STEWARD THE JOURNEY

A look at FG SQUARED’s 19 year journey to see what patterns emerge

UT HDO Professional Seminar09 Nov 2013Hosted by Steve Golab

golab@fg2.com

ABOUT FG SQUARED

• An Austin-based Jive Alliance Agency who also

owns and operates the GoLab Austin coworkspace.

• Here’s what we do really well

• Global enterprises trust us to tailor their Jive Software

communities.

• We also provide workspace for local creative

professionals, software developers, and journey-

oriented entrepreneurs.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PERSPECTIVE & MEANING

What is stewardship, and why is it an

important skill for people?

STEWARDSHIP – CHOOSING SERVICE OVER SELF INTEREST

“Stewardship is the willingness to be accountable for the

well being of the larger organization by operating in

service, rather than in control, of those around us.

Stated simply, it is accountability without control or

compliance.”

- Peter Block

ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE

“You look at where you’re going and where you are and it

never makes sense, but then you look back at where

you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you

project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you

can come up with something.”

- Robert Pirsig

JOURNEY

What journey are you on right now

and what meaning might you

uncover by reflecting on it?

PEEK INTO MY LIFE JOURNEY1973Born;

given 10% chance of survival

1991Move

to Austin(DJIA 2633)

1994FG2 was born

(DJIA 3754)

2000Married on a cliff

in Hawaii

(DJIA 11497)

2008 Daughter was born

(DJIA 13264)

2010 Golab Austin

was born

(DJIA 12217)

2013 Heart Attack

(DJIA 13104)

THE JOURNEY OF MY ROLE AS BUSINESS OWNER

1995Project Manager and Programmer

1998Client

Service and Finance

2001HR, Sales, and

Marketing

2004Chairman and CEO

2010 Community Steward

THE JOURNEY OF FG2 OWNERSHIP TEAM

1994Jason and Casey join

1995Steve, Fred, and Matt join

1995 Fred and Matt leave

1996Davin joins

2003Lin and Debbie

join

2004 Jason and

Casey leave

2006Davin leaves

2010Lin

leaves

Debbie and

Steve Remain

THE JOURNEY OF FG2 CORE TEAM

1995Steve joins

1997Jim

joins

1999Debbie,

Brad, and Culby join

2001Brad and

Culby leave

2004-2006Amy and Coskey

joinsBrad and

Culby return

20011 Coskey leaves

2012 Coskey returns

THE JOURNEY OF FG2 BUSINESS MODEL

1994Ecommerce

1995Tech

Consulting Firm

1996Multimedia

Services Firm

2000Integrated

Services Firm

2007Social

Business Agency

2012Jive

Alliance Agency

THE JOURNEY OF FG2 MARKETS

1994WWWUsers

1995Professional

Service Firms

1996B2B

Global 2000 and Startups

2003B2B

Global 2000

2008Social

Enterprise

2012 Jive Owners in

TexasEspecially

Global 2000

THE JOURNEY OF FG2 OFFERING

1994Computer and Hair Products

1995Myriad

of Services

1996Creative,

Technology, Strategy

2000Plan,

Design, Execute

2007 Legacy

+Social

2012JiveOnly

SMALL GROUP CONVERSATION

What themes emerge?

THE JOURNEY OF FG SQUARED’S MANTRA

1994How will we

fund the Easy Beader

Prototype?

1995Can we make a

living doing what we love?

1996What are our

signature areas of

innovation?

1997How do we build long term client

relationships?

1998How do we

scale quickly?

THE JOURNEY OF FG SQUARED’S MANTRA

1999 - 2000How can we

work less and play more?

2001Who stays and

who goes?

2002How do we manage the

transition going on in

our individual

lives?

2003 – 2004 How do we breathe new life into this company?

2005How do we stay alive when our

email server keeps

crashing?

THE JOURNEY OF FG SQUARED’S MANTRA

2006Where can we find more inspiration?

2007What does social

mean for our clients?

2008Is this really happening

again?

2009 Who is going to

save us?

THE JOURNEY OF FG SQUARED’S MANTRA

2010Who is ready to reboot

the business?

2011What do we

want to create together?

2012When we say

no, what are we saying yes to?

2013How do we want

to grow together?

SMALL GROUP CONVERSATION

What themes emerge?

STEWARDSHIP IS THE CORE ACTION

“We are all on a journey, and in that journey we are trying to

express ourselves in the greatest, fullest expression of

ourselves. Stewardship involves being present to and helping

someone else, starting with yourself, to go and find that full

expression. There is a lot of work behind real stewardship. It

has to do with a lot of things about understanding where that

person or thing is on its journey and what they’re trying to

do. So it’s a lot of questions pulling it out.”

- Bijoy Goswami

THANK YOU