Last January 2, 2020, I got together with the leaders of Bridge and the presidents of our two subsidiaries: Bridge People Solutions (HR) and Bridge Access (Fintech). I wanted to kick-off the year with the same format I use over and over with our teams: Clarity + Competence + Capital. Clarity for us means answering the Why are we here question again and again. It means reviewing our mission to Make Work-Life Better and the principles we live by, which are, Hunger, Understanding, Diligence, and Empowerment. Competence for us means answering the question, “What will we be excellent in?” While the Capital section is a review of our approach to handling the different kinds of business resources. Together, these give us the overarching plan for 2020.
I have provided an outline of what I passed on to the team to give you ideas on how you can approach your own 2020 preparations. One of the things you won’t find in our framework is an obsession with valuations or marketing. As our business grows, and as the pace of innovation speeds-up, it’s even more important for the team to be excellent on the timeless business fundamentals.
Bridge in 2020
1. Clarity: Why do we exist?
a. Purpose: Make Work-Life Better (by improving the ability of every worker to create and capture massive value)
b. Principles: Hunger (Whatever It Takes) + Understanding (In a World of OR look for AND) + Diligence (Meet the Demands of Reality) + Empowerment (We Master the World by Mastering Ourselves)
c. Objectives + Key Results (confidential)
2. Competence: What are we going to excel in this year?
a. Business Fundamentals:
Get good at the timeless functions that create and capture value. Get good at removing distractions and stop relying on conventions.
b. Leadership Development:
Get good at developing our next level of leaders. Developing leaders to create massive value and helping our leaders capture massive value in return is a major differentiator of Bridge as an employer.
c. Productivity Technology:
Get good at overcoming the circumstantial realities of traffic, beauacracy, and distractions by mastering new technology and new best practices of work.
3. Capital: How dowe Acquire + Develop + Deploy + Secure the following resources?
- Human Resources (HR): Leadership Development
- Intellectual Property (R&D): Innovation
- Data (IT): Security
- Financial Resources (Finance): Stability
- Customers (Business Development): Satisfaction
- Qualified Leads (Marketing): Predictability
I’m keeping a lot of detail out since it’s an internal document, but what I really want to show is our simple (and boring) focus on Clarity, Competence, and Capital Management is
more than enough work for the year. The challenge in this day and age isn’t having too little to do but having too much to do. We are purposefully limiting what we’re going to work on, focusing on high impact activities that lead to great customer and team experience. We’re not going to focus on valuations, on pets in the office, work life balance, events, or talks. Those are all extras.
I encourage you to discover your own “basics”. What are the fundamental principles that affect your business? What practices should you adopt that are high impact? Don’t be distracted by the latest and greatest, by the high profile, or the fancy. Focus on your purpose and the activities that help you fulfill your mission.
