May 20th, 2009
I usually don’t reblog anything but sometimes I come across something that is so on point that there’s no need for me to say it any other way. The following about core values is from the United States government National Park Service training website:
What are Core Values?
The core values of an organization are those values we hold which form the foundation on which we perform work and conduct ourselves. We have an entire universe of values, but some of them are so primary, so important to us that through out the changes in society, government, politics, and technology they are STILL the core values we will abide by.
In an ever-changing world, core values are constant. Core values are not descriptions of the work we do or the strategies we employ to accomplish our mission. The values underlie our work, how interact with each other, and which strategies we employ to fulfill our mission. The core values are the basic elements of how we go about our work. They are the practices we use (or should be using) every day in everything we do.
CORE VALUES:
- Govern personal relationships
- Guide business processes
- Clarify who we are
- Articulate what we stand for
- Help explain why we do business the way we do
- Guide us on how to teach
- Inform us on how to reward
- Guide us in making decisions
- Underpin the whole organization
- Require no external justification
- Essential tenets
CORE VALUES ARE NOT:
- Operating practices
- Business strategies
- Cultural norms
- Competencies
- Changed in response to market/ administration changes
- Used individually
By Way of Comparison
By way of comparison, here are examples of Core Values identified by other organizations.
DISNEY – to make people happy.
- Nurture and promulgate wholesome American values.
- Creativity, Dream, Imagination.
- Preservation and control of the Disney magic.
- Absolute, meticulous attention to detail
MERCK – to preserve and improve human life.
- Corporate social responsibility.
- Unequivocal excellence in all aspects of the company.
- Science-based innovation.
- Honesty and integrity.
- Profit – from work that benefits humanity.
SONY – to experience the joy of advancing and applying technology for the benefit of the public.
- Elevation of Japanese culture and national status.
- Being a pioneer, not following others, doing the impossible.
- Encouraging individual ability and creativitiy.
U.S. ARMY
- Courage – Face fear, danger or adversity.
- Duty – Fulfill your obligations.
- Honor – Live up to all Army values.
- Integrity – Do what’s right, legally and morally.
- Loyalty – Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit and other soldiers.
- Respect – Treat people as they should be treated.
- Service – Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own.
Our Core Values are a statement of the framework in which we accomplish our Mission. They express the manner in which, both individually and collectively, we pursue our mission. When we are challenged in fulfilling our mission, our Core Values sustain us and guide us in meeting the challenge. - National Leadership Council, 2001
Tags: american values, basic elements, benefit, brand, branding, business, business processes, business strategies, collectibles, communicating, communication, core values, creativity, cultural norms, experiences, experiment, follower, government politics, guide business, happiness, imagination, integrity, interaction, interactions, justification, life, marketing, merck, meticulous attention, moral, national park service, nurture, organization, personal relationships, personalities, personality, politics, politics and technology, profitability, relationships guide, responsibility, social, strategy, technology, Tenets, united states government, Value
Posted in branding, business, featured, life | No Comments »
April 15th, 2009
There’s a LOT of talk these days about branding. We’ve been told that design, the right (or wrong) website layout and communication can make or break a business.
What you market, how you market and where you market are all crucial and important. Should you market your brand on Radio, Television, or Social Media? Are YOU the brand or do you need a mascot or a cool logo? What should your business card say? What’s your tag line? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: basic essence, best choice, brand, branding, business, business card, coach, color scheme, colors, Communiation, communicating, communication, communication matters, communications, cool logo, design, design logo, designers, goals, happiness, interaction, interactions, marketing, mascot, media, motivator, niche, present, radio television, setting goals, share information, simplicity, social, tag line, tagging, Television, website layout, words
Posted in branding, featured | 6 Comments »
November 18th, 2008
I was speaking with @LisaHoffmann (?http://newmedialisa.com/?) on Twitter about monitoring one’s ROI [Return on Influence/Investment] concerning customer satisfaction, when Twitter went down for maintenance. I couldn’t have planned a more strategic timing to illustrate my point: communicating is listening. The only way to truly listen to your customers is by monitoring multiple forms of media. When one goes down, they will find a way to substitute another.
In today’s fragmented marketplace, ?your customers come in all shades of variety, from completely dialed in to the bleeding edge of technology to old-school snail mail & telephone land-line users. People tell you how they want to use your product. You can not dictate how or what people will say about your product. Customers are your business. It is your business to please your customers. Even though you may think most or all of your customers are using one form of media, it is your job to monitor all forms of media for potential customers or customer issues.
Some ways to monitor customer happiness: take polls, review taped calls & online customer queries, monitor your online presence, set up google alerts. The main thing that these tools illustrate is that you should ALWAYS BE ASKING. Zappos is doing it right by having customer service phone calls go to everyone in their company. Their WHOLE company is customer service, not just one section of it. Radian6 ( http://www.radian6.com ) is an integrated way of monitoring social media for your company. Not every solution is the right solution for every company, but no solution is definitely not the solution. ?
The solution is to listen to the people. People are very vocal advocates. They want to be heard and validated by others. Their ideas and beliefs are very important to them and they will vocalize to defend them. Utilize this fact to your advantage. Be there to guide the conversation from the side. Offer feedback and useful knowledge. Just remember, you can not tell them how to think and act. You must be the expert and give them what they are ideally looking for. When presented in a palatable way, people will gladly integrate this information into their vocabulary, especially if it is a well-crafted party line.
People are social by nature. They want to be your biggest supporter. They like spreading information. They?are looking for something they can believe in. They are looking for something they can be happy about.?
Happiness is not something that can be specifically measured with numbers and analytics. You can measure your effectiveness with how well you are doing your job but that won’t necessarily translate into your clients view of you. Are you really doing your job if your clients aren’t 100% satisfied? If there is something that needs to be addressed with them that may be outside of your core mission it is now PART of your core mission. ?Your customer is your business and servicing your customer is your business.
So, who is making you happy? Who are you making happy? How are YOU doing it?
Tags: business, communicating, communication, customer satisfaction, customer service, group dynamics, happiness, Lisa Hoffmann, listening, radian6, satisfaction, social media, zappos
Posted in business, featured | 4 Comments »
