The use of a mission statement has become distorted over time. It is grossly misused. Examples of misuse would be comical if not so serious to the health of the offending companies. The common misuse is to think of the mission statement as a slogan that goes on your letterhead. Frequently it is used as a public ploy or marketing device. While these uses are admirable they are not essential. In fact, they are secondary and optional. Can you put your mission on your business card? Of course, but the function of communicating what you do for your customer is secondary to the mission’s value of describing the parameters of work to employees.
The most important function of the mission statement is to communicate purpose. It helps employees understand what the company does and how their roles are incorporated into that pur- pose. The mission gives meaning to daily jobs. It provides under- standing of roles and responsibilities. Parallel to the vision, which provides the ingredient of passion, the mission provides the foun- dation for establishing purpose. Your mission statement must con- tain some sense of higher-order purpose (see Figure 4-5). Take the following mission statement example: “Our mission is to build starter homes.” While this mission meets the suggested definition of short and simple, it fails to promote some concept of “higher order.” Would this mission statement create energy in employees?
Probably not. Consider this revision: “Our mission is to help first- time buyers become home owners.” What difference would the sec- ond mission statement create in your employees? The second ver- sion adds richness; the business isn’t just throwing up houses on
Figure 4-5. The mission must have a higher-order purpose, and it must help employees understand why they come to work each day.
speculation. There is an emotional component that comes from employees knowing they make a difference in their work. Does building houses for sale on the open market have a different appeal from watching a young family go through the process of buying and moving into their first real home? You bet it does! The higher- order mission puts you into partnership with the home buyer.
Now let’s introduce another dimension into the mission state- ment, that of product identification and specificity. Does your mis- sion statement give the customer a clue to your business? If your company name of ABC Homebuilders were separated from the mis- sion statement would it be self-explanatory? Does your mission statement box you into a specific product, or does it leave room for interpretation? Either way is okay, the decision is yours. On one hand you can be very specific: “We build single-family, stand-alone, starter homes.” This makes it easier for you to communicate your product description to your sales forces. It means first-time starter- home buyers can find you more easily in the yellow pages. But there is a downside. As your business grows, your mission may also need to grow. At some point you may need to move up to the midrange or custom-home market. This movement requires a mis- sion change that must occur when evidence suggests your old mis- sion statement is no longer your prime function.
Your mission may leave room for interpretation. This gives you the space to grow without changing your mission. The danger is that the more general the mission statement the more chance for confusion. Consider the mission statement:
We help first-time buyers become home owners.
There is room for both employees and customers to misinter- pret this statement. For example, a new employee may think you are a mortgage or loan company within a niche market.
So how do we get out of the box? Let’s balance the critical items. The mission must communicate purpose, appeal to a higher order, and define product. The mission statement then must pres-
ent two levels of sophistication: first to employees for the emotion- al hook and second to the customer for the products, goods, or serv- ices they seek. Perhaps our test mission statements could be revised one more time as follows:
We build affordable starter houses to help first- time buyers become home owners.
This mission hits both levels of sophistication. The customers connect with both the product and the partnership between them and the builder. The employees understand the product and con- nect to the meaning of their job. The latter is most important because employees need to feel that they are contributing members of the company team.
Here are examples of simple but powerful mission statements from several industries and organizational levels. These were taken from real business plans that are producing results.
I used simple but real examples of a single-sentence mission statement. Now, let me explain why I chose that format. How the functions of a mission statement are communicated is often dis- torted by the very sentence structure of the mission statement.
Complex mission statements lead to misunderstanding and confu- sion. From a business viewpoint it seems practical to keep the mis- sion simple, clean, and focused. Given this rationale the solution
Mission Statement Line of Business
We identify, develop, and support A human resources branch implementation of human resources.
We generate income for the company. Sales department We help companies build effective Consulting company business stories.
Our mission is to be your home Motel chain away from home.
We open the northland. Transportation and communications company We provide affordable accounting Accounting firm
services to the private citizen.
Our mission is to help small businesses Consulting firm compete through affordable
management services.
We provide a safe, secure harbor facility A marina for your overnight boating events.
We offer a variety of good food at a A diner reasonable price.
We deliver your local business Courier service correspondence with a 100 percent
guarantee.
Our limousine drivers get you to your Transportation service firm destination safely, every time—on time.
We make older houses elegant homes. Renovation company My mission is to put a shine on your Airport shoeshine stand shoes and a spring in your step.
My mission is to help you enjoy the Sidewalk vendor lunch hour—outdoors.
would seem to be a single sentence. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Two schools of thought exist in management guru circles.
Consultants have confused the buying public once again. The pre- vious examples were cases for a simple single sentence. Another line of reasoning has businesses developing a long, convoluted document that includes many items such as product, geography, customer targets, quality, and services levels. And this list is not complete. All this effort sounds logical, but it is in fact unrealistic, confusing, and unproductive. There is a place to address quality, but it is not in the mission statement. There is a requirement to deal with the issue of global versus national distribution but not in the mission statement. Discussing your values is important and deserves attention but not in the mission statement. The 5-Page Business Plan (introduced in Chapter 2) is an integrated model, so the mission statement does not have to include these confusing items.
Here is how our clean mission statement for the housing indus- try might have looked if written according to the second school of management theory. “Our mission is to provide quality, service, and value through affordable housing. We build value-conscious housing for budget-minded families desiring locations within the city of Jacksonville. Our workforce is dedicated to quality construc- tion by using the latest building techniques and material. Our sales force is committed to your satisfaction by matching your desires with our extensive portfolio of models. We seek your endorsement through responsive customer service. Our company values our employees, Total Quality Management, impeccable customer serv- ice, an environmental friendly building process, and good commu- nity citizenship.”
Quite a mouthful of platitudes, isn’t it? Mission statements such as this example are abundant in businesses across the world.
Even worse are mission statements that are so vague and universal they say nothing. This one was copied off the wall of a well-known hotel chain: “Our mission is to ensure your satisfaction. We work hard to provide friendly service and fast responses to your needs.”
I would feel more reassured if I knew they understood their mission as having a clean, comfortable, reasonably priced room ready for my arrival each and every time I make a reservation. As a customer, I cannot do anything with the first version of their mission state- ment. As an employee I would be even more confused.
Remember your audience—the employees who must execute the mission. I recall a case many years ago when this need for clar- ity became very evident. It was a miserable, cold, snowy Saturday in January. A team from a government ministry and I were working on their planning documents. We had written and rewritten the mis- sion statement a number of times, but none of the versions seemed to capture the message. The different versions had been put through readability checks for education levels and ease of compre- hension. The minister even asked the opinion of some employees who just happened to be in the building. Much to his dismay, they rejected the draft statements. We refined the mission down to a simple statement, written at the eighth-grade level, and took it back downstairs. The employees universally said, “Yeah, that’s what we do.” This anchored my belief: Keep the mission statement simple so people can understand what you do!