Companies often have wordy vision and mission statements hanging on the wall to help those who have trouble sleeping at night. Boring blah, blah blah.
I have never been a fan of anything longer than a few words or a phrase to encapsulate a business’ WHY.
What I do love, is an image that captures the imagination and story that your company wants to tell. When one picture can explain in a snapshot who you are, what you do and why you do it – magic happens.
Today, lots of companies are using visualization to represent what a company stands for and what’s important – incorporating a few keywords or phrases. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a visual representation of a business is priceless.
When I worked at Nomacorc, the leader in wine closures, we developed a visual representation of the business that was for external and internal consumption. It was on our website, hung in the conference rooms and showed up as the first slide in many of our presentations. We even made mousepads for everyone in the company to use to keep the concept front and center.
The visualization was a Chateau that is the location of many excellent wineries. Here is that web page with more details including an explanation of the mission, vision, and overall goals.
The Chateau represented in a picture, what mattered to us as a company and illustrated how we support our customer’s needs describing how we served them. We proudly shared it on sales calls, so customers understood how we saw the wine world.
Visualizing Your Business
To create an appropriate graphic, you have to start with a clear strategy. Here are the questions you need to answer:
- What is at the foundation of your business that holds everything together? In this case, the steps.
- What are the pillars that support the value you bring to your customers? In this case, literal pillars holding up the higher strategic objective.
- Describe in one sentence, how you deliver value to your customers? At the top, was how we bring value to customers by serving the winemaker’s intentions.
- In your industry or market segment, what picture comes to mind that connects you and your customer’s together. It could be a place (seaside community), a building (a skyscraper), a garden (brimming with new life), etc. If you are in the business of creating electric bikes, you might depict a cityscape to visually capture how your product fits with the needs of customers.
The hard part isn’t creating a visual. The work is where you articulate the vision for what you promise to do for your customers.
For Nomacorc, their visualization had steps that served as the foundation, pillars supporting the core value proposition for customers of serving winemaker’s intentions. Each phrase or sentence represent a core belief, and the company lived these values. If we got off course, anyone could raise their hand and ask, isn’t the Chateau still relevant? If not, why is it still being used?
What picture represents your business strategy?
Need help to develop your version of this Chateau? I can help. Text me at 919 720 0995. Note: I didn’t create the concept of the Chateau, I worked with my team to update, refresh and refine it.
Photo Credit: Nomacorc, LLC. Vinventions – Illustrator: Jeff Lawson at Cowan Designs.
