Broadcast Solutions – Driving success through company values
Maximilian Breder, COO, Broadcast Solutions GmbH
The idea of a statement of company values is nothing new. It’s been around for 30 years, since Jim Collins and Jerry Porras published their book Built to Last in 1994, proposing a set of principles called core values.
The book ushered in a rash of management initiatives to invent value statements. Most had no relevance to what the business was about, and more important they had no impact on the commercial success of the business.
Some confuse company values with aspirations. If you are a start-up, you cannot claim technological leadership as a core value, because no-one has heard of you yet, and is certainly not following your leadership.
The value statement must describe your company’s DNA, taking the essence of what your business is about, and stating it in a way that everyone can understand and adopt in their daily lives. The values must be at the heart of every path the company takes, every decision it makes.
And they have to be a part of the routine work of everyone in the business. That can be challenging: how do company values impact the work of the welder or wireman, or indeed the COO? Only when the management and executives live the values will they permeate through the entire company and make a real difference.
Most important, company values should deliver business advantages. They need to be recognized by customers, to see your company as one whose principles match their own and can therefore trust with mission critical projects. Company values should not be secret: they must be visible.
Perhaps all will be made clearer if I talk about the value set we have established at Broadcast Solutions. We are a mid-sized business, based in Germany but with operations around Europe and the Middle East, primarily in systems integration, remote production and outside broadcast construction. We have five values at the heart of what we do.
First, For the Love of the Game. We have a passion for our industry, we love what we do, and we are inspired by its advancement. That makes us hungry for knowledge and, to stay on top of our business, we need to share that knowledge with everyone. We grow as a team only if our learnings are shared.
And because we love what we do, we want to deliver exceptional results and experiences. Our delivered systems and solutions are the embodiment of our passion.
Linked to that is Raising the Bar. We are comfortable and confident leading our industry and taking pride in our accomplishments. We should celebrate each milestone.
To do that, we push ourselves – and our collaboration partners – to always seek the next level, valuing feedback as an essential tool for our growth and always knowing there is room for improvement. We turn plans into action and goals into accomplishments: a promise made is a promise kept.
You might say that our third value, Respect 360˚, is something that should be a value for humanity, although sadly not always achieved. Passion and professionalism are in everything we do, but they are incomplete without a fundamental respect for others.
Every single colleague, client or partner is a valued part of the whole, making an important and valuable contribution. Their skills, knowledge and experience are essential to success – the people who do the job always know it best – and we respect that in every interaction.
The extension of this is respecting humanity, and the environment, in all our actions. We embrace diversity as a strength in our business, and we have zero tolerance for disrespectful behavior.
We bring all those individual skills, talents and experiences together so that Broadcast Solutions is Winning as One. Seamless collaboration across all our locations and competencies leads to the best results. Successful collaboration depends upon transparent and respectful communications: the more we share, the more we know; the more we know, the more we care.
Reflecting Respect 360˚, we help our colleagues when they need it, and we welcome help when it is offered. We want our colleagues to succeed, and we trust that they want the same for us. Our commitment to inclusion means that every voice must be heard and equally valued.
We play for the team, and we win as a team.
Finally, if we are delivering excellence for our clients, we are also Enjoying the Ride. Delivering projects on spec, on time and on budget is great, but we actively seek the joy in the journey, with all its ups and downs.
Designing and developing advanced media systems is a complex and challenging business, but that does not exclude fun and shared laughter. We must enjoy the challenges and the successes with our colleagues and collaborators, in the atmosphere we foster at the workplace, taking fun seriously.
These values sum up Broadcast Solutions: your businesses will of course be different. But if you do not have a set of company values then I urge you to consider the idea, so everyone is clear about the enterprise you want to be. As the leadership guru Simon Sinek wrote, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”.
