Navigating towards a Vision

I’ll have to admit, once the vision for theGRADproject was nailed down, the staff was ecstatic…we finally knew where we were going, and why we were going there.

BUT, only a foolish captain sets sail without a compass, right!? 

From day one, the Executive Masters of Leadership program challenged us to look internally, and to really find and understand the values that would serve as our own “true north” for our direction in . So while David and I may have determined the ultimate destination for theGRADproject, we knew that we couldn’t  travel to far down the road without determining the foundational values that would keep us on course, and driving towards that vision even in the most turbulent of times.

With theGRADproject being a partnership, it would be foolish to think that you could build company’s foundation from the core values of only one partner. On the other hand, the beauty of a partnership is that you get to choose your partner. Over the last two years, about 40 hour long OC-LA commutes, team projects, conference calls, executive interviews, and countless beers/long Islands at Traddies, David and I have had the opportunity to share countless stories. And as we learned from John King in PPD 640, it’s the value based stories that act as conduits for which a person’s core values can be communicated.

It didn’t take many of these stories to realize that at our core, we were very similar. We both live for our families, have learned from tough life-altering experiences, we won’t be out worked, and thanks to EML, will not be out stratigized, and most importantly, will always do what we say we are going to do when we say we are going to do it.

From that it was simple…

The Core Values of theGRADproject are:

• Family
• Service
• Ambition
• Mindfulness
• Integrity

Start with Why - A look inside theGRADproject

Why are we here? Why does theGRADproject exist? That’s the question we started with, and that’s the question we continued to ask ourselves throughout the development and launch of theGRADproject. “Starting with Why” is a concept we learned during the early stages of our Executive Master of Leadership (EML) program at University of Southern California USC. Check out this video by Simon Sinek who does an amazing job describing the value of starting with why. (We also highly recommend his book).

We exist for two reasons…

First, because all businesses have projects. They have projects that require a fresh approach and some outside the box thinking, or they have projects that need to get done but lack the time or resources to complete them.

Our grads on the other hand, are battling an employability crisis. BUT, they have innovative ideas, concepts, and a hunger to apply them to a project that will showcase the value they’ll bring to future employers.   

So, by providing businesses with access to a network of executive level grads who have that fresh approach, and the ability to apply cutting-edge concepts, we are essentially creating a marketplace where the ideas and innovation of our grads meet the opportunities businesses can provide them.