I am just writing some copy for someone and I thought it might be helpful to quote their mission statement to drive home a point I wanted to make. I was hoping for something punchy and quotable. Instead I found this:
Our Corporate Objectives
- Customer loyalty. We earn customer respect and loyalty by consistently providing the highest quality and value.
- Profit. We achieve sufficient profit to finance growth, create value for our shareholders and achieve our corporate objectives.
- Growth. We recognize and seize opportunities for growth that builds upon our strengths and competencies.
- Market leadership. We lead in the marketplace by developing and delivering useful and innovative products, services and solutions.
- Commitment to employees. We demonstrate our commitment to employees by promoting and rewarding based on performance and by creating a work environment that reflects our values.
- Leadership capability. We develop leaders at all levels who achieve business results, exemplify our values and lead us to grow and win.
- Global citizenship. We fulfill [sic] our responsibility to society by being an economic, intellectual and social asset to each country and community where we do business.
Without resorting to Google, can you figure out whose mission statement this is? Can you even tell what industry they operate in? Are there any objectives here that are not shared by every other big, successful company? Does it say anything about their actual business objectives?
(If anyone from the client in question is reading this, let me know if you have ever seen these corporate objectives before. I’m curious. And don’t be cross with me – I did spot a typo for you!)
A friend of mine used to be a management consultant. He said that he always liked companies that had short, functional mission statements that actually described what they did and how they hoped to succeed. Sadly, he said, too many companies have objectives that are so abstract as to be platitudinous or self-evident.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice post. Definitely a cut-n-paste job if ever there were one.
I particularly love the mind-bending, Moebius-strip circularity of “our corporate objectives include making enough profit to achieve our corporate objectives”. I think I need to go and lie down while I work that one out.
And anything that mentions “delivering innovative solutions” rings instant alarm bells.
Oh, and all this talk of “values”, without actually setting out what those values are makes me wonder if they’ve got an equally dire “values statement”. Please share!
Though isn’t “fulfill” just an American spelling?
I think companies write them because of the “everyone seems to have one so I’ll get one too” syndrome.
Mission statements are there only to please management. A mantra, a simple, short, sharp message – now that’s a different matter – it can motivate staff and boost brand awareness all in one.
David Bradley…
…communicating science
Interesting as have just completed a project to write someone’s mission statement.
I Googled this one. Won’t give it away but agree that this says nothing about anything, while saying everything about nothing.
The main problem with mission statements is the ‘so what?’ factor. After all, which company *wouldn’t* want to provide value, quality and useful products?
I agree with you. Most of the mission statements are boring and difficult to comprehend. It’s difficult to find one that is unique.
I hope you don’t find this too self-serving but we created Blueprinting as an alternative to traditional strategic planning in part because we hate mission and vision statements. As a starting point for Blueprinting, we help clients answer the question “Why should I choose you?” – which we consider the most important question in business – in seven compelling words or less (many are just two). You can imagine that when you have a maximum of seven words and it MUST be compelling, you don’t get generic statements or narcissistic mind benders.