As regular readers will know, I’ve been writing an occasional series about our Vision and Values.
The corporate value I want to write about today is: the practice of stewardship.
Stewardship is a lovely old word. Its dictionary definition is the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving.
Now if all that sounds rather vague, it’s really not meant to at all. You see, here at Phantom we believe that stewardship is an attitude of caring past ourselves. It’s about looking at the bigger picture and seeing how what we do – personally and in business – impacts our wider community. Now that might be something as simple as thinking about our waste stream and what we throw away or it might be something as complex as planning our three year corporate goals. Ultimately, it’s a concept that encourages the fair, just and equal treatment of employees as well as a management style focused working for the good of the organization – and community – as a whole.
We are very blessed to live and work in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. For most of us we have our health, our employment and lives full of richness. But in our achievement of economic success, we want to be responsible stewards of the resources entrusted to us. We want to positively affect the lives of everyone we come into contact with – our people, our customers and our shareholders.
As our value states: “We understand our social responsibility to help our surrounding community and world. Since profit is merely the applause for doing the right things in the right way, we have an obligation to give back. This will be not only in financial means but in our time and efforts as well.”
And you know, when I look at our Phantom team I am proud to see this value running through its core. It’s not just about what we can do to make our company successful and profitable. It’s not just about not wasting money or resources.
What lies at the centre of this value – and all our values – is people. Practicing stewardship means not wasting people’s talents. It means giving our time and our resources to make a difference. It means our staff and business choosing to support local organisations like Cyrus Centre and World Vision. So while stewardship may seem like an old fashioned value, what it means is as relevant today as it was years ago.