Many would think that spending time to identify the Purpose, Mission and Values of any business organisation is a sheer waste of time. I beg to differ. Business Leaders or Owners who still think that way, are likely stuck to a perception of reality surrounding them, that has long gone by. These things are important. One of the elements that employees are requesting more and more from their employers is that they are given a higher sense of purpose and mission for their job role, beyond helping the company to achieve higher profits.

EMCS, which I proudly form part of, has gone through a journey of searching for its true purpose, mission and values. It all started as we all ended up at home during the start of the pandemic. We used that time to take a hard look at ourselves and find a compelling answer to the below three fundamental question:

Who are we?

Why do we do, what we do?

How will we achieve what we want to do?

As EMCS celebrates its 40th anniversary this year and as we have also moved to larger offices earlier this year, we decided to place our answers to the above fundamental questions on our walls, so that all team members keep them well in front of them in all that we do.

Purpose

A purpose is a reason. It answers “Why a business organisation is doing what it is doing.” Finding a business purpose isn’t easy and it doesn’t happen quickly. To achieve your purpose, you’ll experience ups and downs and takes a lot of sustained effort…but it’s time well spent and well worth it. Your business’s purpose should align with your core values. A business’s purpose has a background story founded on its values and works to install those values into its company culture and employees. There has to be a reason and meaning behind whatever the purpose. At EMCS our journey has brought us to the Purpose outlined below:-

Our purpose is based on inspiring our team members, our collaborators but even more so our clients, whom we consider more as our partners, to achieve and constantly aspire to be better and reach higher levels.

Mission

A mission explains how your business will achieve its outlined purpose. You may know your purpose, but what will be the organisations overall goal to fulfill the outlined purpose? A mission helps a business have a foundation upon which to then create a plan and outline the steps that need to accomplished. Having a mission allows a business to describe the journey that it wants to take. In our case, our identified journey is the below outlined Mission “Providing the Support Businesses Need, How and When they Need it”. This means that our goals are quite well identified – we are not only after supporting businesses but in doing so in the way such business need to be supported and when they feel that our support will really help them.

Values

Values are what a business organisation believes and the behaviours it agrees to embody. Some business organisations call these guiding principles, company principles or company beliefs. Mission and Purpose answer the question of why an organisation exists. Values answer the question of how it gets where it wants to go. Values give a business organisation the structure needed to empower employees to work toward achieving the Purpose or Mission collectively. Values inform decisions and give employees guidance on how they’re expected to do their job and interact with colleagues, clients and partners. They also create a common language across a business organisation. Below are the values identified by us at EMCS:

This is where our journey at EMCS has brought us too. What about yourself as a business owner or leader? Are your Purpose, Mission and Values clearly outlined and are all team members within your organisation well aware of these, to guide them in what they do and how they do it?