KSV
From Silos to Synergy at KSV
Working with Cora Lynn has been transformative for our senior leadership team. She helped us build alignment and a shared vision of what it means to operate as one team, both in how we show up as leaders and how we work across the agency.
The formation of cross-functional think tanks was a valuable way to translate ideas into action by engaging the broader team in key initiatives that will drive our business forward. Cora Lynn pushed us when we needed it, guided us with clarity, and held us accountable to our commitments. We’re so appreciative of her partnership in helping us grow into a more cohesive and insight-driven organization.
Erin Fagnant, CEO & Partner, KSV
KSV is a woman-led, independent marketing and advertising agency, founded in 1977, with a deep specialization in clean energy. The agency works with mission-driven clients across public and private sectors, combining strategic insight, creative excellence, and performance marketing expertise to accelerate the impact of solutions that benefit people and the planet.
The Challenge
With a distributed workforce spanning 14 states – approximately half of whom are based at the Vermont headquarters – KSV has been able to attract top talent from across the country. This flexible structure, however, created challenges in fostering day-to-day cross-team collaboration. To address this, the three Partners set out to:
- Overcome siloed ways of working that limited integrated, holistic client delivery
- Increase efficiency and become more insight-driven
- Deliver more innovatively across the Agency as a whole
- Strengthen collaboration across specialist areas to win new clients
With this purpose, KSV partnered with Rathbone Results to build stronger collaboration across the Agency and equip teams to work together more effectively.
Our Approach
A two-day Senior Leadership Team Retreat was designed and facilitated by Rathbones in January 2025 in New York City, bringing together the agency’s nine senior leaders, including the three shareholding Partners. The Retreat aimed to increase self-awareness and mutual understanding, clarify the culture of the Agency, and refresh and document KSV’s strategy.
Deploying proprietary frameworks blended with selected psychometrics and experiential exercises, Rathbones orchestrated a data-driven event that enabled the team to tackle interpersonal challenges, identify fresh business opportunities and commit to new ways of working.
Following the Retreat, Rathbones supported the Senior Leadership Team over six months to deliver five action plans. Highly participative and energetic sessions brought in additional team members, forming cross-specialism “thinktanks” that fostered innovation and collaboration across practice areas and hierarchy – creating momentum towards a more integrated, insight driven Agency.
The Results
The practice of greater collaboration, the buy-in to the SLT as the home team, the purposeful application of innovation, the structured pursuit of new clients, and the focus around consistently bringing insights to client remits is being hard-wired into the Agency.
The engagement strengthened leadership alignment and collaboration at KSV, refreshing strategy and embedding crossfunctional ways of working. Senior leaders built greater selfawareness, launched action plans and think-tanks, and are now operating as a cohesive team. Collaboration, innovation and client growth are being hard-wired into the agency’s culture.