From 25 to 29 January 2017 , the oikos Executive Board (EB) met for their annual strategy meeting in Athens. The board for the running year is composed by Ankit Agarwal, Vusal Abasov, Prudhvi Gadiraju, Sanober Shaikh (joined online) and oikos President Levan Pangani. The EB spent four productive days in Greece to ensure that the upcoming year is the most successful and fruitful for oikos to date.
The board first met for an informal Greek dinner at a local restaurant. However, from the next day on, they embarked on an intense journey, with emotional discussions and promising conclusions. Initially, the board devoted time to teambuilding and set goals for the strategy meeting. The most experienced EB members (EBs) shared their knowledge and best practice with the newcomers. Moreover, a subsequent SWOT analysis provoked a heated discussion that generated several great ideas. Prudhvi and Vusal really put their passion in it and made sure that the analysis led to a concrete action plan.
The third day of the meeting focused on individual domains and tasks. The board debated the current situation and reviewed prepared strategies. Later, the meeting continued with peer-to-peer cross domain work, where the EB members worked on action plans, set deadlines, and laid out areas of cooperation. The EBs also had the opportunity to provide feedback and advice to one another on their respective domains and work within their regions.
The final day proved to be the most prominent one as the EBs discussed the thirty-year anniversary, regions and local chapters. Very specific ideas for the improvement of oikos were agreed upon and the members also gained better understanding of their tasks and responsibilities.
The success of the meeting was manifested in the emergence of a more coherent vision for the future of the organization’s work that also contributed to the renewed sense of confidence in oikos.
