Business Purpose Values Vision | Croft Case Study
Croft
Purpose, Values, Vision, Employee Experience, Employee Engagement: Driving one culture, post-acquisition
Croft provides bespoke IT infrastructure, next generation technology and managed services for businesses of all sizes across both the public and private sectors. Established in 2015, during the time we worked together, the company grew from one office and c.35 team members to multiple UK offices and c.190 team members.
The challenge
Having acquired, and continuing to acquire, many organisations, Croft’s then CEO – Mark Bramley – was keen to preserve the essence of the company as it continued its growth. Understanding the importance of a culture framework in informing growth in the right way, Mark approached Culture Chameleon to support the organisation with capturing its unique Culture Code.
What we did
Workplace Culture, Employee Experience and Engagement Review
Completing a workplace culture, employee experience and engagement review enabled us to quickly identify the key areas for Croft to focus on to ensure that the organisation continued to grow in the right way.
Values Definition
To create a set of Values that truly Give a D.A.A.M ( Distinctive, Actionable, Authentic and Memorable), we followed our collaborative discovery process, bringing the whole team on the journey. Starting with a company-wide survey and followed by a series of interactive workshops, we worked closely with both team members and leadership to uncover how Croft truly showed up when operating at its best.
This approach combined broad participation with focused co-creation, ensuring the Values were shaped by real experiences rather than imposed from the top down. By tapping into the IKEA effect – where people place greater value on what they help to build – and avoiding the pitfalls of Ivory Tower thinking, we grounded the outcome in the day-to-day reality of Croft at its best.
From these insights, we developed and refined a series of Value statements, carefully shaping the language through multiple iterations. Every word, punctuation choice and phrase was deliberately considered and co-created to ensure the final set of Values felt both natural and distinctive to Croft.
The result was a set of Values that provided a clear behavioural compass that, when taken Beyond W.O.W (Words On a Wall) would inform decisions, shape the culture and support long-term commercial success.
Vision and Purpose Definition
Alongside this, we partnered with the leadership team to discover and define Croft’s Purpose and Vision. Together with the Values, the Culture Code formed a cohesive foundation for future business growth, aligning why Croft was in business beyond revenue generation, how it showed up at its best and where it was going.
Purpose, Values and Vision Launch
Having completed the definition of Croft’s Purpose, Values and Vision, we then supported them to introduce the final Culture Code to the team by creating a Culture Code launch kit. Psychologically for team members, differentiating the launch from BAU (Business As Usual) marked it as a key moment, and the Culture Code as business critical. With a ready-made slide deck, facilitator notes and team exercises, this focused the launch messaging and enabled those involved in delivering the launch to hit the ground running, whilst taking limited time out from their daily work to prepare. Post launch, Croft also used the launch kit to brief new starters on their Purpose, Values and Vision.
Beyond W.O.W (Words On a Wall)
Once the Purpose, Values and Vision were launched, we kickstarted the process of ensuring that they didn’t simply become Words On a Wall, starting with a series of Beyond W.O.W workshops. These involved working with Croft’s leaders and managers to provide them with the mindset and toolkit to start the process of the Purpose, Values and Vision being lived and breathed in everything the organisation did.
Over a two-year period, we then supported Croft on a retained basis, working alongside their People and Culture Manager and Chief Happiness Regulator with an emphasis on creating a Purpose, Values and Vision-based employee experience. This included recruitment and selection, onboarding and induction and performance management. We also supported the implementation of Culture Crofties (Values Ambassadors) and Campfires (cross team / location collaboration sessions).
Through regular Happiness Surveys, using our bespoke Culture Dashboard, we were also able to measure and monitor team member engagement levels across the organisation and gauge the impact of all culture-related work.
The feedback
We are a growing company and have made over 15 acquisitions over the past 3 years. As such, developing and maintaining a consistent internal culture has been a real challenge. Laura was recommended to me…and I’m so glad that we have used their services.
Laura and Caroline have been great to work with. Thoughtful, insightful and never afraid to disagree with us or give an opinion. They have really helped us to both better understand ourselves and establish our core Values, Vision and Purpose.
I’m a natural cynic, but am a total convert!
~ Mark Bramley CEO, Croft