A fly on the wall at last week’s Wine Intelligence Global Team Meeting would have learned a lot about mindfulness, human values, and looking after your comrades
With the London weather co-operating (for once), Wine Intelligence gathered its team from around the world for our 2018 Global Team Meeting on 13th June, to update Country Managers visiting from Australia, South America, Continental Europe and the US and bring our team of 30 together for the first time in 3 years. As well as talking about the growth of the business and plans for the coming year, we challenged ourselves to share some useful insights about the world outside our category.
In a series of 15-minute TED-style talks from 11 of our team members, we learned about business etiquette in China (from country manager Chuan Zhou), why Americans love a themed celebration (US country manager Erica Donoho), and the valuable principles of human behaviour that underpin the discipline of business coaching (CEO Lulie Halstead).
Other sessions included Jean-Philippe Perrouty, Country Manager for France, discussing what we can learn from the special forces, and COO Richard 
Halstead explaining how rugby refereeing for the past six years has taught him valuable business lessons and how transparency is always the best policy in both business and personal life. Rodrigo Lanari, Country Manager for Brazil, then talked us through Vipassana meditation and how it can help in research: the answer, among other things, is keeping a clear head and remaining open-minded.
The afternoon sessions were kicked off by Business Executive, Ben Luker, who discussed how making small steps to improve every day has a greater impact on oneself and the company. Ben was followed by Country Manager Rodney Sammut, who talked us through how his in-house experience, as leader of the Woolworths liquor insights department, compares with the world of research agencies. Chairman Chris Hancock enlightened us on his experience working in corporate finance, and the different corporate cultures he experienced over the past 25 years – and why some of the cultures were more successful than others.
The theme of the day centred around culture and different perspectives within the workplace, and this was no exception for the final presentation. Director for Spain and South America, Juan Park, taught us how memories from our past can shape the present, and how they affect us in a workplace environment.
The following day focused on more practical elements: how to build new better insights for our clients, and how to expand our geographical reach – and more information on these developments will be available shortly.
Author: Matthew Jenkins
Email: matthew@wineintelligence.com
