values

What Can Tentmakers Learn from a Shoe Salesman?

/ Phill

http://globalopps.org/tmbriefs/z.jpg

The Zappos online shoe company has been a growth phenomenon and the object of many business school case studies. Everyone wants to know what makes them tick and how they have managed to stand out and be so outrageously successful where so many others have failed.

Founder and CEO Tony Hsieh credits the company core values for their success. They capture the heart and soul of the company and define the way associates relate to each other, to their clients, and to the world.

Zappos calls their values – Family Core Values. Everyone in the company knows the values and is accountable to practice them in every aspect of their work. Even the customers know the values because they are included on every web page and shared in other communications to them. Expectations are set.

There is nothing spiritual about what they do. They sell shoes, make money (lots of it), and develop a loyal customer following along the way.

It is instructive to look at their values. Is there anything here that can also apply to your ministry or business?

Zappos commitment: as we grow as a company, it has become more and more important to explicitly define the core values from which we develop our culture, our brand, and our business strategies. These are the ten core values that we live by:

  • Deliver WOW through service
  • Embrace and drive change
  • Create fun and a little weirdness
  • Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded
  • Pursue growth and learning
  • Build open and honest relationships with communication
  • Build a positive team and family spirit
  • Do more with less
  • Be passionate and determined
  • Be humble

Many of these are surprisingly biblical and could be applied to a tentmaker on the field.

These may not be the values you want for your business/ministry, but it is important for a tentmaker to take some time and figure out what his values are. A tentmaker needs to have a set of core principles which characterize his work and life.

You may not want to be so ambitious. Start with 2 – 4 biblical guiding principles or values that you want to characterize your ministry. Find ways to integrate them into your everyday activities. It should not be something that is added on to what you are doing but something that is blended into what you are already doing. Demonstrate Christ’s love naturally through the way you interact with others.

In the case of Zappos we are looking at a company, so one might think the principle only applies to tentmakers doing business as mission. Actually, it can also help an employee tentmaker be more focused on the purpose for being a tentmaker and help in evaluating his own effectiveness.

By focusing on a few core values the tentmaker will have stronger relationships and show a consistent message. 

What Can BAMmers Learn from the World’s Most Successful Shoe Salesman?

/ Phill

http://globalopps.org/tmbriefs/shoes.jpg

Zappos has been insanely successful selling shoes and engendering a loyal following. This online shoe store is the brainchild of Tony Hsieh. No one does it better.

As a result of his success other businesses have invited Tony to come and teach them how he does it. He credits his success in large measure to the culture of service he has created in the company. It starts by getting everyone onboard with the core values of the company and consistently looking for ways to reinforce them.

In the past TM Briefs has written about the importance of carefully selecting and integrating core values into your company. Tony Hsieh’s example with Zappos is worth a look.

Not surprisingly, he does not use religious sounding jargon. In fact, one would not expect him to since it is a secular business. There is no religious motivation. Interestingly, I believe many of the values are consistent with Biblical teaching. (Could that be a factor in their success?).

Let’s take a look at them:

• Be Humble – a good attribute for effective communication.

• Be Passionate and Determined – you have to believe in what you are doing. If you do then you will spare no effort to succeed and make a difference.

• Do More With Less – good stewardship opens the door to more opportunities to do good.

• Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit – getting the “right people” on the “right seats” on the bus produces synergy and generates exceptional results.

• Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication – there is no substitute for good, honest communication. With staff. With customers. With the community.

• Pursue Growth and Learning – you can’t stand still. If you are not growing you are atrophying.

• Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded – being adventurous implies taking risks. It also contributes to growth.

• Create Fun and A Little Weirdness – if you can’t enjoy what you are doing, find something else to do.

• Embrace and Drive Change – related to growth and learning. If you are not constantly improving someone else will soon pass you by.

• Deliver WOW Through Service – be exceptional.

TMB is not suggesting that you adopt these core values. You have to develop your own around your business model, your personality and the mission God has given you. The point is choosing good core values, building them into the business and consistently applying them produces good results.

What values are you incorporating in your company? Are they Biblical?

Steps to Embedding Kingdom 
 Values in Your Company Culture

/ Phill

http://globalopps.org/tmbriefs/bp.jpg

Doing business as mission means more than having Christians in the senior management team or having a chaplain on board to minister to staff and/or the community. It takes a wholistic commitment to a Kingdom of God mindset.

1. Start by carefully choosing your core values even before you begin making a business plan. Be intentional about what you want to be and how others will perceive you. The values need to be integrated into the whole business plan and your business processes. It is not something to be simply tacked on like an afterthought.

2. Communicate your values. Do not expect people will just automatically pick it up. Your values should be woven into the fabric of your training and related to the tasks your business does. Bring values up in informal conversations as well as formal meetings. Reinforce your values in motivational posters, or other imagery you have in your place of work.

