Friday, August 06, 2010

World's Best Mission Statement

In a speech to a ocnference yesterday in Honolulu, Hawaii, one of the things I spoke about was the importance of revising - and then re-revising - your mission statement.

Afterwards, one of the delegates told me that a few years back, when he was working for a major U.S. media organization, he and a colleague were asked to come up with a mission statement for the company.

To make a long story short, they come up wth something that made the bosses and customers happy, although it sounds like no one ever used it, and he couldn't even remember the words today.

On the way, though, they came up with a pretty memorable mission statement they only wished they could use:
"We want to make as much money as possible without going to jail."

Given that a mission statement is supposed to convey key messages about your customers and the value you create for them, I think this is an outstanding piece of work. It certainly focuses people on what's important to the organization.

And it would definitely help prospects and customers a make well-informed decision.

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