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O P I N I O N
W e have a mission as an organization. It is why we exist. The best ones attract, inspire, and guide our actions. We also have a mission as individuals. These are more about our “who” than our “why,” and it evolves over time. With more competition, more intensive procurement, higher costs, and increasingly lower fees, firm leaders must leverage the power of mission. Greater than project management, part 2
To maintain success in a marketplace with greater competition, more intensive procurement, higher costs, and increasingly lower fees – and to better position our firms for the future – top leaders and organizations are leveraging the power of mission. Our organization’s mission statement connects us to others. It articulates the impact we want to have through our work and beyond. When designed well, it is a perfect “pre-game strategy” or leadership “master plan” to help establish our brand and set targets that motivate us to accomplish great things and navigate challenging times. To do so, our mission should be focused on a positive and resilient “just cause” in service to others, and one that all of our employees – present
and future – would be willing to believe in and sacrifice for. As an industry, we have become pretty good at aligning our mission with our clients’ missions. Our business development and client relationship management systems are advanced. They focus on building relationships and understanding issues, desires, goals, opportunities, and constraints well before we begin work on a deliverable. We strategically identify, qualify, and develop, and then shift additional effort into the proposal, selection, and contracting processes over the course of months, and even years, to convince them we are the firm of choice. Most of us would
Peter Atherton GUEST SPEAKER
See PETER ATHERTON, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER January 7, 2019, ISSUE 1278
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