The Strategic Importance of a Mission Statement …

…and How to Create One for Your Business

Last month we talked about “The Strategic Importance of Brand” and the various components that make up a comprehensive brand strategy. With this month’s blog we will begin to drill down into those components and examine them in greater detail, starting with the organization’s?Mission Statement.

The first thing to understand is that a Mission Statement, per se, is not really an ongoing actionable part of an organization’s?branding strategy. Rather, it is the dynamic cornerstone of that strategy—and of every other key aspect of the organization. Even the term “cornerstone” is too concrete a word for such an abstract, existential concept. Yes, it is possible for a Mission Statement to change and evolve over time. By the same token, almost by definition, it should be timeless and unchanging.

Thus, ideally, some version of the organization’s formal Mission Statement was there at the inception and continues to represent the permanent and fundamental reason for the organization’s existence. It stands as the deep philosophical underpinning that gives the organization its perennial meaning and purpose. At its core, it is—or should be—the reason the principals and staff of that organization bother to get up in the morning and show up for work day after day, year after year.

In short, the Mission Statement forms the basis and launchpad for the entirety of the organization’s operational strategy, management structure, and long-term planning. As such, the Mission Statement should inform and inspire all other business decisions and activities.

Insofar as any prospective business function fails to advance the goals or live up to the ideals articulated in the Mission Statement, they should be reconsidered, and forthwith discarded if deemed incompatible with the organization’s Mission Statement and Core Values.

In the introduction to his 1995 business book,?The Mission Statement Book: 301 Corporate Mission Statements from America’s Top Companies, team leader and sales strategist Jeffrey Abrahams writes:

A mission statement is an enduring statement of purpose for an organization that identifies the scope of its operations in product and market terms, and reflects its values and priorities.… Every company, no matter how big or small, needs a mission statement as a source of direction, a kind of compass, that lets its employees, its customer, and even its stockholders know what it stands for and where it’s headed.

(p. 38)

He goes on to add, “A mission statement will help a company to make consistent decisions, to motivate, to build an organizational unity, to integrate short-term objectives with longer-term goals, and to enhance communication.”

Given all that, it’s hard to imagine how any organization—whether a for-profit company or non-profit institution—is able to function without a formal, public Mission Statement. And yet many do. Why?

Here’s the short answer:

It’s Not Easy to Create a Great Mission Statement

Every organization should be able to express its Mission Statement in just one or two sentences in a way that is broad yet purposeful, fundamental, inspirational, and enduring. For too many companies, the development of a Mission Statement is often an after-thought; yet it should be considered one of the most important decisions a company can make.

Still, we’ll be the first to admit: composing a coherent, memorable, and honest Mission Statement is hard to do. Further ahead, we’ll attempt to lay out an orderly strategy and give some pointers in how to do that successfully. But in the end, it’s easier just to explain how?NOT?to write a Mission Statement. For example, if your Mission Statement includes that mealy-mouthed word “solution” in it, you need to go back to the drawing board. The video below, “How to Write a Mission Statement That Doesn’t Suck,” describes some common pitfalls you are likely to encounter in the process.

In summary, if you want a worthless Mission Statement, make sure the principles it embraces are mediocre at best, and the words it uses are so ambiguous that all the meaning has been leeched out of them.

Learn from the Best: Masterful Mission Statements

An online search for “great mission statements” will yield numerous results (2??billion, give or take), but just the first few pages should provide plenty of inspiration and teachable examples. By studying a collection of Mission Statements across a variety of industries, you can begin to get the gist of creating something purposeful. Here are just a few:

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

“To deliver information on the people, ideas and technologies changing the world to our community of affluent business decision makers.”

“To improve its customers’ financial lives so profoundly, they couldn’t imagine going back to the old way.”

“To collect, preserve, study, exhibit, and stimulate appreciation for and advance knowledge of works of art that collectively represent the broadest spectrum of human achievement at the highest level of quality, all in the service of the public and in accordance with the highest professional standards.”

“To prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.”

After spending some time studying these and others, you’ll notice several things. One is that there is no such thing as a cookie-cutter Mission Statement. They run the gamut.

They can be short and sweet…

…or they can be long and complex.

The next thing you’ll notice is that not all of them are winners. Some organizations—even successful ones—have truly awful Mission Statements that express little to nothing worthwhile. They likely won’t last for long in this hyper-competitive world.

Lastly, most of the really good ones have this characteristic in common: they all express what the organization does and how it does it, while accomplishing this in a manner that is as succinct as it is memorable.

Succinctness is important. A large jumble of words does not make a lasting impression on people. Quite possibly the shortest Mission Statement in history is the single-word masterpiece associated with a certain well-known business machine company:

First used in 1911 by Thomas?J. Watson while working at National Cash Register Company, this “Mission Statement” eventually came to do double duty as the corporate slogan of IBM. When asked later what he meant by the slogan, Watson replied, “By THINK I mean take everything into consideration. I refuse to make the sign more specific. If a man just sees THINK, he’ll find out what I mean.”

How’s that for a Mission Statement?

Years later, Apple Computer’s “Think Different” slogan was widely taken as a response to IBM’s “THINK.” Oh, and by the way—today Apple is the world’s most valuable brand.

Now Write Your Own Mission Statement

Since every organization worth its salt should be unique, we can’t tell you how to write your Mission Statement, as that should be unique as well. But we can offer some guidelines.

Again, let it express what you do, how you do it, and why. As intimated above, it should be as inspiring as a sermon, but shorter. It should be general—but not too general; and specific—but not too specific. By projecting adherence to certain values,?it should express a shared sense of worth, intent, and expectations intrinsic to the organization’s products or services.

Therefore, begin by filling in a worksheet that answers the following questions:

1. What do you do? (PRODUCTS/SERVICES)
2. How do you do it? (TECHNOLOGY)
3. How do you do it differently? (DISTINCTIVE COMPETENCE)
4. Do people want what you offer? (PROFITABILITY)
5. Who are your customers? (TARGET MARKET)
6. Where are those customers located? (GEOGRAPHY)
7. Why would staff members want to be part of this enterprise? (TEAMWORK)
8. How does this enterprise serve the wider community? (STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS)
9. What do you believe in? (VALUES/ETHICS/PHILOSOPHY)

Once you’ve filled in that worksheet, you’ll start to get the big picture of how your organization stands apart. Only then can you begin to shape the statement into a succinct, coherent whole.

We’ll end with this 3?-minute video from?OnStrategy, which provides another useful checklist of key elements to include in a potent, meaningful Mission Statement.