By Bethany Hilton, Director of Corporate Affairs, Improving
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Improving is a global IT services company, specializing in enterprise AI, data, application and platform engineering services that help organizations build, modernize and scale their software. We’re headquartered right here in the Dallas area with 21 offices spread across the world.
Trust is at the heart of everything we do. Our industry has trained clients to expect overpromising, understaffing and scope creep, and we built Improving to be the alternative to that. We say it all the time internally: trust changes everything. A primary reason our client relationships tend to last for years is because we lead with credibility first and let the technology follow.
What is your role at Improving, and how do you support the organization’s community engagement efforts?
I’m the Director of Corporate Affairs for Improving, and I sit in the Office of the CEO. I lead our global initiatives around community engagement, stakeholder involvement and philanthropy, and I get to be a voice for our CEO’s public presence and community involvement.
I run our new Improving Cares program, which is a year-round program that recognizes employees for local volunteer work while connecting their efforts back to Improving. I also lead our Women of Improving program, which provides education, support and connection for the women in our organization. Internally, I head our Dallas Regional Chamber engagement, where we’re involved in 14 task forces and councils and encourage our senior leaders to stay active in their communities.
A big part of my role is also supporting our CEO directly, helping guide his community involvement and public presence, and in a lot of ways, I get to be his voice to the general public on the causes we care about.
What does community engagement look like at Improving, and why is it important to the organization?
Community engagement at Improving is baked into how we think about the whole business. Our stakeholder model includes our clients and vendors, but it also includes our communities, cities and the people connected to them. We’re founded on the principles of Conscious Capitalism, and we intentionally build a culture where all of our stakeholders thrive.
That shows up through nonprofit initiatives, community organizations and programs like Improving Cares, but really it comes down to believing a business is a holistic system. If we want to be a thriving organization, we have to pay attention to everyone connected to it. We believe a business should exist with purpose beyond profit, and that all comes back to trust. We want to build trust with our clients, employees and the communities we’re a part of, and community engagement is one of the clearest, most tangible ways we put that into practice.
Why did Improving become a member of the DRC?
We became members of the DRC because it lines up perfectly with who we already are. It goes back to that same stakeholder model. Improving believes we have a responsibility not just to our employees, but to the communities they live and work throughout.
We also believe deeply in the DRC’s vision around public policy and economic development. The DRC does so much to help this region thrive, and we want to bring our own resources, knowledge and expertise to further the DRC’s initiatives. We want to be a genuine partner in the work that’s already happening in the DFW.
What benefits does Improving enjoy by doing business in the Dallas Region?
Dallas is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and a large majority of our clients are based here in the U.S., with several corporate headquarters calling this region home. That concentration makes it easier for us to connect with clients and build our presence in the market.
Dallas has also historically been friendly to business, with a public and private sector that work incredibly well together. It’s a culture we didn’t have to create from scratch, and that’s a huge benefit. This is already a region where the community benefits from the companies that operate here, and we get to be part of continuing that mission.
What makes the Dallas Region a meaningful place for you and Improving to be engaged in the community?
The Conscious Capitalism mission is something this whole region rallies around, whether they’re doing it on purpose or not. There’s a real spirit of helping each other, staying connected and creating meaningful things and a genuine culture of philanthropy where the big organizations give back in a real way.
There’s also a tremendous amount of creativity, talent and hard work in this city. Dallas might be the most corporate city in the world at this point, but that corporate energy translates into real community investment. I see that same spirit in our own user group community. We open up our office space for free to local tech meetups and user groups across most of our cities, no strings attached and nothing to do with sales. People show up again and again just to learn from each other and build real relationships.
I also have to give a shoutout to Leadership Dallas, the DRC’s flagship leadership program, which I had the chance to participate in myself. It deepened my own connection to this region in a way I didn’t expect, and it’s a huge part of why I’m so glad we get to be engaged here.