Duarte Nancy - Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

Leaders See the Future
by Nancy Duarte

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than 50 percent of small businesses successfully make it past six years of operation. Yet my firm, Duarte, Inc., has thrived for twenty-five years, in large part because weve stayed ahead of the curve by inventing and reinventing our services and process.

Even though weve successfully managed several transformations at Duarte, we have to continue to change to keep driving the industry forward and offering clients the right products and services to ensure that their needs are met. Leading us from our early days as freelancers to our visual storytelling practice of today, I have developed an uncanny ability to anticipate whats ahead, as if the future is illuminated for me in a way that others cant see. The dream of a new future turns into fire in my belly and I carry that idea forward like a torch, lighting the path so others can thrive.

Each time I see the business starting to settle into a state of comfort, I begin to envision our next transformation. I study the market, listen to clients and employees, and use that information to dream about our next gutsy move. This process is how and why my award-winning firm has grown into the largest communication company in the Silicon Valley, the fifth-largest woman-owned business in the area, and partner to the top brands in the world.

Meanwhile I have watched other Silicon Valley companies come and go, seeing firsthand how staying in the same place creates stagnation. A pool of standing water eventually becomes foul rot unless you stir it up and let oxygen back in.

My team would tell you that I am great at stirring the water to avoid the rot, but I was not always great at helping them understand why all that change is good for them and not just good for the business. Ive never been great at communicating empathetically. Im passionate about my ideas, which gets me pretty far, but I would rarely factor in how others may process my messages.

As I grew into a leader, my lack of empathy was holding me back. I struggled to create the connective tissue employees needed to understand how my new ideas would benefit them. They would distance themselves from my future because to them it felt like it was solely my venture, not theirs. In turn, I was frustrated that they didnt jump in with the reckless abandon I wanted.

Duarte, Inc., Transformations

19871990

Freelance

Mark Duarte spent the summer of 1987 schlepping furniture from the old California Microwave building in Silicon Valley to earn enough money to buy an Apple Macintosh Plus. That Macintosh inspired a dream to start a design business at home with our baby daughter in his lap while I worked at a real job. Employees eventually bronzed that Mac as a symbol of great fortune.

19901997

Service Bureau

I cold-called Apple, NASA, and Tandem (now HP) to peddle Marks illustration skills and landed large projects at all three. I quit my real job in sales at an electronics distributor to join Mark. Since Apple was the first company to project slides from a computer on a conference-wide scale, serving them created a niche for us. Demand for slide production grew quickly across the valley, and thanks to our responsive service and the show must go on creed, our business grew rapidly. Our staff of five employees no longer fit comfortably working from our house, so we moved into a real office above a coffee shop.

19972001

Design Firm

We began to attract degreed designers and recruited a creative director to transform us into an award-winning design firm. She implemented a new creative process, including critique methods and design exploration. The dot-com boom lured us into designing print and web in addition to presentations. It was a gold rush, and the business doubled.