Mission Statements Are a Joke

Guy Kawasaki makes an excellent point about corporate mission statements in his book The Art of the Start:

The fundamental shortcoming of most mission statements is that everyone expects them to be highfalutin and all-encompassing. The result is a long, boring, commonplace, and pointless joke. […] Companies are all writing the same mediocre stuff.

Right. On.

For example, does your company possess one of these gems?

• Our mission is to quickly negotiate corporate sources so that we may endeavor to competently restore value-added solutions to meet our customer’s needs
• We continually revolutionize business data to allow us to quickly integrate unique solutions to stay competitive in tomorrow’s world
• It’s our responsibility to globally build virtual services so that we may endeavor to completely promote high-payoff paradigms to exceed customer expectations

These three came straight from the Dilbert Mission Statement Generator but you see their similitudes all around you. Some ol’ schoolers even post them on their web sites.

Cut the corny and cliché crap. Everybody is a leading provider, industry leader, first-mover, etc.

Not that all mission statements are dumb and pointless, but the good and meaningful ones are so hard to find! What your business needs to have is what Guy calls a mantra.

A Personal Account

A number of years ago I worked for a company which didn’t have a mission statement per se, but the owners belonged to the local Rotary club and therefore had the Rotary mission statement displayed prominently in their conference room.

The “mission statement” spelled out numerous human virtues and resembled a Bible passage—it was so humane and warm. To cut the long story short, everyone who worked there left the company within 14 months (including myself). Employee retention rate of 0% and an exalted mission statement: priceless! I believe the company has a similar retention rate to this day. All of us, former employees of that year’s exodus, remained good friends, though.

Ever since I grew cynical to mission statements.

The statements really are pointless. I've often wondered where they originated from, and what we were supposed to do with them. Recite them as part of a daily inspiration ritual?

Well, they come from "above" and therefore are difficult to suppress and lock away where nobody sees them. :)

I will agree that 9 out of 10 are pointless and just something an exec can have on his review work. However, if the statment is direct, to the point, means something, AND the business actually tries to fall in line with it then they can be useful. Its all about buy-in and what is done once its been bought.

Thanks.