I was reading last week's Business Week and I always enjoy Jack & Suzy Welch's advice at the end of the magazine. The question had to do with a startup company and its mission being its competitive advantage but it didn't work out that way. The part I liked, in the response, was toward the end where they give an example of a good mission statement and what makes up one.
Here's my favorite part:
To answer your question, then, here's how we'd suggest you create a new mission for your company, and just as important, a new set of values.
Basically, the mission starts with you, the leader, since you'll be held accountable for it. Yes, listen to everyone with something smart to say about your market and product— especially contrarians and customers. Gather and grok data galore. But then make a choice about how your company will win. Don't mince words! Remember Nike's (NKE) old mission, "Crush Reebok"? That's directionally correct. And Google's (GOOG) mission statement isn't something namby-pamby like "To be the world's best search engine." It's "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." That's simultaneously inspirational, achievable, and completely graspable.
With your mission set, more of your team must get involved in establishing values. After all, you are trying to describe the best behaviors of your best employees on their best days with enough clarity to make those behaviors easy to emulate, measure, and reward. Consider some of the best values we've heard: Never lose a superstar. Communicate bad news quickly. Take personal ownership of results, not process. Unlike the usual drivel, those mean something. They compel action.
This is good stuff here, it really sums it up. I think it's a small percentage of companies who really get this but those who do tend to do lots of stuff well.
Read the full story in Business Week.
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