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Annual Reports :
2003 : Message from the President
Cover of 2003 Annual Report
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One Foundation
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Synergy
is a word that has gone in and out of fashion for nearly 350 years. In a
general sense it means "joint work," "cooperation." Synergy was a word much in
use at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 2003, a year in which we
emphasized quality performance through teamwork across divisions and
departments—from marketing to research, from the Internet to the Historic Area,
from hospitality to human resources. In 2003, we marshaled all the
organization's components under the banner "One Foundation," the motivating
phrase of a campaign to encourage us, in our diversity, to act as the single
organization we are. The central objective has been to ensure that the value of
the whole is greater than the sum of the parts—to think like, to talk like, to
function like, to be One Foundation.
Complex enterprises
like Colonial Williamsburg sometimes seem as if they are several operations
running in separate orbits with little in common but a name, and in some
situations that may make good sense. In fact, our individual operations have
functioned well, if somewhat independently. But it seemed to me they could be
more mutually supportive and reinforcing, as well as more efficient.
Importantly, closer coordination of our efforts across the foundation would
convey a clearer message to our multiple constituencies about the whole of
Colonial Williamsburg. The One Foundation initiative emphasizes that our core
mission is education, and that all the other activities either are extensions
of that mission, or support it, or nourish it financially, and enrich the guest
experience. In 2003, this approach became fundamental to the way we do
business.
All the
foundation's staffs are benefiting from a more cooperative and structured
approach toward achieving their common goals. That structure emphasizes guest
focus, improved communication internally and externally, collaboration on
special projects and events, stewardship of our extraordinary resources, and
personal accountability. Where there are like tasks to be performed, staffs are
taking responsibility to share processes, avoid duplication, enhance
operational efficiencies, conserve resources, and make seamless Colonial
Williamsburg's "America. Chapter I." adventure.
President
Colin G. Campbell stands in the middle of staff from around Colonial
Williamsburg. Wearing the costumes or clothing of their worksites or holding the tools of their trades are Anna
Agbe-Davies, Patrick Andrews, Stevenson Bailey, Bill Barker, John Boag, Natasha
Brown, Glen Byrnes, Juleigh Clark, Gayle Clarke, Tony Craig, Larry Earl,
Claudia Fitzgerald, Leroy Graves, Julia Harrod, Bridgette Houston, Clara
Johnson, Craig Joseph Sr., Richard Josey, Denise Kellogg, Pete Roberts, Kathy
Rose, Juliet Schwarz, Elaine Shirley, James Smith, Valli Anne Trusler, Darrell
Waddell, Alice Watkinson, Dennis Watson, Bill Weldon, and John Wullert.
Click image to enlarge |
Our Internet effort is
a good example of synergistic success. Online marketing, sales, and educational
communications have become far more effective because a cross-disciplinary team
is making coordinated use of Internet opportunities. That team melds
specialists in the World Wide Web, information technology, marketing, and
public relations with the people responsible for Historic Area programming, for
educational outreach, and for tending our intellectual flame—the research
staff.
When we set out to
train employees to work with a new and improved ticket structure, the human
resources department took full advantage of sales expertise in hospitality,
products, and marketing to help Visitor Center salespeople communicate the
variety of ticket options so that our guests could determine which experience
might be best for them.
The products
program has since its earliest days concentrated on selling reproductions,
interpretations, and adaptations of eighteenth-century goods. The items now
offered in the Historic Area's Prentis Store are hand made by our Historic
Trades craftspeople. Thus the store serves both our retail and educational
aims, demonstrating the linkage between them, and also giving more attention,
in a commercial setting, to the extraordinary workmanship and productivity of
Historic Area staff.
Colonial
Williamsburg's hospitality operations have long been linked to the Historic
Area through historic taverns staffed by costumed servers and balladeers
offering adaptations of eighteenth-century food and entertainment, and by guest
lodgings in Colonial Houses. Interpretive training and guidance for costumed
hospitality employees is provided by Historic Area staff to ensure
authenticity. Synergy has been further enhanced through popular seasonal
lodging and dining vacation opportunities such as the Glorious Gardens package
and the Ghosts and Legends package, which provide some of the very best that
the Historic Area and our hospitality team have to offer at appealing prices.
Such
cross-pollination is becoming the rule rather than the exception in
organizations across the land. It makes sense for Colonial Williamsburg to be
among those leading the way. After all, synergy is at the heart of the story we
tell, the creation from thirteen disparate colonies of an idea greater than the
sum of the parts, the idea of America, an idea for all people, for all time.
Colin G. Campbell
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Historic Triangle