After my last entry on Focus and branding, I felt that this entry was an appropriate follow up.  I will try to refer back to previous entries as much as possible to show that these entries are very much interrelated. 

Monday and Tuesday of last week, I attended a Diversity for Life Sciences Conference.  A long two days, but VERY valuable from a business development standpoint.  However, the keynote speaker, a man by the name of Simon Sinek, made by far the biggest impact of the event for me.  Many of his ideas fit in with some of my already formulated ideas surrounding branding, but he had a very unique way of organizing the "branding" process.

He called his process The Golden Circles.  Visit his blog, entitled "Re: Focus" for more information on The Golden Circles.  In a nutshell, Simon talks about how many companies and people focus on "what" and "how" they do things.  For example, many companies focus on what the features of their product are or many people focus on what their job is.  His argument, however, is that true inspiration and brand equity come from the "why".  "People don't buy your products because of what you do, they buy them because why you do them," was what he repeated over and over again.  He used Apple's mission to oppose the status quo and Southwest Airlines' mission to become the common man's airline as keys to those companies LONG-TERM success.  Companies that tried to emulate the iPod and low-cost airlines failed because they failed to effectively communicate WHY they were creating it. 

These companies that do have long-term success do so for a number of reasons:

1. They effectively communicate the "WHY".
2. Their customers buy their products because the "WHY" of the company fits in with their own belief systems.
3. These companies hire people whose belief systems mesh with the "WHY" of the company.
4. They stay true to the "WHY" in each and everything that they do (and how they do it). 

First of all, I want to preface that I'm sure I'm not doing his teachings any justice so visit his site to learn more.  But #3 on this list brings me to my second point - the importance of a clear and concise mission statement.  When I first started my company, I didn't have a mission statement.  I always thought they were a little hokey.  But one of my employees, the most junior one by the way, really pushed us to write a mission statement AS A COMPANY.  I want to make a point here - our newest employee made a VERY important contribution to the company when she made us write our mission statement together.  NEVER underestimate each person's contribution to the company. 

Now why is a mission statement important?  It is important because it keeps the "WHY" at the forefront of every employees mind.  We keep our mission statement posted in our office so that everyone can view it.  You want the essence of the companies mission to be in EVERY DECISION that they make.  You cannot be there to watch over every decision that your employees make.  However, if you provide the framework (the mission statement) for where your company wants to be, employees can make decisions that fit in with the framework of the companies belief system.   


Because the mission statement is, in a sense, the framework for decision making of all of your employees, I think it's also very important to keep the mission statement VERY simple.  Narrow the keys to your companies success to two or three points MAXIMUM.  If you try to put too much meat into the mission statement, its very easy to lose focus.  However, if you only have 2-3 points, it is so much easier for your employees to "test" to see if each decision that he or she is making benefits the overall mission of the company.  If their decision does not help the company achieve the overall mission, then they should rethink their decision.     

Here is CTE's mission statement:

Our mission at CTE Healthcare Communications is to provide engaging and interactive educational resources for both people living with various medical conditions and for caregivers. We understand that education is vital in order to reach treatment goals and we work to empower patients and caregivers to take a more active and informed role in their treatment. Our unbranded initiatives provide pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies a vehicle through which they can develop long-term, meaningful relationships with patients, caregivers, and advocacy groups.

What are the key points here?  We want to create engaging patient education.  We want to empower patients and their caregivers.  We see patient education as a tool for the pharma industry to develop meaningful relationships with their consumers and stakeholders.   Is there more to our business than this...ABSOLUTELY.  However, if we stay true to these three core values, then the rest will take care of themselves.  For instance, a lot of what we do involves seeting up educational meetings for advocacy organizations.  If we focus on the fact that these educational meetings are about developing relationships, we understand that the little details of each meeting are important factors in developing these relationships - making sure food and AV are delivered on time, that our customer service when we deal with advocacy organizations are top notch...these are VITAL.  Does our mission talk about making sure food is delivered on time?  No.  It doesn't have to be.  It doesn't have to be because we understand the relationship aspect of what we do.  The rest takes care of what we do.   

It's been a long day and now I'm losing focus.  But here are a few final thoughts - understand WHY you are doing what you do.  If YOU don't know, then how can you expect your consumers or your employees to know.  Write a clear and concise mission statement that incorporates this why.  Use the KISS method - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!  Visit Simon's blog.  He is a AMAZING speaker.