Do You Know Where Your Business is Heading?
Take the Challenge
CHALLENGE 1
Grab a pen and paper.
Don’t use OneNote or anything digital. It’s good to see your amendments if you make any.
Find your phone and set a 30 second countdown timer.
Right, are you ready?
In less than 30 seconds, answer the following two questions…
- What is your company vision?
- What are your company values?
TIME’S UP!
CHALLENGE 2
Give your pen and a blank piece of paper to the next person you see (in your company, and not someone in the queue in Starbucks – that might freak them out).
Without prompting them, ask them to answer the same two questions in less than 30 seconds.
- What is your company vision?
- What are your company values?
OK, did you try challenge two, or did you give up with challenge 1 and put it in the too awkward box?
If you and just one other person both managed to answer these two questions in less than 30 seconds then we are impressed. Very impressed. If you compare your answers and they are largely aligned, then your company really is on their A-game. If you introduced the challenge to more than one person, and your answers were consistent, then you work for a very focused, and I would suggest, a very successful organisation.
One thing that the most successful companies share, is that their vision and values are agreed at the top and shared throughout the entire organisation. Every employee should know what their company aims to do, but most importantly, why they do it, and how they plan to do it.
At Beyond Your Brand, we work with companies to help them define their sales and marketing strategies. We always start with vision and values. When they are agreed, they are made very public, especially internally. There are many ways, some very overt and some more subtle, to keep vision and values clearly at the forefront of people’s minds. Doing so keeps the company on track. How often are you faced with making decisions when it is clear that there is no right or wrong answer? This can lead to anguish and procrastination. By simply comparing the options available to how closely they align to your vision and values, you can often reduce the number of options and sometimes point out the one clear route to take.
Imagine a boat being propelled through the water by 10 rowers. It is obvious that five rowers each side, all stroking their oars through the water in synchronised harmony results in a boat that glides evenly through the water in a straight line. Now imagine the boat where one of the rowers believes they should be rowing in a different direction. The boat will become unstable and will no longer be efficiently travelling in a straight line. In order to correct this, someone on the other side of the boat will have to counter the resistance by working twice as hard. Of course, this is a simplistic analogy, but you can clearly see when one person in ten does not row in the same direction, the result can have a bigger knock-on effect to the other rowers. What if the rogue rower happened to be the strongest person in the boat?
Beyond Your Brand can facilitate a Vision and Values Workshop. This is a highly interactive session where we look at many aspects of your business such as;
- The history and culture of the company
- Your ideal customer profile
- The reasons why your customers purchase your goods or services
- Your short and long term business plan and objectives (Vision)
- Your unique selling points (Values)
- The complete customer journey
At the end of the workshop, you will have a defined vision for the business and a defined set of values that will guide you on your path to success. We will help you identify opportunities for conveying your vision and values to your employees, customers, suppliers, and anyone who has interaction with your business.
If you would like to arrange an exploratory, no obligation call or meeting to discuss your ideas, we would love to hear from you.
