Vision and Values – to practice excellence

I can’t believe this blog has only been going six months and I’m already at the end of an “occasional series”.

As my loyal band of regular readers will know, I’ve been writing about our company’s Vision and Values. So far I’ve covered three corporate values of speaking the truth, serving our people and practicing stewardship. Which means there’s only one value left to write about.

So the final value in the quartet is: to pursue excellence.

“Pursue excellence?” I hear you ask. “Isn’t that kind of obvious?” Well yes, in a way, it is. I mean what kind of company would we be if we didn’t always strive to be the best? You can’t really claim to be the leading company in your industry if you don’t have the best quality products, backed by an unparalleled guarantee and delivered with great customer service. So yes, it is obvious.

But actually, this value is a rallying cry. It’s a call never to rest at second best. It’s about delivering the best customer service and products every single time. It’s all about creating what we call “the Phantom experience”. It means that whenever we touch the lives of our customers we must always leave them completely happy with our service.

To pursue excellence means that we are always looking for better ways of delivering service and providing added value for our customers. It means that we must truly get to know our customers, understand their needs and expectations and regularly listen to them.

Pursuing excellence isn’t just a passive value.

It’s a call to action than prompts us to constantly adjust our processes, procedures and products to make sure our customers always get the very best.

Why do we pursue excellence? We do it because we must. We do it because we care. And we do it because we want to be the very best at what we do and because it’s what our customers love.

What does excellence mean to you? Do you think corporate values matter? I’d love to know your thoughts!