All companies aren’t created equal; some plod along, keeping afloat but never making waves. Others seem to make a habit of excellence. What sets them apart? ‘Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies,’ a recent book by Jim Stengel, addresses these questions. After an in-depth study on what gives some of the most successful companies in the world their edge. Here are the ten tips culled from his book that we found worth sharing:
- Have a dream, make it a goal: Create a central mission statement that goes beyond something like ‘Being the leader in XYZ service’. These kinds of business goals are narrowly defined, worthy but uninspiring. Find a mission statement that contributes to something larger and then make it a key goal across your organization.
- Be clear about your values: Make sure you have a coherent set of ideas that are communicated clearly to your stakeholders. Make sure you live by those values too.
- Organise for success: Never mind traditional organization charts. Structure your organization in a way that benefits your business the best and gives your employees a clear path for growth.
- Build the right kind of team: There are places where you need to hire trailblazers who will bring in much-needed skills to pull your company forward; in other areas you may already have a great vision and need dedicated workers to realize it. Decide what proportion of pushers and pullers you need and hire accordingly.
- Define innovation broadly: Innovation is not just about improving your offerings; create a culture where innovation can take place anywhere, from customer service to accounting and beyond.
- Raise the bar: Set high standards and hold your employees to them. If you’ve got the right team, they will live up to your standards and drive a culture of excellence.
- Keep training: The best companies focus on coaching rather than criticizing. Keep upgrading your skills and your team’s.
- Have rituals: Hold a couple of annual events that bring your vision to life and reward those who are helping to realize it. Create a sense of empowerment and enjoyment and present your team with role models chosen from their own ranks.
- Act like winners: Make sure your team is enthused and empowered; when customer-facing employees convey a sense of confidence and commitment, it takes customer interactions to the next level.
- Live your legacy: Lead from the front. Let the way you work and the things you do set the tone for the legacy you want to create. All talk and no walk makes for an ineffective leader.
It’s also important to remember that an effective work culture needs to go beyond embracing jargon to embodying the concepts beyond the hype. Your vision and how you pursue it need to make business sense to work. Business sense is the cornerstone of every marketing concept and technical project here at i-Vista.
If you’re looking for a digital marketing and technology partner who is ready to match your company’s culture with a complementary focus on ideas and processes that deliver real results, contact us!