3. Demonstrate your values every way you can. Model them in your own behavior as well as the practices and procedures of the company. Show that it is a natural, effective, fun way to work. Encourage your staff to be consistent in training new staff into the company values and practices.

4. Hire for it. This does not mean that you only hire believers but look for people who are teachable and have at least some of the qualities you are looking for. You need people who can fit your corporate culture. Then build on that.

5. Hold people accountable for operating by the values of the company.Watch how your staff work and coach them when they demonstrate non-conforming behavior.

6. Reward staff demonstrating company values in their work. This is not necessarily monetary rewards – though in some cases it could be. Give them an award, a special privilege, or additional responsibility. The key is that the rest of the staff realizes that behavior consistent with corporate goals is valued and appreciated by the company. Catch them in unexpected moments doing what is desired and brag on them for it.

7. Celebrate and commemorate successful practices. Make it a part of the stories employees tell around the water cooler.

Embedding Kingdom values in your company takes time and consistent reinforcement.

Done well it will define the very essence of what you are and what makes you different than all the other companies out there. It will make your company worthy of the King.

Creating a Kingdom Values Based Corporate Culture: 

/ Phill

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Putting the “M” in Business as Mission

The BP oil platform failure and subsequent leak in the Gulf of Mexico is a major news focus these days. People are asking, “What could have led to such a catastrophic failure?” In the days to come this will be analyzed ad nauseam. Many factors are being discussed. One that keeps coming up is that there was a corporate culture of indifference.

Business gurus are nearly unanimous. Clear core values are essential for success. They need to be understood and internalized by everyone in the company. They do not guarantee success, but their absence guarantees mediocrity or failure. I want to look at the idea of corporate culture in light of the growing interest of Business as Mission (BAM) as a type of tentmaking work.

In Christian circles a lot of interest has been generated about BAM and the importance of having businesses run by Christians in order to bring a witness to the international marketplace. It sounds great. But what does it actually mean?

What makes a business Christian?

Is it enough that the business is run by a Christian?Can there be a corporate culture based on Kingdom values? If so, what does it look like? Should the employer use work time for “devotional meetings”. Can he obligate employees to participate?

Maybe the path one takes is to have a chaplain on staff and make that person available to staff or even to customers. Does this make the company a business as mission company.

What if the business measures its success by looking at the “Triple Bottom Line” taking into account more than just profit, but also social and spiritual impact?

These activities may be desirable, but in some ways they miss the main point. They are not what make a company a BAM company.

Companies, like people, have a “personality” or “style” in the way they act and in the way they relate to their staff and constituencies. Our core values determine how we interpret and interact with our environment. In organizations we refer to this as its corporate culture.

Every company has a culture, whether consciously developed or not. Sometimes the corporate culture is given slightly different names: culture of the organization (Eldred), core values (Johnson), core ideals (Collins), for example.

Corporate culture, like our social culture, is instilled in us by everything around us, people and environment, and we are not always consciously aware of it and how it influences everything we do. It shapes our worldview and informs all of our decisions.

When the company culture is well aligned, fewer rules are needed because the staff is motivated internally to do the right thing. The company values are internalized and guide all actions assisting staff in the interpretation of the messages they receive and in determining what the appropriate response should be.

Having a Christian corporate culture means incorporating Kingdom values not only into our goals, but also into the staff’s way of thinking and operating – into the core of the company’s “being.” The values need to be a part of who the company is and how it behaves. In other words Kingdom values need to be part of the personality of the company.

No one activity makes a company a BAM company. It starts with an understanding of the the values of the Kingdom of God and exemplifies it in the sum of its attitudes and activities. Essentially the company runs as one company simultaneously under the sovereignty of the the Kingdom as God with its requirements and the laws or legal requirements that govern its host country.

What are those values? Ken Eldred has a useful list to prime our thinking in the third chapter of his book, God Is at Work.

He gives 10 common features that characterize BAM companies.

1. The presence of a Christian or Christians with a sphere of influence.
2. A product or service in harmony with God’s creational purpose.
3. A mission or business purpose that is larger and deeper than mere financial (though including it) so that the business contributes in some way to the Kingdom of God.
4. The product or service is offered with such excellence that it suggests the presence of the Kingdom and invites opportunity to witness.
5. Customers are treated with dignity and respect and not just as a means of profit.
6. Employees and workers are equipped to achieve greater potential in their life and, if they are Christians, to work wholeheartedly with faith, home and love.
7. All aspects of the business are considered to be potentially a ministry and subject to prayer.
8. The culture (values, symbols, governing beliefs) of the organization line up with God’s word and Kingdom purposes.
9. The business runs on grace.
10. The leaders are servants, dedicated to serve the mission of the business, the best interest of the employees, the customers and the shareholders because they are first of all servants of God.