Kyle Bailey is CEO of NuVinAir, a franchise-supported company that utilizes patented technology to create healthy vehicle interiors.
You can use your mission, vision and values as core drivers for your business’ success. In fact, having these pieces in place from the beginning often helps leaders align strategic priorities, attract and retain like-minded employees and inspire people toward a common goal.
As you launch your company, it can help if you establish these core building blocks early. That’s because they often become the cornerstone of your business, defining who you are, where you’re going, what you do and why you do it. Here are five good reasons to do the work up-front and some strategies for employing them.
1. It makes you think bigger.
Thinking strategically takes time. When you slow down and really evaluate the underlying problem that your product or service is solving, your impact can be so much larger. That’s why I recommend that you learn about the people in the industry you’re supporting, as well as their entire universe of problems. What are their pain points? What’s missing from their current ecosystem? How do they define success? Take the time to research and focus on your solution, or you might just miss a larger opportunity.
2. It builds commitment and solidarity among your team.
Articulate exactly what your goal is. Is your vision to simply sell a cleaning product to the automotive industry, or is it “to make sure every passenger has confidence in a healthy commute?” By stating your vision, you can harness the passion of your people to fix the problem together, which helps drive behavior and buy-in. It has the potential to cast a blanket over the company so everyone knows what they are striving for and feels like a part of the team.
3. It helps you educate customers.
Even if you’ve taken the time to figure out who your customer is—by getting really specific about their motivations and needs —educating potential customers about the benefits of your product can be difficult. That’s when having a clear mission and vision can help. They can allow you to communicate your brand in a way that changes the mindset of the customer and help you build relationships by articulating a shared set of values and goals.
4. It allows you to pivot faster.
As we’ve seen from the past two-plus years, companies that cannot pivot in response to disruption are unlikely to succeed. Uncertainty is the only constant, and there’s always going to be turbulence that’s out of your control. If you get stuck on the fear, anxiety and stress caused by that turbulence, you’ll lose sight of what you’re doing. Inflection points like the pandemic are where we learn and grow the most because they expose weaknesses in the business model. If you can keep a clear head and stay focused on your mission, you are more likely to be innovative and able to continually evolve as new challenges arise.
5. It attracts investors.
Investors want a product they can believe in and people they can trust to get the job done. Look to build a strong relationship with potential investors by sharing your mission, vision and business strategy. As a result, I am certain that you’ll be much more likely to bring them on board when the time is right.
6. It helps you grow.
Shared company values can also help nurture and feed company culture. For example, my company’s core values are integrity, transparency and solution-driven problem-solving. I strongly urge you to find ways for your employees to participate in creative activities to help your team think about these values in action.
For some examples, my company has embarked on a company-wide weekly “read-along” and book-discussion group and also brought in speakers to help us strengthen weak points in our organization. These activities can fuel your team’s passion and productivity and help you focus on core initiatives as well.
Living by your values can also help you surround yourself with people who will challenge you and help you grow. This includes like-minded employees, investors and mentors. It sounds basic, but it’s true: you’re a product of the people you surround yourself with. Bring in people who not only share your values but who will make you think differently. Because if nobody is pushing you, you’re not growing.
Mission, vision and values can play a critical role in the development of a company. I believe that founders of SMBs should take the time from day one to establish these core pillars of their work so they can help teams think bigger, entice customers and investors, steer the ship when times get tough and continue to evolve their brands.
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