NSCA Excellence in Business

National Systems Contractors Association Excellence in Business Award

The National Systems Contractors Association's (NSCA) annual conference, now in its 20th year, is well known for being an industry-leading event. Included in the conference is NSCA's annual Excellence in Business Awards that recognizes companies that are leading the industry, and providing solutions to industry challenges. The award criteria are broken up into six different categories: Business Performance, Employee Engagement, Differentiating Strategies, Strategic Transformation, Customer Experience, and Talent Development.

In 2018, ET Group was honored to be receive the award for the Differentiating Strategies category.

NSCA’s Excellence in Business Awards Is So Much More Than a ContestCommercial Integrator

National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA) - 2018 Excellence in Business Award Differentiating Strategies panel featuring ET Group (Toronto). Source: Commercial Integrator

In 2018, ET Group identified a major shift in the industry and we wanted to refocus our offerings to our clients. We understood that it wasn’t just about offering a product. We wanted to provide our clients with exceptional value. Advice and consulting became part of our offering. Our new approach weaves people, space and technology together.

This shift and our refreshed offering required our employees to be more strategic. Now, they partner with the client and really embed themselves into the organization’s culture to truly understand its needs, and where we can provide the most value. Changing how we work with clients required us to change as an organization and to adapt our own internal processes.

To achieve a real change within our own organization, we adopted design thinking, different participatory leadership approaches, moved to a self management model, decentralized decision making and encourage an advice process. We work in teams and have a work from anywhere culture. We noticed that it was also the little cultural nuances that mattered. For example, we ensure staff take all of their vacation entitlement, understanding how important this is for our overall culture. In our customers' eyes, we are viewed as relevant and progressive.

The results of our commitment internally to adopt the principles we were presenting to our clients was amazing. We have been able to grow our revenue by thirty percent, have a happier and healthier organizational culture, and are able to offer our clients more value.