In September 2009 the Head Teacher at St. Joseph’s Junior School, Mr Michael Daley asked four pupils to embark upon a small business venture that would lead to some enhancement to the school environment. The four pupils were all in Year 6, the final year before moving to Comprehensive School, with their age range between 10 years and 11 years of age. All four children were the elected Year 6 members of the newly formed School Council and in Mr Daley’s words, “They were the perfect choice to embark upon such a new and innovative school project.”
At this time Mr Daley approached Mr Philip Crocker, School Parent and DNA Wales Adviser with an invitation to provide business advice and support to the fledgling school project. A remarkable relationship began with regular meetings and much discussion. Soon the four children Danny Dobson, Kathryn O’Leary, Kiara Parker & Caitlin Thomas organised themselves into a formal team, with a flat structure, operating as equal Senior Partners in the project. They named themselves “DKKC Project @ St. Joseph’s” based upon the Initial letter from each of their Christian names. The project was formally adopted & supported by DNA Wales with direct guidance, support and advice provided throughout by Dr Paul Thomas Founder of DNA Wales.

After exploring many potential options DKKC decided to design, develop and purchase 4 Outdoor Colourful Artwork Panels to brighten and enhance the school’s environment for children, staff and visitors. The team approached Mr John Davies of Bright Ideas Ltd who had previously supplied the school with similar Indoor panels. A meeting was arranged with Mr Davies who was more than able to supply the team with their desired Outdoor Panels. It was decided to design 4 panels each one depicting a colourful interpretation of the four Seasons. Each school year were allocated a Season and every child in the school was asked to provide a drawing of their nominated Season. The results were overwhelming and a total of 130 pieces of Art were passed to Mr Davies to be incorporated in the final products.

The estimated cost of this work was to be £250.00 per panel fully completed and installed by Bright Ideas at a total cost to DKKC of £1000.00.
DKKC set about developing their little business idea into a serious business plan with objectives, timescales and a framework for achieving their Aims. Having completed this phase of the project they then developed their plan into a formal compelling business case. Built around the notion that this project develops the previous indoor panels and can be expanded in years to come with more outdoor panels then this project is not a one-off. The business case was comprehensive and very impressive.

DKKC then took their business case and with great skill expressed it in a very Professional Power-Point presentation involving slides, photographs and audio recordings. The four Senior Partners delivered this presentation on several occasions to their fellow School-Children, Teaching Staff, the Governing Body, the Friends & Parent Teacher Association and on one occasion to another school involved in an exchange programme.

The main objective of these presentations was achieved and the full amount of £1K was raised through generous awards from the School, Staff, Friends and Governor’s. The children were superb in delivering this presentation to such varied audiences.

As the Winter months took their toll and with the Christmas Holidays to be enjoyed it was mid-January before the team could resume their work. The original intended completion date of 12th February 2010 was looming but as with every stage of the project all concerned rallied together to ensure completion on time. Mr Davies was as prompt as ever and the four completed Artwork Panels for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter were fully installed at the school on Friday 5th February 2010 with immediate impact as all the schoolchildren began looking for their personal work within the final product.

At 10am on Tuesday 9th February 2010 a Special Assembly was held at the school led by Mr Michael Daley (Head Teacher). Present were the Senior Partners at DKKC Project Danny, Kathryn, Kiara & Cailtlin, Special Guest Dr Paul Thomas (DNA Wales Founder), Mr John Davies (Bright Ideas Ltd), Mr Philip Crocker (DNA Wales Adviser)and the Local Press the South Wales Evening Post.

During the Assembly much praise was given to the efforts of the four children and to all parties involved in the project. Dr Paul Thomas addressed the Assembly and spoke about the virtues of teamwork using a “Winnie the Pooh” analogy with practical help from several very eager helpers from amongst the schoolchildren. After the laughter quietened Dr Thomas drew his humorous tale to a close referring his observations back to our four Senior Partners who Dr Thomas said have achieved so much working as a team! Sheer Brilliance!

Danny, Kathryn, Kiara and Caitlin then presented their power point presentation for the last time with a few additional slides showing the finished panels actually in place. After a resounding and warm round of applause Mr Daley invited Mr Crocker to say a few words to close. Mr Crocker thanked the children speaking about the privilege and pleasure it had been to have worked so closely with such a special group of children. Mr Crocker then invited Dr Thomas to present specially designed and framed DNA Wales Collaborative Certificates to each of the four children who were called up one by one. Similar Certificates were also presented to Mr Davies and Mr Daley. All were thrilled to receive such prestigious business awards from DNA Wales in recognition of their work. Each Certificate display’s the three logos of the School, Bright Ideas and DNA Wales demonstrating the Collaborative nature of the project.

At that point the Press took many photographs both indoor and outdoor. On Thursday 11th February 2010 a lovely photograph of the children with their panels appeared with an article in the South Wales Evening Post.

Much has been learned and achieved through this project but one of the most important reflections of all must be the true and lasting friendships made.

Business doesn’t have to be mean, selfish and cut-throat.
There are other ways!

Philip Spencer Crocker
FCMI, AIBC, MBA, PGC (Mgt)
DNA Wales Adviser

Having spent most of today making people angry about the future of management (that it won't survive the next 5 years!) I’m at a loss to the extent of how change is needed and known by the managers, yet unable to move forward. We need to substitute management with complexity, yet complexity is not as tangible or as ‘simple’ as traditional management practice.