Elon Musk once said, “people work better when they know what the goal is and why”.
We recently launched our new and refreshed company mission, vision, and values, coinciding with our 22-year anniversary.
It’s fair to say that a lot has changed in the world in the last two years, never mind the last two decades!
We are now at 90+ people, working across four UK offices, doing lots of brilliant work for brilliant clients and, with a new chapter of growth on the horizon, it was the ideal time to make sure we are all on the same page.
Ultimately, the objective is that everyone who works here now, and in the future, has a crystal-clear view of what the BIG picture looks like – what our purpose is (our mission); where we are going as a business (our vision); and what we need to do to get there (our values).
EVOLUTION NOT REVOUTION
BIG is a success story, so this wasn’t a case of ripping things up and starting again. In fact, quite the opposite.
It was about encapsulating the spirit of the agency and the people who have made it that success story and have led us to where we are today.
Being influenced by where we have come from as we look forward, meant understanding the ‘best of BIG’ – what we do, how we provide value to clients and how we work, both as individuals and as one big team – and then supercharging it.
The aim is to create something that when you look at it makes you think, “yep, that’s us!”.
TRUST THE PROCESS
A significant part of the brand and strategy work we undertake for our clients is developing a mission, vision, and values.
Naturally we followed the same process for ourselves.
For inspiration and to inspire, we always kick-off by looking at some of the most successful businesses on the planet, such as Starbucks, Facebook, Google, Tesla, Apple, Coca Cola. They all share a clear and defined purpose as to why they exist and what they are aiming for.
As much as this process is about the inspiring statements, clever copywriting, or beautiful visuals to articulate it all at the end, it starts as simply as asking lots of questions and writing stuff down, then organising it into something cohesive.
That comes in the shape of workshops, colleague focus groups and surveys, to really get under the skin of the business.
Most of all, it requires not only buy-in from the top, but significant input from the person or people who are charged with steering the ship – without this it’s impossible to paint a real version of the big picture.
SETTING PARAMETERS
Defining what we are and what we want to be comes in the shape of the mission statement and vision statement. Our values are the roadmap between the two, acting as guiding principles of how people behave, helping to achieve the vision and stay true to the mission.
It’s critical that they absolutely feel authentic, provide clarity of purpose and act as both a rallying call and be something that people want to buy into,. To ensure this, we set some parameters, which acts as a brief to work towards:
- This is not a box-ticking exercise
- Authentic
- Relatable
- Builds on our past
- Reflects our ambition
- BIG personality
- BIG people
VALUES ARE NOT ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL
Especially when it comes to the values, it’s important not to be generic.
For us they need to be unique to BIG, and our CEO Allan Barr underlined throughout the process that they must be authentic and meaningful – not us trying to pretend we are something we’re not.
To achieve this in our work for our clients, we have moved away from values expressed as single words and instead moved towards memorably expressed miniature phrases that are easy to recall and feel relevant to all.
We created three values that anyone and everyone who is part of the team can identify with and understand what it means for them.
They are essentially distilled down from the commonly mentioned qualities and actions that represent the best of BIG and its people.
We view our values as an attitude, as much as how they translate into behaviours and whilst they are internally focused, they are externally attractive and define the talent we want to hire.
THE BIG PICTURE OUTCOME
Our Mission
- Our name says it all: BIG. Big insights. Big ideas. Big results. We help brands to grow and empower our people to do the same. We solve business problems by delivering creative and impactful work that makes a difference.
This captures BIG today in its current state, what we stand for and what we do.
Our Vision
- To be known as a leading creative agency with strategic depth, full of smart thinkers who deliver outstanding results. To work with ambitious brands, businesses and people who want to grow with us, as we help them create their own success story.
This is where we are going, this is what we are working towards for the future.
Our Values
- We… Refuse to settle – Not delivering for our clients is not an option. We continuously strive to do our best for our clients and our team.
- We… Own the impact – We’re always accountable and take ownership of the outcome for our clients and our colleagues.
- We… Bring the magic – We bring BIG energy and a positive attitude to every project and opportunity, bringing something magic that our clients wouldn’t get anywhere else.
These are our guiding principles of how we act to achieve our vision and stay true to our mission.
If you fancy a chat about how BIG can help your business to develop or refresh its mission, vision, and values, please get in touch: [email protected]
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