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Mission Statements - Prof. Chris Bart, McMaster University
Reporter - Doug Geddie
Meeting Beginnings
President-Elect Rick Merritt brought the meeting to order and asked John Burroughs to deliver Grace.
Don Shaw got out his harmonica to get us started with Oh Canada, and we toasted our Queen and Canada.
President Larry introduced the Head Table - to introduce our speaker, Rachel Delaney; our speaker, Dr. Chris Bart; President-Elect, Rick Merritt; Sergeant-at-arms, Larry Ross; Rotarian-in-the-Spotlight, Lezlie Murch; Registrar, Kim Widdicombe
Kim introduced our Guests - Visiting Rotarians - Frank Strauss from Marshall, Texas. Other visitors included - Kevin Vallier, guest of Doug Geddie; Franklin de Waard, guest of Doug Geddie; Christina Pentlichuk, guest of Wade Stayzer; Peter Kudreikii, guest of Tom Arkell; Lois Lawrence, guest of Pat Rooney.
Rotarian in the Spotlight - Kim Introduced Lezlie Murch - Lezlie is one of the quiet, international diplomats in our club. This role in life began when Lezlie was a Youth Exchange Student who spent a high-school year in Bolivia. She was not just a Canadian exchange student; she was a very competitive tennis player, who shared her knowledge and love of the game. That interest in international understanding through tennis led to a lifetime avocation for Lezlie. She owns and runs the Niagara Academy of Tennis, which is an advanced tennis academy for elite players, and a preparatory school for students from all over the world. Many of the Academy's graduates earn tennis scholarships to prestigious universities. Not surprisingly, Lezlie has been involved with our World Community Services, Youth Exchange, Children's and Sports committees. Lezlie is married to Robert, and they have one son, Julio, adopted from Bolivia, and they are currently hosting four students from Mexico in their home.
Birthdays - March 26 - Dave McAdam, March 27 - Ed Silver, March 28 - Dave Butler, March 29 - Bill Campbell, March 30 - Chris Bangham.
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Ed Silver and Dave McAdam
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John Potts reminded us that next Thursday is our joint meeting with the other area Rotary clubs at the Parkway Quality Inn on Ontario Street.
The Canadian Red Cross reminds us that the Taste of Hope is next Monday, April 4 th from 4 - 6 pm at Hernder Estate Winery.
President Larry Iggulden was given a gift for his many blood donations.
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Larry Ross and Larry Iggulden
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Pat Rooney introduced Lois Lawrence who is the owner of Indulgences Clinic on Cherry Street. Lois has written and broadcast on health and beauty issues. She manages a clinic for both men and women, specializing in diet, weight loss, clinician programs and many forms of therapy. In addition to her professional life, she is very involved in programs working with people in the streets.
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Patricia Rooney, Lois Lawrence and Rick Merritt
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Henry Klassen did the honours this week. Henry is happy for his mother who is now making her first move from the family home of 50 years. He also had a joke about a blind man and a bus stop.
Bill Finley has been happily married for 50 years.
John Crossingham is happy that his son's band is nominated for a Juno.
Vicky Rudachuk is happy to have had a daughter who was in the Commonwealth Games.
President Larry is happy to be recognized as an ordinary member and paid $20 for all the happiness he has announced for nothing.
Marg Jarrell is happy that her daughter is coming home from an internship with the United Nations in the Middle East.
Doug Geddie is happy to have finished the Round the Bay road race in Hamilton.
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Rachel Delaney |
Rachel Delaney introduced Prof Chris Bart from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. Dr. Bart has lectured around the world on mission statements and has received many awards for his teaching and research. He is a recipient of the President's Award for teaching Excellence. Rachel commented that she met Chris when he assisted State Farm in a major transition in their business.
Prof Bart commented that today's rate of change is incredible, and we are in a world of hyper competition. He gave examples - cell phones are 1 cent per minute, airline seats are as low as $19, Dell computer offers 4,000 permutations of computers. Levis' custom fits a pair of blue jeans for an additional $20. Bondag now has chips in their tires that communicate service messages. All these examples show that service is the commodity of price differentiation.
Peter Drucker said you create a customer. Today you have to hang onto that customer by exceeding their expectation. He used the example of coffee, once a simple bag of beans, then re-packaged and re-marketed by Maxwell House, then introduced by friendly Tim Hortons for $1, and now distributed with over-the-top marketing from Starbucks. You just can't continue to do the same things. You have to hold your competitors at bay with the new mantra - five to stay alive, which means that four stars is not good enough when you are ranked four out of five stars. Customer retention with four stars is 20%; with five stars it is 80%.
Employees want to know the direction of their company, and the primary document in which those thoughts are contained is the Mission Statement. It is the most mentioned and also the most despised document in business. However, a mission driven organization is a competitive juggernaut.
He explained a Mission Statement as a description of the company and the relationship that it wants to have with its key stakeholders - its customers and its employees.
He suggested that writing a mission statement is easy. Implementing it is very difficult. Our customer service message must be sent, received, understood, remembered, by all our employees. Our employees want respect and recognition and the number one thing they want is praise.
John Bird thanked Professor Bart, and President-elect Rick added his thanks and made the donation to the Canadian Land Mine Foundation.
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Dr. Chris Bart and Rick Merritt
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April 6 - Joint Meeting of the Rotary Clubs of St. Catharines at the Quality Hotel Parkway Convention Centre, 327 Ontario Street. Speaker is Dr. Shragge of Niagara Health Services, who we're guessing might talk to us about health care in Niagara.
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