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Disclaimer: The
content of these articles is to be used as a general guide only.
Professional advice should be sought before taking any action relating to
the points discussed in these articles.
WHAT DO YOU STAND
FOR?
The following ideas of best-selling American author Jim
Collins come from articles which appeared on pages 41-49 of the
October 1997 issue of Inc magazine in USA. Any direct quotations are
taken from these articles.
According to Jim Collins, "What you stand for is more
important than what you sell." Jim Collins sees that many
successful companies are already framing their identity around their
core purpose rather than around the goods and services they sell.
This way you can give up what you make or what you sell and do
something different if this is what the market requires. But in
addition to deciding what you stand for, you should also do what you
are good at.
Every company's core purpose should have five
characteristics.
-
It has to inspire those inside
the company.
-
It has to be as valid 100 years
from today as it is now.
-
It should help you think about
what you could do but aren't doing.
-
It should help you decide what
not to do.
-
It should be truly authentic to
your company.
To illustrate some core
purposes, below are core purposes of five well-known companies.
-
Walt Disney - "To make
people happy"
-
Hewlett-Packard - "To make
technical contributions"
-
3M - "To solve unsolved
problems innovatively"
-
Marriott - "To make people
away from home feel that they're amongst friends and really
wanted"
-
Nike - "To experience the
emotion of competition, and winning, and crushing
competitors"
These five companies do not
mention products in what they stand for. Many would say that these
core purposes are too general but in being general these companies
can be flexible and hence more easily adjust to changing market
conditions.
Consider a video store with a core purpose of providing a
large range of videos at affordable prices. If videos became
obsolete then the company's core purpose would stifle its
development as it really needed to be concentrating on new
entertainment products rather than simply videos.
At ACS, our core purpose is to assist you in achieving better
relationships with your customers and staff.
What do you stand for?
This article is reprinted from
Rentons' Business Tips No. 3
© Copyright October 1998 ACS
and with permission of Inc. magazine, Goldhirsh Group, Inc.,
38 Commercial Wharf, Boston, MA 02110 ( http://www.inc.com
).
What Comes Next (Quote), Jim Collins, October 1997.
Reproduced by permission of the publisher via
Copyright Clearance Centre, Inc.
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