The Next Engine: Beyond Campaign Thinking

What company is behind this Mission Statement:

We are committed long term to the mission of helping our customers realize their full potential.

How about this one:

We take pride in making a perfect pizza and providing courteous and helpful service on time all the time. Every customer says, “I’ll be back!”

We are the employer of choice offering team members opportunities for growth, advancement, and rewarding careers in a fun, safe working environment.

We are accountable for profitability in everything we do, providing our shareholders with value growth.

Or this:

To build together the first choice airline and global alliance network with the best people; each committed to exceeding our customers’ expectations every day.

What do you think that first one is for? A personal trainer? Scientology? Wrong. It’s Microsoft. It’s a completely unattainable Mission - hence you can always be excused from actually living up to it. Don’t you think it would make more sense to try and aim towards making useful products, rather than claiming to understand your customers so well that you can help them achieve their full potential? What if your reaching your full potential means reaching nirvana? You don’t know who I am, let alone what tools you can provide me.

How about the second? It’s for Taco Bell of Hawaii. You’d think someone would have bothered to read it before they posted it; claiming to make the best pizzas doesn’t have much to do with Gorditos, does it?

The third is for Northwest. The cynicism implicit in the Northwest Vision blows my mind. The first choice airline? Exceeding our customer expectations every day? Let’s see. My first choice airline wouldn’t be characterized by busted-up, ancient planes with no movies, no food, no pillows and no evident desire to get you where you’re going on time.

The point of this is really to say that I think Mission/Vision statements were a way to keep from really thinking about what you are in business to do. Northwest seems to have no intention of delivering exceptional customer service. The flight attendants are exhausted and underpaid. Taco Bell of Hawaii clearly feels so uninterested in making good food that it leaves Pizza in its mission statement, and Microsoft cleverly dodges any kind of software excellence claims by ignoring them altogether.

Most mission statements are pretty sad, because they’re a meek substitute for real feeling, real passion, and real commitment. How inspired can you be working for a company whose mission is unrealistic, cynical, or unattainable? More importantly, do you expect any sentient customer to believe what you’re saying, when what you’re saying is so patently untrue or opaque?

Apple’s got a pretty good goal: Make insanely great computers. I can buy into that. And I bet Apple’s employees, can, too. No wonder their computers are so great.

Tags: Mission Statements