![\"inVentiv](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/inventiv-health.jpg\" "\\"inVentiv")
Picking the right scale for your mission is an art. Define your purpose too narrowly and soon run out of aspirations to fill. Set your sights too high and you risk de-motivating your people. To illustrate this concept, I want to examine two seemingly similar companies: inVentiv Health (VTIV) and PDI Inc. (PDII).<\/p>\n
In 2002 inVentiv Health and PDI were battling head to head in an emerging type of business: providing outsourced sales forces and marketing services to healthcare companies. The healthcare industry was experiencing a shift. Pharmaceutical firms were beginning to look at their variable cost structure and flexibility, looking for partners who performed non-core, non-strategic activities at a lower cost than they could on their own.<\/p>\n
![\"PDI\"](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/pdi.jpg\" "\\"PDI\\"")
inVentiv and PDI both seemed well positioned to ride the coming wave. Both had survived a disastrous year in which each company shrunk by nearly 50%. They were lean and hungry, and they were each standing at about $250 million in revenue. (PDI was slightly larger at $284 million in 2002 revenue, compared to inVentive\u2019s $215 million.)<\/p>\n
Both companies were ready to grow, but each would pursue growth through distinctive strategies.<\/p>\n
During the next seven years, PDI\u2019s revenues would steadily fall to just $115 million by 2008, a 60% drop. Meanwhile, inVentiv\u2019s revenues skyrocketed to $1.1 billion by 2008, a 520% rise.<\/p>\n
How can two companies so alike in size and ambition have such divergent futures? I got a chance to talk with Blane Walter, inVentiv\u2019s CEO, about his company\u2019s experiences and its mission. That\u2019s where I saw a clear difference.<\/p>\n
PDI describes itself as \u201ca leading provider of outsourced pharmaceutical sales teams that target healthcare providers.\u201d While accurate, the mission\u2019s inspirational component, to be \u201ca leading provider,\u201d points to a fairly predictable destination, “outsourced pharmaceutical sales.”<\/p>\n
inVentiv\u2019s self-description allows for more flexibility: \u201cinVentiv Health Inc. \u2026is a leading provider of value-added services to the pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare industries.\u201d It allows the company to step beyond outsourced sales into R&D, marketing, and advertising, for example, while still sticking to its mission.<\/p>\n
![\"Vistaprint\"](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/vistaprintd.jpg\" "\\"Vistaprint\\"")
This is similar to another company I\u2019ve featured, Vistaprint. While their competitors limit themselves to being \u201cprinters,\u201d Vistaprint wants to do anything it can do profitably to help small businesses market themselves.<\/p>\n
There is well-established influencing technique that suggests you call someone something and, for at least an instant, they put on the character or the label of what you just named. They then act accordingly. If you say, for example, \u201cyou are one of those kinds of people who are not afraid to take risks,\u201d then it is easier to get that person to take a risk.<\/p>\n
Mission, visions, or self-conceptions play a similar role in organizations. As we\u2019ve seen many times over, what a group of people know themselves to be guides what options they see and which they choose. A broader self-conception, then, will enable your people to see more fourth options because it gives them more space in which to explore.<\/p>\n
As inVentiv\u2019s mission allows for a broader view of how the company can compete for business and grow, PDI limits its vision to an \u201coutsourced pharmaceutical sales team.\u201d<\/p>\n
This distinction between the missions may seem minor, but a lot of my research into strategic narratives shows that people are wired to live the stories they are told. Ask yourself the questions below to see how you can potentially broaden your mission to engage and ignite your staff.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n