By Stacey Deonanan
I have never seen a more love-hate relationship with a company profile than with it’s mission and vision statements. I’m baffled speaking with folks about the importance of having a good company profile when they disregard the fact they’re missing their mission and vision statements, that or.. they assume they’re not that important.
This got me curious..
In working with my clients in our extensive data collection phase, the goal had always been to show clients there is a unique way in which they perceived themselves and if they could capture that, then external stakeholders could possibly grasp their vision.
But things don’t always go linearly.. and I still had a lot of learning to do. Until I started asking questions.. I didn’t realise how much of this mission and vision business seem almost non-existent for small enterprise. In the Caribbean, most people are grinding, and trying to make a buck. I learnt success in most cases for us Caribe-people boiled down to money and “who knew us”. If you were successful making money and lots of it you ran the show however you desired, all until poised with the prospect of expansion. See nobody really changes unless the environment tells them too. It’s a curious thing watching business’ having to conform to safety standards, governmental best practices for employees, inter alia, when they aspire to grow locally and internationally.
Now they’re forced to think about who they really are more articulately.
My advice to you – future leaders and business people, make your life simple; take inventory of what it is you offer people but uniquely. There has to be something you’re doing differently or offering differently. There may be fifty people making coffee in a country, but how do they differentiate themselves? One contender might say, they produce their coffee in a specific region known for its conducive micro-climate that contributes to a very distinct tasting coffee. And I kid you not, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee was born.
This doesn’t have to be complicated but it does require you to think about what it is you’re doing, where you’re doing it, how you handle it (machine or hands), its impact on the environment (if any), the way it touches lives (stakeholders), exactly how does it perform in comparison to its contenders?
When you begin to answer these questions believe it or not they help to populate other aspects of your corporate data which is imperative for your business.
At Rhema Expert we sit and work with you on trying to elucidate who you are. So if you’re ready to embark on your company profile journey, give us a call at (868) 714 5222 or email us at rhemaexpert@gmail.com