#12 - Our MVS
No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it — Jack Welch
Most businesses think that the product is the most important thing, but without great leadership, mission and a team that deliver results at a high level, even the best product won't make a company successful.
— Robert Kiyosaki
How is it that almost every successful business has started with a very clear mission, vision, and strategy? And why does the majority of them revisit their mission, vision, and strategy from time to time? 'Simple', is the common answer; if you don't have these three things for your company, your team doesn't have a clue what they're doing and you're basically going nowhere. So, when building a company from the ground up it's a sensible first step to put these three things on paper. It makes perfect sense to really focus on some things and let other (sometimes amazing) opportunities go by, simply because a company works according to their mission, vision, and strategy.
Why isn't this the case for most families?
From before Jeremiah was even born, Ramon and I were thinking about how we wanted to start shaping our family. We both believed wholeheartedly that God wants to use families to bring His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We wanted to be a part of this and started doing research. During one of the podcasts I was listening to (Five Minute Fatherhood and Real Life Podcast, I highly recommend them) they posed the question above. It triggered something in me; as part of my Bachelor of Social Work I've set up multiple fictional social enterprises, and we could never continue until we had that magical triangle right. And still, I had never heard about it concerning being a family. Long story short Ramon and I made a mission, vision, and strategy for our family after lots of prayers and talks. Based on our passions, talents and on what we believe God gave us as an assignment. Every year Ramon and I go away for the weekend, to evaluate and adjust. It's based on this mission and vision that we say 'yes' or 'no' to opportunities that come across our paths. Even in deciding about our jobs we got our triangle out and submitted it to the checklist. Given the fact that we're talking about being a family team on a mission, we wanted to tell a little bit more about it below. You'll see that, in addition to the MVS, we also described a couple of pillars. If we see Jesus as the fundament on which we built, then these pillars are the characteristics on which we want to build this metaphorical house that is our family.
Mission
The Bakker family line is one that in generations to come will be known as powerfull, serving and creative persons, that use there talents to expand the borders of God's Kingdom and to build that Kingdom.
Vision
We work together as a team that exists out of multiple generations to make make missionaries worldwide stronger and more effective by combining our talents with theirs and others that are available. We believe in a mission field that works together!
Strategy
We offer acute help to organizations that need it, mapping out their long-term needs and create a worldwide network of old, current and potential missionaries, so that no-one has to fight the battle alone when it comes to following Jesus’ Great Commission.
Family Pillars
We're part of a story of generations and are responsible for continuing and constantly improving this story for generations to come.
we're a team and not competitors. Each person in our family has a set of (character)traits that God has given to make our team more powerful and effective.
We live according to the rhythms that God has given us in His word
We're communicating open, honest and as equals
We're generous in time, material, attention and gratitude and share from what has been given to us.
We're all creative in our own way because we've been created after God's image and He's the master creator.
We're adventurous and try new things, even when they're scary