Any corporate milestone is worth celebrating, whether it’s 10 years in business, 25, 50 or even more. Yet 100 years is such a rare achievement that we’ve given it a name: a centennial.
If your organization is about to hit the incredible century mark, you’ll need to work a lot out to make the most of your opportunity. Here’s a list of 10 things you need to know when planning and celebrating 100 years in business.
1. Start with your strategy–not the number
The number is not the message; the number is the opportunity to deliver the message about what you stand for and why you’ve succeeded.
We’ve seen many organizations start with centennial-themed tactics—100 factoids, 100 social posts, 100 hours of charity work, 100 days of savings and so on—then try to work out their objectives as they struggle with decision paralysis. That’s the opposite of how we recommend approaching an anniversary program. Start with your goals and objectives, then develop tactics (100th-themed or otherwise) that reinforce them.
2. Focus on the future
The most successful anniversaries seamlessly connect your company’s past to where it is headed tomorrow. Align your celebration’s objectives with the goals of your current executives. Then identify the attributes and values of your founders that align with the business today to demonstrate not just how far you’ve come but also where you’re headed.
3. Tell your origin story
Each organization has followed its own trajectory and has a unique story derived from its actions and people over time. The centennial provides an opportunity to tell your organization’s origin story in a way that deeply connects with your audiences. What are your characters, the setting, the problem they are determined to overcome and the successes and setbacks they face along the way? Invest in dynamic storytelling and engage your audiences from the start.
4. Bring back the founder’s voice
Unlike with a 25th or possibly a 50th anniversary, your company’s founder will not be around to tell its origin story firsthand, but there are still ways to amplify their voice. A centennial presents a good opportunity to uncover, revitalize and reinterpret founding thoughts and words as a means of propelling your company forward. As we’ve said before, people want to connect with people, and there’s no better time than now to use your founder as a point of human connection.
5. Reinforce what makes your company great
Remind people about what has made your company what it is and the uniqueness of its organizational culture and belief system. A study by Bain & Company found that as companies age and scale, they lose what is called the Founder’s Mentality®: They stray from the agility, speed and adaptability that made them insurgents in their markets. A centennial provides an opportunity to remind employees, customers and other stakeholders of what you’ve always stood for and what makes you great. As History Factory founder Bruce Weindruch often says, you’re not good because you’re old; you’re old because you’re good.
For more 100-year company celebration ideas for an upcoming corporate milestone, check out our comprehensive guide to company anniversaries.
6. Celebrate your resilience
To reach 100 years in existence, your organization must have been resilient. It’s overcome a World War, the Great Depression, 9/11, COVID-19 and more. It’s seen times of boom and bust, sometimes as part of the greater economy and sometimes specific to its markets. It’s witnessed new competitors entering the scene and older competitors seeking a renewed edge. It’s emerged stronger on the other side. This message of resilience needs to come through loud and clear on your centennial.
Sometimes, your organization may be going through an unprecedented challenge during its milestone, leading to shifts in strategy, tactics or technology. Cleveland Clinic was able to meet stringent medical safety requirements in 2021 while still installing a centerpiece exhibit by using touchless technology.
7. Remind people of your innovations
Most 100-year-old companies were kick-started with innovations, such as the creation of a new market or the disruption of an existing one. Over 100 years, innovation has played a critical role in your organization’s development. New products and services may have opened new markets. New processes and technologies might have dramatically changed how you do business. Highlighting innovations of the past reinforces a culture of innovation, setting the course for a bright future.
8. Underscore your philanthropy
Many organizations use milestones to launch philanthropic initiatives. A centennial provides a unique platform to either restate or redirect organizational philanthropy and create a platform to benefit future generations. But when a campaign doesn’t connect to an organization’s purpose, it risks coming across as superficial or inauthentic. When you’re thinking about ideas for your 100th anniversary, ground your giving in a shared value to make a meaningful and symbolic difference.
Once you have a platform that aligns with your organizational values, leverage enthusiasm around your milestone to generate historic levels of giving or volunteerism. Then follow up to show your audiences how these efforts have paid off for your cause of choice.
9. Make your story inclusive
Whether your company’s expansion has been regional or global, one thing is for sure: It has grown over the past century. Simply recounting the story of your company’s founding might not resonate with workers in new geographic locations or who are part of organizations that your company acquired along the way. You will need to expand the scope and perspective of your story to make sure it’s inclusive. The same goes for the characters you highlight: Your audiences are likely much more diverse than they were 100 years ago. Are there more representative characters that you can also weave into your story? Doing both of these things will help keep your story relevant to today’s audiences.
10. Take better care of your historical assets
There are a lot of stories and insights you can potentially pull from the past 100 years to authenticate and enliven your centennial—if you can access them. Anniversaries tend to reveal to organizations the sad state of their historical assets, including old images, videos, papers, artifacts and other items. And that doesn’t just apply to physical artifacts: A digital file buried in a crush of data from a standard data backup service isn’t easy to retrieve.
Use the excuse of your 100th to rectify this situation not only for your centennial but also for future company milestones. Consider building an archives or, if you already have one, make sure that it’s up to date and adheres to current standards. Fill in the gaps in your company’s collection and digitize what you already have to preserve and provide ongoing access to your priceless artifacts. Though it requires time, effort and, yes, funds, the end results will provide ongoing support for your business.
And one more: Start early
We always recommend that organizations start to think about and plan any 100-year celebration as early as possible. Centennials tend to be bigger and broader than most milestones. Allow as much lead time as possible, ideally two to three years. Do that—and keep in mind the 10 suggestions here—and you’ll have a recipe for a highly successful 100th-anniversary program for any organization.
Get started on making the most of your centennial. Talk with us today.
