EVRY – Purpose
Perform Better Today by Being Prepared for Tomorrow
The Brand as a North Star
EVRY is one of the leading IT companies in the Nordic region, with 8,800 employees. In 2015, the company was acquired by a private equity fund led by Apax Partners, with the ambition to capitalise on the digital transformation boom. With over 10,000 customers in 18 countries, increasing brand awareness amongst employees was essential, enabling them to represent the company as one cohesive force. EVRY recognised that their company purpose was at the heart of the challenge and appointed Mission to assist them.
Project Scope - the process consisted of the following steps
① Insight
Customer survey
Employee survey
Interviews with management and employees in Sweden and Norway
② Define
Workshop in Stockholm and Oslo
Development of purpose platform
③ Develop
Purpose Statement
Purpose story
④ Activate
Presentasjon to staff across the Nordics
Internal web strategy
Campaigns and communication for social media
Employer branding activities
Onboarding programme for new employees
Management conference (Executive Management Forum)
① Insight
In order to define the company’s purpose, it was essential to gain a deep understanding of the brand’s: history, culture, competitor landscape and ambitions.
Strategic Change
One of the first tasks was to identify the company’s role in a rapidly evolving world. When interviewing management, employees and customers from across the Nordics, we discovered that EVRY was widely recognised as the company that gets the job done. This was confirmed by market surveys conducted in Sweden and Norway. Surprisingly, the opposite was said of larger international competition, who often failed to deliver on their bold promise of digital transformation.
Positioning
For over 50 years, EVRY has experienced major changes in the technology sector. But as digital transformation grew, EVRY faced some fundamental challenges. From a strong focus on IT operations, servers and hardware, the company had to evolve into the leading Nordic technology and consulting company, facing strong competition from both Nordic and global companies.
② Define
In this phase we created a platform, defining the shared motivations of employees, customers and owners.
Passionate About the Future
In collaboration with EVRY, we conducted workshops in Norway and Sweden to determine what drove employees to perform. The discussions were conducted, partly as open conversations and partly as tasks to solve.
Using our Archetype Profiling process, we identified EVRY as a Challenger, characterised by a will to confront the status quo and make a positive impact. Both workshops were summarised as a final report for management, before the final purpose platform was concluded and approved.
Purpose Platform
Both full-day workshops in Stockholm and Oslo consisted of four discussions:
What category do we belong to, and what makes us unique?
What is our main target group, what does it seek to achieve?
What values do we create?
What is our passion?
Participants offered their unique perspectives, providing strong input into the role of the brand’s role in the market. Resulting in unique platform, adopted by management as a tool to inform decision making.
③ Develop
The company’s purpose was developed to give the organisation and brand, a shared focus.
Creating a Meaningful Purpose
Based on the purpose platform, three alternative statements were developed before “Shape the future today” was chosen as EVRY’s purpose. This statement resonated with management, employees and customers who saw this as their central motivation.
Purpose Statement
A purpose statement summarises the core motivation of the company, regardless of current services, products and business strategy.
④ Activate
Implementation is crucial in such processes. Employees received the purpose platform to great enthusiasm, relishing the focus and opportunity to contribute.
“Shape the future today” became the theme of the new management programme and a foundation for employee development. Through leading with purpose, EVRY has expanded its offer to include advanced strategic services. The company has strengthened its team with 700 new talents. While the renewed energy helped form the foundation for the company’s successful IPO in 2018.
Advantages of Purpose
Uniting the culture through a shared ambition.
Attracting top talent in a competitive market.
Forces a renewal of the offering.
Sends a compelling message to investors.
"All companies face fundamental change at some point. Defining our company’s purpose made our strengths clear, provided a shared ambition and elevated our position."
Trond Vinje - CEO, Human Resources at EVRY
Results following the three-year change programme
40%
Reduced turnover
Reduced turnover among employees by 40% across business units.
1,567
Improved profitability
Improved profitability from NOK −938 million to NOK +629 million.
4th
Ranking
Up from 12th to fourth place in the list of the most attractive IT companies to work for in Norway.
3X
Tripling of value
The company’s value almost tripled on the Oslo Stock Exchange from NOK 4.28 billion to NOK 11.5 billion at the stock exchange’s re-introduction in 2017.
"Engaging our 8,800 employees is no small feat. Together with Mission, we have developed our brand by inspiring and guiding all employees and leaders in a way that created a positive boost to our culture. "
Mona Lunde Martinsen – Marketing Brand Manager, Group Communications and Marketing at EVRY
EVRY - Identity