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values such as safety, compassion and care are all good examples. But do make sure that your values sit well with your mission and vision. If it feels right, it probably is!
Size matters – doesn’t it?
Figure 1: Illustration of the invisible elements of Foundational Culture, (akin to genotype), which form the basis of an organisation’s visible culture and behaviours, (akin to phenotype)
‘reason for being’ for any business. The purpose of a business is strongly aligned to beliefs. As we grow, we form beliefs based on a blend of facts and opinions. Beliefs are strongly held and so where a mission aligns to an individual’s beliefs there is a natural sense of belonging. A study into what attracted people to a job showed that a decade ago the key attractant was salary and benefits, (culture didn’t even feature back then). Now mission and culture combined are most influential.5 Having a sense of purpose in our work and lives also boosts our mental health, which is an important consideration as clinics emerge from the pandemic shutdown.6 A systematic analysis shows that having meaning (purpose) in our daily work is significantly beneficial in terms of work engagement, commitment, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, life meaning and general health.7 The great news is that defining your purpose isn’t difficult. Investing just half a day of work with all of your staff is enough. The golden rules with a Mission Statement are to keep it succinct (one to three sentences and less than 100 words), and to capture three key elements: • What you do / offer • Who your business serves • Why your company exists Take a look online at some examples to get the hang of it. Many of the big companies have them on their websites. For example Zoom’s is: make video communications frictionless and secure.
20:20 vision Sometimes referred to as a strategic goal, the vision of a business, (specifically from the leader), is where they see the business
in the long-term. This needs to strike the balance between being realistic, (therefore achievable), and aspirational, (so that employees are excited by that destination). Zoom’s vision is: Video communications empowering people to accomplish more. But that’s a big company – what might an aesthetic clinic’s look like? It’s important to remember that it doesn’t need to be rocketscience or overly complicated. Something like: • To be the number one provider of aesthetic services to frontline staff in South West England; or • To be recognised as the go-to destination for aesthetic safety and care What is important is that everyone in the business can understand and believe in the vision so that they can apply their daily work toward supporting it.
Value proposition The final building block of foundational culture is values. These are closely linked to, and influenced by, beliefs and can be seen as a set of standards by which a person evaluates the world. If, for example, a person held the belief that all people are equal, and everyone should be treated fairly, then they may have personal values along the lines of equity, integrity and fairness. Anything that is incongruent to these values, (and therefore to their beliefs), would feel wrong. Zoom’s company values are: Care about: Community, Customers, Company, Teammates & Selves. Typically values for all organisations are things that we all feel some alignment to and, unlike the mission and vision these can be more generic, so don’t worry if your values are similar to some other clinics. In the world of aesthetic medicine
If you think that culture is exclusively the domain of big corporates think again. Culture is always there – its presence is not a choice. Your choice is making it what you want it to be. So, the first thing to be clear on is that your clinic, however small, WILL have a culture. The question is whether it is as good, strong and healthy as it could be. Secondly, scale has nothing to do with culture. Just think about your own family and compare it to others. Small units can still have deep-rooted cultures that are quite different. Paying attention to a culture, nurturing it and the people within makes business sense. Ultimately it will save you time and money. And because your staff are more engaged, they become more effective at their work, they engage your patients and improve their loyalty, thereby improving profitability and the reputation spreads, making your clinic an aspirational place to both work and have treatment. The rub, if there is one? It takes time to invest in culture, but the time invested up front pays huge dividends downstream. If your long-term plan is to exit with a trade sale your chances of doing so are much higher if your business is profitable. It will be much more likely to be profitable if you have stable, engaged and productive employees. Since trade sales are typically based upon factors including a multiple of EBIT (profitability), the time invested up front is worth it. Culture works – can you afford not to be investing in it now? Stuart Rose is an independent consultant with 35 years’ experience in pharmaceuticals, in a variety of commercial and leadership roles. Latterly, he spent 13 years as managing director for Merz in the UK and Ireland, and has created MiViVa Ltd to help private aesthetic practitioners create winning cultures and strategies.
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Reproduced from Aesthetics | Volume 8/Issue 7 - June 2021
