.

Our company has steadily given back to communities, from our hometown of Atlanta to places around the world. This morning, The Coca-Cola Foundation announced a $1 million grant to Girls Who Invest. This is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in portfolio management and executive leadership in the asset management industry.

The grant will provide scholarships for about 40 women to attend programs at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Notre Dame and the UCLA Anderson School of Management. You can read more about the grant at www.girlswhoinvest.org/coca-cola-foundation

As one of the first major companies to name a woman to its board, we’re also pleased to be a founding member of the NYSE Board Advisory Council. We’re hosting an event with the council today, partnering with the group to connect diverse candidates to companies seeking new directors.

These are just the latest examples of the difference Coca-Cola makes in the world.

I’ve had the privilege of being part of this company for more than two decades. As we celebrate 100 years as a public company, I’m most excited about looking ahead. I have great confidence the purpose that guides us today means the company will be celebrating again a century from now.