Quite famously now, Simon Sinek in his wildly popular Ted Talk spoke about leading with your purpose. Lead with your beliefs. He cited Apple as a company example where consumers buy what Apple believes in more than just the product itself. I believe he is right.
At Comfort Research we have a purpose of Comfort for All. What Comfort for All means to us is four different things. It means:
· Comfortable products for the masses - not just physical comfort but the feeling that product provides
· Comfort for our Ambassadors – we want Comfort Research to be a great place to work
· Comfort for the Environment – we want to be lean and green ensuring we are using our human and physical resources efficiently and being a waste free facility
· Comfort for our Community – we want to support the community in which we work and live
For us this belief system happened over the course of years. Rarely do companies just magically come up with their belief system…it happens over time. The power of pursuing your belief system versus just vision and mission statements is huge. I have seen it firsthand.
When we first started developing our strategy we used what most people do with vision and mission statements. Visions statements can be great but I haven’t seen a lot of mission statements that don’t stink. I know ours did! Building off of our vision we used that statement of Comfort for All to then explain the foundational beliefs behind it. Once we did that it (and the company) really started to take off.
I would challenge everyone to dig into your vision statement or your why, and explain the underlying beliefs behind it. As you continue to communicate and explain why you do what you do you and your organization will flourish.