Looking back over 2013, we begin our 13th year as Siegfried Dunlay consulting. With all those 13’s, you might wonder if we are a superstitious duo. Yes, but in a good way. Thirteen is considered a “happy” number in mathematical terms, a baker’s dozen makes everyone smile, and Janell was born on Friday the 13th! Always considered her lucky day, it has now become Siegfried Dunlay’s lucky day, too.

Yup – we’re up for both lucky and happy in 2014.  

We had an exciting year supporting high-impact initiatives for our amazing clients while helping unleash the power of authentic leadership and employee engagement. As social media reshapes how people are “talking” to one another, we’re keeping our message to you simple: one big, heartfelt thank you for trusting us with your opportunities and your challenges.

Our slate of clients cover the spectrum from large, multi-billion dollar global private and public companies with diverse customer segments to small start-ups with targeted audiences.

Here are the major projects we had fun with this year:

Designed and facilitated a series of employee and leader focus groups in the US and UK for a global investment management firm to understand climate around engagement levels.

Led the communication strategy to support a voluntary, high-concern national product recall for a global manufacturing company.

Conducted customer focus groups and created a new business name and brand identity for small MN-based business in the recreation industry.

Led media relations strategy for a division of a Fortune 100 manufacturing leader at an international trade show.

Designed and created multiple, new product and technology presentations for an international manufacturer used in customer meetings, industry conferences and internally to drive growth.

Created a series of high-level, strategic executive presentations to sell innovative products globally with a robust, yet simple capabilities story.

Provided onsite support to VP Corporate Communications for multi-billion dollar global company on a variety of projects from quarterly earnings calls to global employee town hall meetings.

Coached a variety of mid-to-senior level leaders, helping them hone their communication skills to reach their career aspirations at a leading global food company.

Prepared a strategy for Minnesota-based corporation to redesign a highly technical exhibit for a variety of space configurations in Germany, Brazil and other US locations.

Designed a multi-month coaching program for a leading global manufacturer focused on helping technical leaders and scientists present complex information in a simple way.

Partnered with leading global company to lead their annual employee giving campaign.

Designed a strategy to benchmark best-in-class corporate foundations and report on results.

Supported CEOs and executive level leaders in designing and delivering annual board and strategic presentations and being prepared to answer questions, using video playback for coaching.

Provided onsite communication counsel at a global customer event including presentation rehearsals, feedback sessions and leader coaching.

Designed and facilitated an executive planning workshop for an East-coast based leader in the food service industry with a focus on enhancing client communication.

Provided strategic and tactical support to design digital asset management system for a global client.

Designed and conducted an employee opinion survey for a Twin-Cities based company with a national footprint.

Created a communication strategy for national, private Midwest-based company celebrating a major milestone.

Developed a series of communication video teaching modules for a Fortune 500 financial services firm headquartered in Minneapolis to support regional teams in their sales cycle.

Drafted a variety of client press releases, media Q/A, message platforms and marketing sales collateral.

Partnered with the sales director of an industry-leading corporation to kick-off the year with a national sales meeting that included development of key messages, presentations and branding collateral, presenter coaching and post-meeting survey to measure impact.

We truly love what we do.

Helping our clients achieve new levels of success makes us happy. And doing smart, strategic, consistent work makes us “lucky.” A CEO client shared his favorite quote, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

That’s our promise in 2014.

Barbara and Janell