When a business grows, a lot can change.
Teams get bigger, services develop, staff move on or progress with the business, new technology is learned and implemented and clients’ expectations evolve and the way you work has to evolve with them.
But some things shouldn’t change.
At a recent Acorn Analytical Services managers’ away day, our leadership team spent some time talking about our mission, purpose and core values – what they mean, whether they still reflect the business we are today and where we want Acorn to go next.
What struck us was that, despite everything that has changed since Acorn Analytical Services (UK) Ltd was founded in 2013, the values we built the company around remain just as relevant today.
And that is something we are incredibly proud of.
What are Acorn Analytical Services’ values?
We have always believed that company values should be more than a collection of nice words displayed on a wall.
Our original values documentation describes them as a small set of “vital and timeless guiding principles” which define our culture and who we are. They should help attract like-minded people to the business and guide decisions around recruitment, recognition and development.
For Acorn, those values were, and still are:
- Quality – implement excellence in everything we do
- Integrity – be honest and truthful
- Respect – treat others how we wish to be treated
- Teamwork – work together for the benefit of the team
- Innovation – innovate to always be leading our industry
Looking back at those words more than a decade after they were established, we realised something important – we still live by every single one today!
They still sum up how we work, how are constantly innovating, how we treat one another and work together and how we want our clients to feel about their experience of working with Acorn.
Quality: doing the job properly
Quality has been at the heart of Acorn from day one.
Working in asbestos management means there is no room for cutting corners. Our clients rely on us to provide accurate information, sound advice and professional services that help them manage risks appropriately.
But quality isn’t only about the technical work we carry out.
It’s also about how quickly we respond to a client, the clarity of our reports, the training and development we give our people and our willingness to keep looking at what we could do better.
Our purpose has always been ‘to continually make things better for staff and clients’.
That commitment to continual improvement is every bit as important today as it was when Acorn began.
Integrity: doing the right thing
Integrity can be an easy value to write down and a much harder one to demonstrate.
For us, it means being honest and truthful – including when the conversation isn’t necessarily the easiest one to have.
Our clients need to be able to trust the advice we give them. Our team members need to trust one another. And as a business, we need to be prepared to stand behind the work we do.
That principle has helped shape Acorn’s reputation and the long-term relationships we have built with clients over the years.
Respect: remembering that business is about people
Our definition of respect is equally straightforward – treat others how we wish to be treated.
That applies whether someone is a long-standing client, a new member of the team, a trainee taking their first steps into the asbestos industry, a supplier or someone we meet on site.
As Acorn has grown, maintaining that culture has become increasingly important.
Whilst we have introduced new systems, AI and automation to some processes, we never want to lose the human side of what we do.
Teamwork: succeeding together
Very little of what we achieve at Acorn happens because of one individual.
From surveyors and analysts to our technical, operational and administrative teams, everyone has a part to play.
That’s why one of our core values has always been to work together for the benefit of the team.
It means sharing knowledge, supporting colleagues and recognising that sometimes achieving the best result for Acorn means looking beyond your own individual role.
The bigger the company becomes, the more important that becomes.
Innovation: never standing still
One of our original values was to ‘innovate to always be leading our industry’ and, looking back, there are plenty of examples of how that has shaped Acorn.
For us, innovation has never simply meant adopting technology for the sake of it. It means looking at the way we work, the problems our clients face and the way people engage with asbestos information, and asking ‘could we do this better’?
We’ve also tried to innovate in the way we communicate about asbestos by publishing books on asbestos. Asbestos, The Dark Arts became a number one Amazon bestseller. We also launched the Asbestos Knowledge Empire podcast, long before podcasts were commonplace and introduced video business cards to bring proposals, quotes and tender submissions to life pre Covid.
Innovation has also helped us become more sustainable. Our site teams now use tablets rather than printed paperwork, making the process completely paperless, while some training has moved online to reduce unnecessary travel and our carbon footprint.
What represented innovation when Acorn started is very different from what innovation looks like today – and we’re sure it will look different again in another ten years.
For us, innovation means being curious, embracing better ways of working and never assuming that the way something has always been done is necessarily the way it should be done tomorrow.
The same values, a very different Acorn
We’ve grown, welcomed new people, developed our services and learned an enormous amount along the way.
But sitting together at our managers’ away day and revisiting the principles on which the company was built gave us an opportunity to reflect.
Our mission remains focused on removing our clients’ asbestos and health and safety problems without additional costs, delays or surprises.
Our purpose remains to continually make things better for our staff and our clients.
And our values remain quality, integrity, respect, teamwork and innovation.
Thirteen years on, we think the fact we can still say that – and genuinely mean it – tells us we’re on the right track.
Acorn is a professional asbestos consultancy helping organisations deal with asbestos compliance using asbestos surveys, asbestos air testing, and asbestos removal management.
Please call one of the team, or use the online form to obtain your free quotation. If you would like further information or advice on asbestos and asbestos training, contact the team on 01604 936523 or Contact Us.
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