The Organization’s Mission Statement: Taking a Second Look

Is the business mission statement what the experts, business schools, corporate executives, and management consultants suggest? In my review of a number of mission statements from a variety of firms in different industries, I find they have the image of the business or why the business exists at their center. However, is it the intent of the mission statement to project the business image or to describe it? An Example of a Mission Statement: Personal Relationships In attempts to inflate the image of the firm or organization, some firms focus inward to try to bring up various statements about why it exist or what it is doing. However, do statements about existence or performance attract the audience responsible for its own existence and survival – the customer? I would like to suggest that the business owner or executive consider thinking about the organization’s mission much like he or she considers personal relationships. The business or organization is not a living entity. It does not exists or function apart from people. Rather living people comprise the organization. Given this fact, consider what attracts people to you. What you say, how you look, how you treat people, and how you present yourself to others compose those traits people find attractive.  If we then wish to develop personal close associations and friends, we need to consider the traits we reflect to people. How do we do this? He who wants friends must be friendly. That is, we step outside of ourselves and place ourselves in the position of another. In doing so, we present ourselves from the position of the other person. Empathy is a friend-oriented position and is a core ingredient in the mission statement. A simple principle holds true from organization to organization, firm to firm, and business to business. The customer is the all-important entity of the enterprise. To gain a customer, the business must adopt and foster the person-to-person stance. The characteristics organizations reflect to customers is called marketing. Marketing is simply firm executives stepping outside of themselves and placing themselves in the position of the customer. This positioning is the firm’s mission statement. The mission statement is a marketing tool for the organization. Therefore, the content of the mission statement mirrors the mindset of the customer not the traits or character of the firm. It is the window through which the customer views the firm.  It is quite normal for us to think more of ourselves than we think of others. The Nobel-prize winning economist, the late Milton Friedman, calls this perspective “self-interest.” He believed that capitalistic markets are based on self-interest. Peter F. Drucker amplifies this belief when writing, “Economic satisfactions alone appear socially important and relevant. Economic positions, economic privileges, and economic rights are those for which man works.” <a href="#_ftn1" title="">[1]</a> We spend time before a mirror preparing ourselves before we meet people. Our appearance and stature has a priority to us. Knowing this gives us an idea of a customer’s approach to our firm or business when seeking products or services from us. The window of the mission statement also acts as a mirror to the customer. When customers engage in window-shopping, the mirror in their minds reflects how they would look in the products the business offers or how the services would enhance their success, position, or lifestyle. It is all about them and their fulfillment when they are window-shopping. The Mission Statement as a Window of the Enterprise The mission statement can be compared to a mannequin in a department store window. When customers are window-shopping and see your products on full display through your mission statement, do they see themselves in or with that product? Do they visualize success, a better position, or grander lifestyle? Does the mission statement convince them of such a standing with their peers, neighbors, or even their customers? That is the purpose of the mission statement! Consider John Molloy’s book published years ago: Dressed for Success. It remains popular because it projects an image to the readers of their success and stature. Dale Carnegie had an even greater success with his book and seminars, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Why is this? Consider the Dale Carnegie Institute mission statement: “We focus on giving people in business the opportunity to sharpen their skills and improve their performance in order to build positive, steady, and profitable results.” <a href="#_ftn2" title="">[2]</a> Can you, as a customer, step into that picture? Does “opportunity,” improvement, positivism, and profitability speak to you? Do they fit you well and reveal you in the best possible light before your own customers and the marketplace?  It provides specifics and reveals the company’s service to its client. The company steps aside and premiers the customer in the best possible light: successful, performing well, and profitable. Someone might raise the point, “But I thought the mission statement supposed to inform my business of its destination, hence the name “mission” statement. Quite true. However, is your destination market share, positioning, getting bigger, being a premier company, or gaining an enhanced image in the market’s eyes? If so, perhaps rethinking “destination” may be an agenda item for re-crafting your mission statement. Where does the customer enter into these prior mentioned destinations? For example, consider the following statement as a mission: “To empower our customers, employees, and partners to succeed through superior products delivered in a timely fashion based on creativity, innovation, collaborative efforts, and solutions.” When customers look through the window of this mission statement, how do they imagine their success or position in the marketplace? What products or services provide them a greater sense of success, positioning, or improved lifestyle? Certainly, it speaks of empowering the customer. However, the customer competes with partners and employees for visibility. Certainly, other constituents are important for the enterprise, because they help build it and thereby have a stake in it. But the customer brings in the revenue. The Customer: Front and Center Consider another way of viewing the enterprises mission statement. Does it focus on the business or on the customer? The degree the enterprise enhances its image in its mission statement is the degree that it diminishes the customer’s image. The customer desires to be elevated in the eyes of the market. To the degree that the enterprise does that in its mission statement is the degree that the customer becomes attracted to the enterprises’ products and services. Does your mission statement elevate your customer or client before their markets? Does it reflect solutions to their problems and challenges of positioning, marketing presence, and market share? Therefore, the destination reflected in your mission statement is the customer’s destiny. For example, when a person becomes lost at sea, the mission of the Coast Guard is to bring that person safely back to shore. The destiny of that person is to be safe on land. The Coast Guard’s destination and its client’s destiny coincide in the mission statement. How do you design your mission statement best to describe your business mission?  <ul> <li>First, step aside and place your customer in the center of it. </li> <li>Second, surround your customer with your products and services. </li> </ul> Now imagine how the customer looks with your products and services surrounding them. Anticipate your customer’s attitude, position, stature, and disposition “wearing” your products. Do they fit? If not, revise your mission statement again until it brings together your product and service offerings and your customer. Once you have taken these two steps, you are on your way to creating a workable and attractive mission statement that fits your organization and destination and prepares you for success. <a href="#_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a> Drucker, Peter F., The Daily Drucker (HarperCollins Books, 2004), p. 22. <a href="#_ftnref2" title="">[2]</a> <a href="http://www.dalecarnegie.com/about_us/about_us.jsp">http://www.dalecarnegie.com/about_us/about_us.jsp</a> 2008-04-11T21:16:12Z

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the-organizations-mission-statement-taking-a-second-look

2008-04-18T07:11:44Z

Your mission statement is your business destination.  Your business destination is your customer's detiny.  To the degree that it is not, it is to that degree your competition is entertaining your customer.

The Organization’s Mission Statement: Taking a Second Look

2009-02-24T09:43:53Z