“Our Values: customer focus, responsibility, innovation, performance, teamwork.”

What do you think when you read something like that?

“That’s an important list of drivers that gives me an insight into how they run their business” or, “Yadda, yadda”?

Lists like these might (just) look good from a distance — “oh, they say something about values” — but get close and you realise there’s nothing there.

Painting by Numbers?

It’s the painting-by-numbers of leadership. (And would you put one of those on your wall?)

Values are the guiding principles of how you make trade-offs, and they shout loud the kind of business you are. Tell me you have an unconvincing list of empty concepts at the heart of your business, and I’m likely to believe you.

But what about this from a firm of retail consultants?

“Obsessive. We are obsessed with fashion and shopping. We live it, love it, and just ‘get it’. An obsessive passion which means we’re like a ‘dog with a bone’ to get the best job done.”

‘Obsessive’ means something to this company and any recruit or customer who reads that little story would have at least some idea of what they’re dealing with. Convinced by the story or not, this is a different kind of company to our friends with ‘customer focus’.

The Truth

Every business has values, whether they’re written down and posted to an About Us page or not. If you decide to disclose yours, don’t be tempted by blandery, don’t settle for a wish list of concepts that you’d like to be true, and don’t waste your time with the dictionary.

Values are the truth about who you are as a company and if you want your staff to live them and your customers to trust them, if you want them to make any difference at all, show what they mean by giving some context.

Search for stories that describe who you are on your best days. What is absolutely true about your company, and absolutely you? Write it down. And publish that.

Neatly filed under Purpose on October 28, 2010

It’s Easter weekend and I know I’ll spend at least some of it caught up in the beautiful torture of the Masters at Augusta. Which got me thinking, is golf skippy?

Just for a second though, consider football. Surly and recalcitrant players, managers who refuse to talk to the press, habitual swearing at match officials, cheat-if-you-think-you-can-get-away-with-it, blame-the-referee, I didn’t see it.

Now golf. Steeped in tradition and history and always played under strong values – honesty, integrity, and respect for the rules and other players – golf is about winning the right way, or not at all. The rule book is non-negotiable. Golfers honour rituals and conduct that were nurtured in a different age.

To an outsider like me, golf embodies the spirit of sportsmanship. To a skippy-ist like me, has all that slow had a positive effect on the quick?

Skippiness of a game is a tricky question. It is a game after all, you’re supposed to enjoy it.

It’s also a business. The rules are run by the R&A at St Andrews but the commercial interests are run by the two most powerful professional players’ bodies, the PGA Tour and the European Tour, and outside of playing, there’s an industry of equipment manufacturers and a network of shops, clubs, sponsors, communities and volunteers.

For the sake of argument though, let’s concentrate on the professional game as represented by the PGA and European Tours. Now, is golf skippy?

Skippy customers?

Ever spent less than five minutes talking to a golf nut who gets into his favourite subject? Golfers seem able to recall every shot of every game – played or watched – and to re-experience the thrill and frustration as they do it. Practically everybody who plays golf was first brought to the game by somebody else who already played; the evangelist effect in action.

Skippy staff?

It’s easy to believe, especially during Masters week, that professional players hug their golf bags with excitement every morning. Maybe not, but as a job it has some benefits; it’s a meritocracy, played in beautiful surroundings, and well paid if you’re good enough. Joining the professional tour isn’t easy and the life can be hard – living out of a suit case, no income guarantees – yet every year over 700 players attempt to qualify for the 30 places that come up for grabs on the European Tour. Do they skip to the office every morning? Playing a game they love for a living, most probably do.

Skippy owners?

The PGA and European Tour are players organisations – established for the benefit of the players. The PGA Tour in particular says it’s mission is to:

“expand domestically and internationally [and] to substantially increase player financial benefits while maintaining its commitment to the integrity of the game.”

If that’s their intention, if that is what it means to get whatever they want, in abundance – they’re skippy. Sure, the recession is biting. According to the Telegraph, private membership clubs have begun to find themselves in the rough. Everyone can see sponsorship is fading in every sport, golf included. Player financial benefits are bound to suffer this year too. But grading over the long term – the owners must be skipping. Tiger is back, viewing figures are up again, and players at all levels regularly “call a penalty” on themselves showing the commitment to the integrity of the game is as strong as ever.

So why the difference between golf and other sports?

Photo Credit – pocketwiley via Flickr

Neatly filed under Purpose,Skippiness on April 10, 2009

Thomas J Watson Jr succeeded his father as chief executive of IBM in 1952. His leadership was something of a success. IBM experienced around 30% compound growth, year on year, for the entire 20 years that he was in the job. Amongst his projects he oversaw the System/360 project, an initiative Fortune magazine called a “$5 billion Gamble.”

This isn’t intended as a second instalment in a series on the history of computing, any more than Don’t Waiver was yesterday, but as an introduction to running a business based on beliefs. How did Watson pull off $5 billion gambles? Page 5 of his 1963 book, from which this post takes its title, gives a clue:

I firmly believe that any organization, in order to survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs on which it premises all its policies and actions.

Next, I believe that the most important single factor in corporate success is faithful adherence to those beliefs.

And finally, I believe that if any organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except those beliefs as it moves through corporate life.

In other words, the basic philosophy, spirit, and drive of an organization have far more to do with its relative achievements than do technological or economic resources, organizational structure, innovation, and timing. All these things weigh heavily in success. But they are, I think, transcended by how strongly the people in the organization believe in its basic precepts and how faithfully they carry them out.

Watson’s sound set of beliefs formed the deepest of IBMs layers, providing the foundation for everything that happened at IBM under his watch.

I just searched Amazon for “business books” and found 156,947 results. One of them is Watsons, (which you can find here) – recommended reading for anyone in the pursuit of skippiness.
Photo credit – US Department of State, via Wikipaedia.

Neatly filed under Foundations,Purpose on April 9, 2009