By Guerrero Howe Staff

Last week, Guerrero Howe presented the third installment of its Outside Speaker Series. Jason Montrie, president of Land of Lincoln Health, spoke to the office about missions and why they’re important for more than just business.

Land of Lincoln Health is Illinois’s first and only consumer-operated and -oriented health insurance plan. The company landed on the marketplace in 2013 and faced major competition—the company’s largest competitor did more than 90 percent of the health insurance business in the state. But Montrie and his colleagues believed strongly in their vision: “We will be the health insurance partner of choice as a result of our relentless commitment to innovation and to empowering all of our stakeholders to experience maximum value in the rapidly evolving health care delivery system.”

That vision is what saw them through the naysaying growing pains their first year. By March 2015 LLH had enrolled 50,000 members and captured 25 percent of new enrollees in Illinois. And it did so by continuously measuring success against the mission. Montrie referred to missions, personal and professional, as one’s “true north” because it serves as a guidepost on whatever path a person or organization is pursuing.

He shared his personal mission:

“We have a responsibility to leave things better than we found them.”

Montrie challenged the members of Guerrero Howe to determine our own mission statements and to write them down. While our missions may vary, Montrie’s advice to all of us in following our true north was this: “Be relentless. Be resilient.”