October 15, 2010
Vision | Mission | Strategy | Value Proposition
Team:
By now you’ve had the chance to read and soak in Mark’s communication about the Professional Services business changes. I wanted to tie it all in with an update and some clarity around our vision, mission, strategy and value proposition. We’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last quarter working with our clients, our employees, our advisory board and our advertising agency to really think through what it is we are really good at and that adds value for our clients & business partners. What success we’ve had (and not), and why clients chose us over the competition.
The culmination of it all is an update to our Vision | Mission | Strategy | Value Proposition. While it may seem that in the past these are “floating propositions” at Crown, I’m confident you will find that these are the gauges we will use for making decisions on building the business in the future. It is my expectation that any “off strategy” activities can (and will) be challenged by anyone if it is perceived as out of alignment. There will be times when we decide to operate in the “gray area”. However, any gray area operation should have been fully vetted and understood before-hand with full and immediate understanding of why we’re pursing it (and ultimately how it ties to our strategy).
Below (and attached) please find a document representing our best thinking for our Vision | Mission | Strategy | Value Proposition. In short order, you will begin to see signage in the offices reinforcing this message. If any of this is unclear, feel free to contact me directly. If you see that we are operating “out of bounds” or “in the gray”, feel free to challenge it at the highest levels. We have the talent and opportunity before us to do great things. Our past and somewhat still current state off “out of alignment” is destroying value that we’ve worked so hard to create. We can, should, and will be a much better company operating in alignment across all divisions and departments, towards the beat of the same drum.
Thank you for your support through this process and your contribution that has made this possible.
Richard
Vision (our war)
Our Vision is to Delight our Global 2000 clients with “integrated” Enterprise Information Management (EIM) Solutions.
(because un-integrated Platform Solutions are boat anchors!)
Mission (our hill)
Strategy (our battle plan)
Add value to EIM platforms through our focused software engineering and solution expertise as a hybrid software-services business because it is “A Better Way”
Value Proposition (Why we’re going to win!)
A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it.
They all tried, but in vain. Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease. Then said the father, “Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone.
Richard
By now you’ve had the chance to read and soak in Mark’s communication about the Professional Services business changes. I wanted to tie it all in with an update and some clarity around our vision, mission, strategy and value proposition. We’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last quarter working with our clients, our employees, our advisory board and our advertising agency to really think through what it is we are really good at and that adds value for our clients & business partners. What success we’ve had (and not), and why clients chose us over the competition.
The culmination of it all is an update to our Vision | Mission | Strategy | Value Proposition. While it may seem that in the past these are “floating propositions” at Crown, I’m confident you will find that these are the gauges we will use for making decisions on building the business in the future. It is my expectation that any “off strategy” activities can (and will) be challenged by anyone if it is perceived as out of alignment. There will be times when we decide to operate in the “gray area”. However, any gray area operation should have been fully vetted and understood before-hand with full and immediate understanding of why we’re pursing it (and ultimately how it ties to our strategy).
Below (and attached) please find a document representing our best thinking for our Vision | Mission | Strategy | Value Proposition. In short order, you will begin to see signage in the offices reinforcing this message. If any of this is unclear, feel free to contact me directly. If you see that we are operating “out of bounds” or “in the gray”, feel free to challenge it at the highest levels. We have the talent and opportunity before us to do great things. Our past and somewhat still current state off “out of alignment” is destroying value that we’ve worked so hard to create. We can, should, and will be a much better company operating in alignment across all divisions and departments, towards the beat of the same drum.
Thank you for your support through this process and your contribution that has made this possible.
Richard
Vision (our war)
Our Vision is to Delight our Global 2000 clients with “integrated” Enterprise Information Management (EIM) Solutions.
(because un-integrated Platform Solutions are boat anchors!)
Mission (our hill)
- Customers: To help Global 2000 organizations achieve the business case for best-in-class integrated EIM solutions.
- Partners: To help best-in-class EIM platforms compete against SaaS / point solutions.
Strategy (our battle plan)
Add value to EIM platforms through our focused software engineering and solution expertise as a hybrid software-services business because it is “A Better Way”
Value Proposition (Why we’re going to win!)
- We provide “complimentary” products and services that: (We’re the M5 not BMW 5 series)
- Speed up time-to-solution (we’ve automated the manual work)
- Increase quality and functionality (Clients benefit from other Client Solutions)
- Lower total cost of ownership (we keep them on the upgrade path)
A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it.
They all tried, but in vain. Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease. Then said the father, “Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone.
Richard