Mission and Values in Your Value Proposition

By Thomas E. Ambler

Here is an article that begins with basics. Once one gets beyond satisfying survival needs, what are the fundamental, universal and ultimate questions of life with which individuals and organizations must grapple? Aren't they some form of:

Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
Does life have any meaning and purpose?

Until we answer these questions, we are like ships adrift on the vast sea of life without a rudder. We have at best a blurred vision and a nebulous direction. Such ultimate questions lead us to look for answers in ourselves and others.

In the organizational world that's why organizations engage in strategic planning and concern themselves with defining their mission, their core values and their raison d'être or reason to be, which identify and build on their unique combination of strengths and passions. In the individual world we benefit by following a similar process such as promoted by Covey in several of his books. Typically, as individuals we are not so rigorous as organizations, yet we resonate most with the missions and values of others that align with how we are wired or acculturated. We love to identify with noble causes and guiding principles. This is important to organizations because all buying decisions of products and services end up being made by individuals, who may or may not reflect the Core Values of an organization.

Organizations can associate themselves with noble causes and principles across a whole spectrum of ways and degrees. For some, a noble cause is the primary reason to exist and has been since Day One. Here are a couple of great examples.

A. Tom's of Maine has built an entire business around customers who value environmental and natural oral and skincare products. Extracted from Tom's website:

"One of the values of Tom's of Maine is to address community concerns, in Maine and around the globe, by devoting a portion of our time, talents, and resources to the environment, human needs, the arts, and education." Their outwardly focused programs include:

(1)     Rivers Awareness™ improves our rivers.
(2)     Dental Health for All™ increases access to dental care by supporting local community dental clinics and to improve oral health literacy.
(3)     Philanthropic giving is a key component of our efforts to live our Mission. We give 10% of our pre-tax profits to nonprofit organizations benefiting the environment, human need, arts, and education.
(4)     Encouraging employee volunteerism to support the important work of nonprofit organizations. All employees are encouraged to use up to 5% of their paid work time to do volunteer work in nonprofit organizations of their choosing.

Internally, they also practice a "Golden Rule" culture¹.

B. Regular Baptist Press, a non-profit, exists to achieve the following Mission prominently stated on their website:

(1) Our mission is to glorify God by providing church educational resources that are true to God's Word and encourage maturity in Christ.
(2) Regular Baptist Press (RBP) was founded to produce distinctively Baptist Sunday School curriculum based on the entire "counsel of God." Biblical integrity and doctrinal soundness have remained our hallmarks for over fifty years.

Today a growing number of churches representing many different church affiliations rely on RBP for ministry training, books, and resources that encourage maturity in Christ. Why? Because they have a history of authentically living their mission and claims of integrity. They have a segment of the market that makes them the curriculum supplier of choice. Competitors make similar claims but haven't delivered on them at the high level RBP has.

Other organizations are based on noble principles that undergird their culture. The products/services offered by this culture may or may not embody any notable mission. The examples above clearly do offer products/services that embody their mission. Below are a couple of examples of organizations with noble mission/values offering products/services that do not obviously embody their mission/values:

A. ACIPCO (American Cast Iron Pipe Company).

Their website informs us that, "John H. Eagan founded it (ACIPCO) early in the 20^th century in Birmingham, AL. Eagan based his management philosophy on one core value--the Golden Rule. In fact, belief in that core value continues today at ACIPCO." In fact, their Special Centennial Issue of their magazine Piping Progress offers the bold commitment, "As we head into the next 100 years, it is certain that ACIPCO will continue its way of doing business by operating according to the Golden Rule. Why not? Time has shown that not only is that the right thing to do, but it's also the smart thing to do."

Why do they tout that? It's certainly good PR for potential employees. More importantly, it carries with it a very strong message about what customers can expect from ACIPCO people--that's their source of differentiation. Their primary product, line pipe, needs all of the differentiation they can muster.

