That’s a wrap on Cloud4Wi’s 2020 Company Offsite! The event, which revolved around the theme “Technology That Drives Results”, gathered more than 10 different nationalities — including team members from the US, Italy, France, UK, Brazil, Thailand, Ukraine, Russia, Netherlands, and Mexico.
We brought our global team together in our R&D office in Pisa, which is fitting because Cloud4Wi’s startup journey started in Tuscany in 2014, before scaling up the world market via San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and eventually moving our HQ to NYC last summer 2019. We also had the honor of hosting Massimiliano Magrini, Co-founder & Managing Partner of United Ventures, our main investor.
The offsite featured a mix of compelling experiences, including opportunities to share lessons learned, as well as key events and results. We also set new goals and new challenges with a dedicated 10-year strategic-plan, thanks to our ever-improving products suite upgrades. Then, we celebrated Cloud4Wi’s achievements and successes with a lot of intercultural exchanges and fun!
Read on for a more detailed recap of the event.
Day one: 2019 review and lessons learned
The first day opened with our CEO, Andrea Calcagno, sharing The Best of 2019. It was an impressive year for us at Cloud4Wi. We grew tremendously in the past year alone, doubling our large enterprise clients, and reaching more than 150 million mobile customers in 60 thousand locations. This growth had a strong impact on our financial operations and helped the company have a positive net income in Q4 2019.
After this session, all of Cloud4Wi’s employees introduced themselves, so we could all get to know each other in person and improve how we collaborate with one another.From there, the Management Team highlighted 2019 Milestones, in terms of key initiatives and results
- An evident leadership in the luxury and retail market, among other industries – This was a culmination of many years of work and strong execution to help global brands reshape their digital approach where their customers and stores are at the core of their strategy.
- Named a Visionary Leader by MarketsAndMarkets and recognized by many industry analysts including Gartner and Forrester – This momentous recognition by top firms is a testament to all the hard work the Cloud4Wi team has put into delivering a solution that solves a critical problem for customer-facing businesses.
- Signed the Partner Application Distribution Agreement – We are very excited to start our journey with a market leader in the marketing cloud bringing the power of our solution in their ecosystem. Cloud4Wi will be an application on their marketplace that feeds location-based customer data to their solution.
- Released new and compelling features – We released a number of new features that are positioning Cloud4Wi as a cutting-edge solution for large enterprises that want to easily collect, analyze and act on location-based customer insights to maximize their WiFi network investment.
- New company journey seeing the retail world in and from the Big Apple – In Q3, we expanded Cloud4Wi’s presence in the US, moving our HQ from San Francisco to New York. The full process was completed in early September.
Then, the Sales and Customer Success Team shared some of the Top Customer Win Stories — such as the Prada Group, Valentino, Raia Drogasil, Celine, PerDormire, and First Trust Bank — including the strategy behind them as well as any mistakes that we could learn from.
Day two: 2020 strategic goals and action plan
On day two, Calcagno presented Cloud4Wi’s 10-year Vision with the team. After such an inspiring session, the Management Team shared the 2020 Company Plan, based on the OKRs approach (Objectives and Key Results). Each department elaborated their own OKRs to achieve by 2020, so everyone in the company was aware of where we are going and why.
Then, our VP Marketing, Elena Briola, and VP Product, Ivan Muccini, introduced the New Value Proposition and Offering. Starting from the value proposition canvas, they highlighted the importance of adopting a quantified value proposition and presented the new offering.
From there, Muccini shared the 2020 Commercial Roadmap, explaining in detail some of the new cutting-edge features that are scheduled to be released along the next 4 quarters 2020, to make our customers and partners successful.
Finally, our Chief Evangelist, Mauro Aprile Zanetti — who moderated the 4-day gathering — presented the New Corporate Messaging aligned with our new value proposition to get the core message into the minds of employees first, before unveiling it to company shareholders and the public.
Day three: empowering our execution
The third day was dedicated to Empowering Our Execution. We had a series of workshops to help the whole company execute different initiatives more efficiently and effectively.
Day four: implementing the action plan
During the fourth day, Calcagno did a recap of the goals reached in 2019 and those to aim for in 2020. He also highlighted the importance of being all in to effectively reach them. He shared the commencement speech by Ryan Smith, Qualtrics CEO & Co-founder to the BYU Marriott School of Business graduating students, who talked about the way he is all in for each aspect of his life, including career, family, and faith.
A series of one-to-one meetings and dedicated roundtables per division and geography followed. This day was crucial for each team to discuss how to implement the 2020 action plan.
By the way… we had a lot of fun together
It wasn’t all about work, though. At Cloud4Wi, we learn by doing as the California saying goes, but we never forget the Italian core values that center around culture and having fun together! Being in Pisa (Tuscany), we had a lot of fun with some delicious food and wine, in line with the unparalleled Italian way of life, and art. We also admired the breathtaking mural Tuttotondo made by Keith Haring in Pisa — this was a significant moment because it also happened to be the 30-year anniversary of Haring’s death.
During our last Italian dinner together, we recognized the most notable employees who have been crucial to the growth of Cloud4Wi in 2019. We acknowledged their commitment, enthusiasm, and perseverance, and we also recognized each and everyone in the team, particularly those who worked behind the scenes and around the clock.
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