Leaving Company Clues
As an entrepreneur, you are constantly positioning and defining your company for the public and for any staff or partners you might have. Who are you as a company? What do you do? Where are you going?
It is not enough to define yourself in a formal two day exercise, post the output in a relevant part of your website and then forget about it all until the next annual, or bi-annual, planning session. Customers will look to founder and company actions to learn who you are and what you do and to infer where you are going. They will also look for clues in your external communications – marketing, job postings, speeches.
As you position your company, it is important to be mindful, reflective and consistent at the core. Are you creating a distinctive and representative public profile?
The Defining 3
1. Who are you?
This is values, culture, identity markers.
2. What do you do?
Purpose, mission, value proposition
3. Where are you going?
Vision, goals, targets
Their Defining Moves
How clearly are some of these well-known companies positioning themselves with these major communications listed below under ‘Company Positioning’?
A. Guess the company based on these core identity statements. Even if you have never heard of the company, can you at least guess the industry? Don’t peek. This is about the impression that they are making. Write down your answers.
B. What is it that characterized those statements that you could match easily? What made these identifiable statements distinctive? Are they all distinctive in a good way?
C. And what do the statements that you could not match have in common? What made them less company-distinctive?
D. Rank Them in order from most best to worst in your opinion in positioning the company.
E. What lessons can you learn from this list that you can apply to your own company?
F. Write a core identity statement for your venture. Where would you place it and why?
Company Positioning
1. Come work with us! Build the next generation of personal communication.
2. A Clean start. Committed to electric. Built around the driver. Sparking the evolution.
3. ______’s focus going forward will be to create a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most.
4. Great tea, a friendly environment and a colourful, modern store.
5. _____ allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. ____ provides a forum for people to connect, inform,and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.
6. We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprises, and content creators.
7 _______’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
8. _______ is the world’s largest package delivery company, in terms of revenue and volume, and a global leader in supply chain solutions.
9. Who we are and what we do
Throughout our history we have been where the growth is, connecting customers to opportunities. We enable businesses to thrive and economies to prosper, helping people fulfil their hopes and dreams and realise their ambitions. This is our role and purpose.
10. ______ connects people with great local businesses
11. _____ is the world’s leading Internet television network with over 48 million members in more than 40 countries enjoying more than one billion hours of TV shows and movies per month, including original series.
12. Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions.
• To refresh the world…
• To inspire moments of optimism and happiness…
• To create value and make a difference.
13. Social is in our DNA
We are not just a social relationship platform. We are not just a tech company. We are creators, innovators, and builders dedicated to revolutionizing the way you communicate.
Company Positioning Matches
1. Come work with us! Build the next generation of personal communication.
Snapchat – Job Openings page
2. A Clean start. Committed to electric. Built around the driver. Sparking the evolution.
Tesla homepage
3. ______’s focus going forward will be to create a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most.
Microsoft – Shareholder letter in 2013 Annual Report
4. Great tea, a friendly environment and a colourful, modern store.
David’s tea – About Us page
5. _____ allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. ____ provides a forum for people to connect, inform,and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.
Youtube – About Page
6. We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprises, and content creators.
Amazon – Investor Relations page
7 _______’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Google – about page
8. _______ is the world’s largest package delivery company, in terms of revenue and volume, and a global leader in supply chain solutions.
UPS – corporate profile
9. Who we are and what we do
Throughout our history we have been where the growth is, connecting customers to opportunities. We enable businesses to thrive and economies to prosper, helping people fulfil their hopes and dreams and realise their ambitions. This is our role and purpose.
HSBC – Our Purpose
10. ______ connects people with great local businesses
Yelp – Overview & Careers page
11. _____ is the world’s leading Internet television network with over 48 million members in more than 40 countries enjoying more than one billion hours of TV shows and movies per month, including original series.
Netflix – Company Profile. Investor Relations
12. Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions.
• To refresh the world…
• To inspire moments of optimism and happiness…
• To create value and make a difference.
Coca Cola – Mission, Vision & Values page
13. Social is in our DNA
We are not just a social relationship platform. We are not just a tech company. We are creators, innovators, and builders dedicated to revolutionizing the way you communicate.
Hootsuite – About Us intro paragraph