We take you to one of our customers who has recognized that tradition has what it takes to renew itself.
The starting point
A globally active family business with a focus on sanitary technology, founded by the great-grandfather and now in its fourth generation of family ownership. Its structures are traditional and hierarchical, priorities are set differently, products and supply chains are not set up sustainably. There is no defined purpose, the mission statement is not very strategic. It should not stay that way. A changed, future-proof product range was needed, as well as a cultural change that would allow the company culture to be rethought. New strategic goals led directly out of the comfort zone and into a different world. A change as it is written in the book. All levels were affected, including the historically grown self-image.
Challenges
Plural, because there were many. For example, the management, which had been in the family for generations and had not yet been completely handed over from the last generation. Or the mission statement, which was rather incomplete and not holistically conceived, let alone jointly developed. Identification with it? Unfortunately not at all.
The package had to be put together anew. The process should not be top-down, as had been the case for decades, but bottom-up. This was new territory for both the management and the employees.
Goal
The aim was to create something that gets to the heart of the company’s future direction in an understandable, concise way and formulated in such a way that employees who have been with the company for a long time feel just as addressed and picked up on as new colleagues. The mission statement should clearly convey internally and externally what the company stands for from now on. It should respond to the need for orientation and as such have an impact on the organization.
First steps
The company itself took the first step by setting up a co-creative process to gather input from employees and managers on all four “headings” of the mission statement.
1. implementation
This process resulted in a flood of output in the form of videos, posters, drawings, sentences and keywords, which were clustered together. What belongs under which heading? What fits together? What needs to be included, what doesn’t fit here? This resulted in a first draft of the values, purpose, vision and mission. The draft went to the management, who followed the proposal and presented it to a group of colleagues for discussion. What appeals to them in particular? What does each individual need to know? How do employees need to be picked up? What fits, what sticks in the mind, what is perhaps too much? What support do managers need in order to be able to provide support themselves later on?
A consensus was quickly reached on the content. This was followed by many more rounds of fine-tuning, in which individual formulations were discussed, the right balance between reason and emotion, authenticity and also the clarity and memorability of individual sentences.
2. result
The result is impressive – compact and a perfect fit! The result is an image that provides exactly the orientation that a new start needs to be successful. A change story underpinned the overall picture.
Important learning – also for us: The time factor should not be underestimated. Working on identity is something special for companies. It takes time and a little patience to develop it and then establish it. It is right and important to take this time. In organizations, there are usually so many projects and teams working on topics related to the mission statement – all of these need to be dovetailed and synergies exploited.