C’mon man: The Mission, The Vision and The Core | Wish Farms Florida
Wish Farms Florida Strawberries Company Vision

C’mon man: The Mission, The Vision and The Core

 

C’mon man
The Mission, The Vision, and The Core

As I was tasting California strawberries last fall, I bit into one that reminded me of biting into a raw potato. It was crunchy, bland and completely uninspiring. I wondered how this sorry excuse for a strawberry even made the cut as a nominee. The Portola variety’s “saving grace” is its high yield per acre and resilience in long distance travel. Well, whoop-dee-doo, we just grew a ton of berries that no one likes to eat. I began to think deeper.

If we grow berries that have no taste, what are we doing here? What is the purpose of our company? Are we just shoveling off boring berries to make a quick cash grab? NO WAY. It became very apparent to me that I needed to communicate a simple, crystal clear message to our employees and growers.

Wish Farms’ mission is: “TO PROVIDE THE BEST TASTING BERRIES.”

If an employee isn’t excited to take berries home and eat them, we shouldn’t grow them. Period. End of story. We owe that to our loyal, berry-loving consumers. Our growers need to be able to make money, so yield per acre and transportability needs to fit in the equation. However, if we sell substandard fruit to the public, we lose credibility. If we don’t have the best, you can forget the rest.

A company that is not focused on taste will ultimately pay a price in the long-run, even though they may capture some short-term gains. We have been in it for the long run since 1922. Why stop now? This focus on flavor, segues nicely into our brand vision:

“To Achieve National Brand Status Through Quality and Innovation.”

We have made a lot of progress in the past seven years since Misty and the Wish Farms brand were first introduced. We still have a long way to go, but we are on the right track.

We can only achieve national status if our core values are solid. Therefore, it is incumbent upon our employees to follow our core principles: Quality, Integrity, & Responsiveness.  If an employee ever catches themselves straying from these principles, they need to re-calibrate what they are doing.  These words are only worth something if we live them.

-GW