MISSION, VISION, VALUES:

2007-07-16T04:12:00.001-07:00

SOFT 'NICE TO HAVES', OR HARD BUSINESS TOOLS?

Marketing people, and I'm one, seem to surround themselves with a vocabulary that is all their own. 'Brand essence', 'Core Values', 'Brand attributes' and even 'BHAG' are phrases that slip off their silver tongue with the self confidence only matched by Peter Mandelson at the height of his powers. It is quite understandable then, that senior management, feeling that there must be some value in there somewhere, pay lip service to these tools and move on to the more tangible, quantitative measures and indicators to guide their business.

But what if I was to ask you "Can you 'describe success' for your business? And have you shared this description with your top team?" Or, "How are you going to achieve your objectives?" Or, "If in 5 years time you were to ask one of your customers what they think of your business, what would you like them to say?"

What I have just described are my definitions of a company's Mission, Vision and Values, respectively. In fact you can call them what you will, and there is every argument for doing just that. Imagine the difference in the reception you would get when you announce to you staff "This is what we are going to do", rather than "This is our Mission Statement". But, for the sake of shorthand, let's stick to Mission, Vision and Values in this article.

Not all marketing vocabulary is soft and woolly, and in an endeavour to bring discipline to their qualitative art, marketers have adopted military language. 'Campaign', 'Objective', and 'Target' are everyday words in the world of marketing, and 'Mission' is another such borrowed military term. A typical military mission could be 'to take that castle, on top of that hill, by midday on Wednesday'. Its contents are instructive in the creation of business missions. It says what we are going to do, where, and by when. It describes success. Just as a business mission should. Furthermore, it is clearly described to everyone involved in the endeavour, just as a business mission should. It is a shared objective, and enables everyone to understand their role in reaching it. It is also measurable, and can be broken down into phases - progress can be checked along the way. Finally, it also allows the group to devise strategies to achieve the objective, just as a business team can. So, for me, a Mission Statement is not just a platitude that decorates the annual report (to my mind your 'description of success' shouldn't be shared with anyone outside the company, anyway) but it is a clearly stated objective, agreed by the board, shared the company, and that drives strategy. How fundamental is that?

So, if that's what we're going to do, how are we going to do it?

This is the role of the Vision. It is a vivid, motivating and instructive description of the way in which we are going to achieve success. 'By solving unsolved problems innovatively' (3M), 'By making people happy' (Disney), 'By encircling Caterpillar' (Komatsu). If I worked for Disney, in no matter what job, I know what I am going to try to do each day: make people happy. And that's why I say that the Vision should use vivid and motivating language, because, for your staff to be motivated, it has to communicate clearly and involve deeply.

Talking of Disney, did you know that they train all the staff dressed as Mickey Mouse, in their theme parks around the world, to sign Mickey's autograph in the same distinctive way? Why? Because if two different Mickey signatures existed we would know that one of those Mice was an impostor. We would not trust them. So all Disney Mouses are trained to have a consistent signature, because consistency creates trust. And it is the same with a company. Consistency creates trust. And that's where Values come in. They are a set of standards that define how a company, and its people do things, so that every action, however apparently unrelated, is consistent one with another. Through this repetitive way of doing things a company will build a reputation, such that, in the fullness of time, the organisation will be known for a set of values. This makes it distinctive, and that gives it a competitive advantage. Values: what you want to be known for, that will set you apart, and that drive the way the company goes about its business.

Change
Who was it who said "One thing that we can be sure of is that things will change"? It has never been more true than in business today, and what's more, things are changing at an ever increasing rate. For business leaders it is a challenge and a skill to lead change. It requires vision, focus, nerve and communication dexterity. But the majority of change is not in our hands, it happens to us. It could be a change in legislation, a competitive action, social and economic change, or it could just be whim on the part of our bank manager, or a supplier, or a distributor, or a member of staff.

But, that's OK, we all face decisions, every day. As leaders of business that's our role and, to a degree, what we look forward to. But, interestingly enough, our people are also facing and making decisions daily -'Should I order more stationery?', 'Will I make that sales call?', 'Can we give a special price?', 'Which telephone system will we have?', 'What colour will our carpets be?'. A myriad of small, detailed decisions that make up daily business.

Our decisions are joined up, inter-linked, co-ordinated because we have a singular context, our ambition and a full and detailed knowledge of our business, to base those decisions upon. But, what about their decisions? In a sea of change our staff are making decisions, to the best of their ability, that together must have an impact our business. So how do we know that they are making the right decisions, every time? How do we know that the cumulative effect of these decisions will carry us towards our goals? How can we delegate this decision making in the sure knowledge that the right decisions will be made? How can we show trust in our people?

By effectively communicating our Mission, Vision and Values to our people we provide them with a consistent context in which to act. Everybody will be striving towards the same goal, on the same route, and in the same distinctive way.

So, that's clear then. Mission, Vision and Values are valuable business tools that drive hard business decisions, and create a consistent framework for daily activity.

But how do you get them? And how best do you communicate them to your staff? That's where we come in.

Tim Greenhill

Greenhill McCarron

MISSION, VISION, VALUES: