Vision, Mission and Values

In the last few years I have written many articles for my monthly newsletter, blog and for Castanet.

Of all the articles I have written this week’s article on defining Company Values is the most read article on my Floodlight website.

This week we focus on your Company Values.

Company Values: Strong values will be those which actually operate in practice. Your company values underpin the Vision and the Mission of your company. No business is value-free and it is important to be explicit about those values that are essential to the business achieving its vision.

If values are not made explicit, then the values of the most dominant people are likely to be those which actually operate in practice. If you do not define your company values, the company will be adrift without proper direction.

Four key questions to define your Company Values:

1.     What are the values that are important to you as the business owner?

2.     What are the values that will be important to your team members?

3.     What are the values that will be important to your customers?

4.     What are the values that will be important to the success of the business?

Example of Values for a construction company:

Our core values form the bricks and mortar of our business, which operates and grows as a company and proud community member.

TRUST: All long-term relationships are grounded in trust and we take great pride in representing ourselves with honesty and humility in all our affairs. Our win-win philosophy also enables us to develop lasting partnerships with our clients.

VALUE: Our clients expect us to earn our fee – not just collect it. We work hard on all our projects to find value through design efficiencies and creative execution in our work.

TEAMWORK: We are easy to work with (clients find that refreshing).

INNOVATION: We are committed to always improving how we deliver our services. From continuing education in the field, to investment in industry-leading management and estimating tools, we strive constantly to be the leader in our field.

COMMUNITY: We feel blessed to be involved in literally building our communities, and we are committed to making a lasting difference in the ones which we build. Five percent of the company’s earnings are donated back to charities every year.

So if the Vision is your “Big Picture”, the Mission is the “How we do it here”, then the Company Values define “How we do business every day”.

Now go and “Build Your Business”.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.