Happy July! At our June Management Meeting, we talked again about our ICARE values. We spent time on one big change: we redefined the “E” from Excellence to Entrepreneurial. I’d like to explain why this change matters so much.
An entrepreneur is someone who spots a need or a problem and then builds an organization to solve it. The best entrepreneurs all share one key trait: they make the customer the center of everything they do. As the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, famously said, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” That is exactly the mindset we want to bring to work every single day.
This is easy to overlook, but everyone we serve is a customer. We may not always use that word, and it might even feel a little awkward, but the truth is that each person who comes through our doors receives a service from us. Maybe we are helping someone through a workforce program, supporting individuals with developmental disabilities, welcoming retail shoppers and donors, or partnering with organizations that need custodial and security services. No matter the case, they are all our customers, and they deserve our very best.
When we put our customers first, we make our mission stronger: helping people build lives of possibility and purpose.
Thank you for the entrepreneurial spirit you bring to Goodwill Columbus every day.
Ryan