Values, Vision, Mission

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Why does your company exist?

If you answered “to put food on the table”, you need to look deeper. The money you make at work is the result of the reason. What greater benefit do you deliver to society?

The answer to this question is formalised in your company’s Values and Vision and Mission Statements[1].

Values, a vision and a mission are all critical in defining who you are as a company, why you do what you do, and where you’re going .

It has many benefits. Here are five:

1. It helps defines your brand – if you don’t have a clear understanding of who you are, how can you expect your customers to? Defining who you are also humanises your company and people (your customers) like to deal with people.

2. It gives your employees a sense of a higher purpose – without a sense of working for a greater good, all your employees are working for is a pay cheque. The minute someone offers them a higher pay cheque, they’ll probably be out the door. Use your Vision and Mission statements to inspire their loyalty and motivate them to go above and beyond the call.

3. It sets a course for decision making – Jeff Bezos made “Obsess Over Customers” a corporate value and it has guided Amazon’s choices ever since. Every decision the company makes is consistent with that value ensuring the Amazon ship is always headed in the right direction.

4. It has a positive impact on culture – defining your company values, vision and mission creates the framework upon which your corporate culture will sit. Ingrain them into every employee by putting them on the walls of your office and make the exhibition of behaviours consistent with your values part of everyone’s KPI’s.

5. It saves time when hiring – assessing potential employees becomes a whole lot easier when you have a set of Values to measure them against. And it makes it easier for them to determine if you’re the right company for them before they send in their job application.

If your business hasn’t yet defined who it is, where its going and most importantly why it exists, invest some time this week on working it out. I guarantee it will be the worth the effort.

[1] Customer-focussed companies will also define their Brand Promise – the consistent experience that customers can expect to receive every time they interact with you.