It is a significant milestone for a business to celebrate its 25 Birthday.
For us at SAGE, it presents an opportunity to pause and reflect on our journey so far. Our growth into a diverse global business, the unforgettable milestones, the challenges we fought hard to overcome, what’s changed, what we hope will never change and to recognise all of those who have been a part of our story so far.
We’ve seen a GFC which saw a painful downturn of many thriving industries, and the birth of a thriving Defence industry. We witnessed the end of the automotive manufacturing industry in Australia, our lifeblood for so many years and then, the emergence of new and exciting industries like autonomous vehicles and renewable energy. We’ve grown from one brand to now 4 unique offerings under the SAGE Group brand: SAGE Automation, Nukon, Skills Lab and Embedded Expertise. We’ve benchmarked ourselves against global leaders and achieved the highest level of certifications with key technology partners.
But really, SAGE is a people business. It always has been.
SAGE Founder and Executive Director Andrew Downs, reflects on his journey from his backyard shed back in 1994. “I’ve often said, ‘ignorance is bliss’, knowing what I didn’t know is probably the reason I took such a leap to start SAGE” he laughs. “But we’ve come an awful long way and we really do owe our success to our passionate people and our loyal clients. Together over the last 25 years, we’ve built a strong business, with the right systems and processes in place to continue our growth, but most importantly, we’ve had a lot of fun.”
Last month we held our annual celebration of our SAGE Platinum Club members. Those members of our team who have been with SAGE for more than 20 years. It speaks volumes about SAGE that the Platinum Club has 22 members, with 19 of which are still active in the business today. The members span a range of positions within our business, leaders, engineers and those behind the scenes, all whose commitment and role in our journey has brought us to this wonderful milestone we celebrate now.
Equally this year, we plan to welcome more than 100 new starters to SAGE, who will commence their unique part in the SAGE story, a wonderful story yet to be told.
On Friday, we kicked off our 25th year in appropriate style, with all of our people in a simultaneous celebration in each of our locations. We used technology to come together and even sang happy birthday as a team, in the true spirit of SAGE.
SAGE Group CEO Adrian Fahey took the opportunity to recognise SAGE founder Andrew Downs and affirm that the success of SAGE belongs to the whole team. “It is a huge achievement and one which every single one of us should very feel proud of the part we’ve played. We are certainly poised to continue to grow and thrive as a business and I look forward to sharing a range of celebrations over the coming 12 months with you as we look forward to the next 25 years, fulfilling our purpose to create a Smarter Future, Better World.”
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