B. ABC Supply, the world's largest distributor of external building supplies, has multiple missional values that pervade its culture, including improving the lot of small contractors, preserving a sense of community rootedness and recycling. The success of another ABC mission, to provide dignity and meaning to worklife, has earned them a place with only 11 other U.S. companies who received the "Gallup Great Workplace Award." Do you think there might be plenty of customers in their markets who would not get excited about their products but will choose to buy from them because they place high value on ABC's mission? You bet!

Still other organizations recognize the value of participating in noble causes by piggybacking on noble causes provided by others and then subtlely or blatantly let their market know about their support. Examples include major consumer companies like BP and Toyota with their highly advertised commitment to sustainable energy and development opportunities for disadvantaged young people, respectively. Sustained commitment to these mission/values will determine the degree to which they influence the buying behavior of any segment of their potential customers. Other companies like Microsoft may gain some aura effect with their customers from the major, no-strings-attached, societal contribution of their leaders.

These organizations all illustrate that positive value results from having mission/values viewed as positive by customers and standing taller than the competition. There is also a flip side. One sure way of losing business is to create a public disgrace. Reputation is hard to build and easy to destroy. Your mission/values are part of your reputation whether you recognize it or not. If you have a competitor who has "fouled his nest" because of disgrace, you have a great opportunity to win business by simply having a reputation as a player with integrity.

In most areas of life, including the marketplace, success occurs when Competency combined with Passion or Missional Zeal matches up with Need. When customers buy from you, they are buying a "package" of your competency and passion/mission that satisfies their needs and preferences. If their net value, the amount by which the value they place on your "package" exceeds your price, is better than that of competitors, they join with you in fulfilling your mission to the extent that they permit you to make a profit. As a result, when they treat you as a supplier who offers something that they really value and permit you to make a profit, they have become an equity investor in your mission. This means that if the customer prefers your mission/values to that of a competitor, he will give you a higher net value, everything else being equal.

What is your mission? What are your values? Are they something that customers can identify with? Do they strike a chord in the hearts of customers? This mission/value need have nothing to do with the product or service you offer. It may simply relate to why you exist and what you do with your profits.

The happiest and perhaps the most profitable customer will be the one who places value on every factor that you include in your value proposition. If you have compelling mission/values, do you make them known to the market and include them as an explicit element of your value proposition? You should, just like the organizations cited above!

Chances are that there is a key market segment, perhaps a niche, that can be labeled with your values. Have you identified and highlighted this "Values Segment" or is it lost in the broad market you serve? What can you do there that you can't do elsewhere in your market? Mission/values is a highly sustainable differentiator. It can lead to higher prices, Supplier-of-Choice volume opportunities, formal and informal partnering, referrals to birds of a feather, etc. Likewise, sharing mission/values also generates benefits for you from other companies up and down your supply chain. Often you will stumble on a Values customer who serendipitously purchases from you when you would have expected them to buy from a competitor.

Are there totally new markets that need your competency and would place high value on your values or mission? Are there societal trends and environmental changes that match up with your values and mission? What can you do to positioning yourself to seize these opportunities?

The most critical positioning involves "keeping on keeping on." You must sustain the practice of your values and pursuit of your mission with authenticity and consistency. Authenticity is particularly crucial with your own people. Your values and mission must be real inside the organization before they can be perceived and then proven to be real by the customer.

If yours is a small to mid-sized organization, understanding, developing and promoting your Values and Mission offer a particularly huge opportunity to make your value proposition unique and compelling. You can do things in this mission/values arena that few large companies and certainly no low-cost, off-shore suppliers can dream of.

So here is the challenge. Chances are that you have worked very hard to establish your mission/values because that was the right thing to do. Will you "keep on keeping on" and will you work almost as hard to capitalize on this extra value you bring to others?

Related Articles (written by T. E. Ambler and available free from the Article Archives of www.cssp.com):
1.        "Winning the --Organizational Success by the Golden Rule"
2.        "The Strategic Value of Values"
3.        "Know Thyself--Culture in Strategic Management"
4.        "Mining Your Unexploited Value (Parts 1 & 2)"

Tom Ambler is a Senior Consultant with Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc.
He can be reached by email at

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