O PI N I O N We are FIDI FIDI General Secretary Jesse van Sas on the importance of taking action to follow through on FIDIs newly approved vision and mission I n our MiM2 seminars we usually do a cheeky test with the participants: we list the various visions and missions of their companies and challenge them to recognise their own. Not surprisingly, many of them do not succeed. Why is this not surprising? Perhaps because, in many cases, the vision and mission are boxes to be checked at the start of a business or whenever the situation requires the entrepreneur to make one (FAIM audit, for example). It is a bit of an annoying task, when there are so many more operational matters to deal with, so it is passed on to the marketing department to come up with a pretty vision and mission statement. Marketing people sure can do this, and before you know it a great-sounding mission statement is published and added to the website. Job done, box ticked. Of course, in reality it is not job done. The vision and mission of a company is serious business, not to be taken lightly. It requires the entrepreneur and their key team members to take the time to deeply assess the purpose of their undertaking; what they want to achieve with the business in the long run, and how they want to get there. Once they have identied this, the key to successful implementation is to communicate this to staff, customers and supply chain, thus ensuring the vision and mission starts breathing and living and is mirrored in the companys every action. In September of last year, during a strategic meeting, the FIDI Board recreated the vision and mission of FIDI. We were due for a renewal, as the previous one dated back to early 2000 since then, the world has changed considerably. The new vision and mission statement was reviewed by FIDI staff, as well as the leaders of FIDI W W W. F ID I. O R G FF306 June-August 22 pp19 Jesse Opinion.indd 19 Associations, and is now ready to share with all of you (see page 62). Rather than wording on vision and mission separately, the FIDI Board opted to merge these into a single, strong statement. This will become our guideline when conducting FIDI business, when working out new strategic options, when deciding on new or renewed services. It will become our North Star in our daily operational business, as well as our long-term developments. And it already does. The new FAIM Standard, applicable from 1 January 2023, clearly highlights one of the key sentences in our vision and mission: We do not compromise on quality. Newly planned Academy courses are focused on providing knowledge to our Afliates, to thrive, succeed and deliver a world-class customer experience. At our recent conference, we offered a forum for meaningful cooperation between all global mobility stakeholders. FIDIs most recent publications give you the necessary tools for a sustainable business. A vision and mission statement should not just be printed and hung on the wall; it should not just be listed on the website somewhere. It needs to be actioned in everything you do, and should be a guide for every staff member, giving purpose to their daily job. For a federation such as FIDI, it goes even beyond that, energising every Afliate and making crystal clear what it means to be or become a FIDI Afliate. The very rst sentence says it all: We are FIDI. We are proud of what we are, of what we have accomplished already, and what we will achieve in the future. We are important stakeholders in the relocation industry and provide a key, quality service to the end customer. The wording has been approved and printed. Lets now make it work. JESSE VAN SAS, SECRETARY GENERAL OF FIDI GLOBAL ALLIANCE Connect with me on LinkedIn or by email: jesse.vansas@fidi.org Twitter: @jessevansas @FIDIglobal 19 07/06/2022 09:24