Today saw one of our favourite events on the Icon calendar take place, a strategy and leadership session with managers of Icon Group businesses from all over the country. Today was an extra special one though, as our recently announced new partners also joined us for the day and introduced themselves to the wider team.
As is standard for all Icon days of this kind, there was a theme and without exception everyone arrived dressed accordingly. This event took it’s inspiration from the Star Wars franchise and it’s multi layered chapters and continued evolution, both as a story and as a brand.
As always there were some fantastic outfits on display, not least by Stuart who’d started his day at 6am with a make up artist arriving at home to glue prosthetic ears to his head while Sam sat obliviously eating his avocado toast – nothing to see here people!
We were already very confident that we’ve made an excellent selection in our choice of new partners, but when they all turned up in their own Star Wars outfits we couldn’t have asked for a better way of illustrating that they truly got our culture. Our dress up culture is about way more than a means of generating great social media images at our leadership events. Getting people out of their regular work clothes is a great way of ensuring that they arrive with a different mindset to they one they bring to their regular workplace, and helps to spark new thinking and stimulate new ideas. It also provides a great ice breaker for people as they arrive and meet colleagues from all over the country, and now internationally too, and by the time the first coffee is had and the day gets underway new connections have been formed and conversations started that then flow on throughout the course of the day.
Today was no exception, and we had a great day introducing our new partners and having the wider team learn more about the value they can add in knowledge, experience and connections over and above the financial wherewithal they deliver. It was also great for them to hear from our leaders on the opportunities and challenges ahead as we continue on our goal of delivering the best possible cancer care to as many people as possible as close to home as possible.
The reality of the cancer burden in Asia was highlighted in a presentation from UICC Board Member Prof Jeff Dunn, who shared statistics illustrating since 1990 cancer patient numbers in the Asia Pacific region had escalated from 29% of world wide totals to nearly 37% today. This clearly highlighted the need for an increased level of high quality cancer treatment services, in conjunction with the preventative measures that world health organisations are partnering with countries in the region on.
The continued expansion of our bricks and mortar clinics – we’re opening one a month on average at present, with many more in the pipeline – and the increasing utilisation of technology enabled services will allow us to meet this challenge head on.
In the words of former US Vice President Joe Biden, we are no longer willing to postpone, the burden is too great and the challenge is real. We do believe Icon Group is a force that has the power to make a difference, and alongside our new partners we look forward to doing just that.
