Mission Statements: Are they just useless corporate lingo?

Mission statements are the core objective of a company. They are usually stated in simple, easy to understand language. The idea of mission statement is to unify the company under one goal. Often the goal is very untangible. It's untangible in the sense that you may never know if you officially achieved that goal. For example, a mission statement of a barber shop might be "To provide the best customer service in town by not only providing friendly customer service but by providing exactly what the client wants to the best of our ability." With a mission statement like that it would be very hard to know when you have achieved such a goal.

I always thought originally that a mission statement was just something you put in  your business plan to attract potential investors. While that is still true, that is not its only function.

Let's take a look at Robert Kiyosaki's B-I Triangle. In his book Guide To Investing he explains that the B-I Triangle represents the components a new business has to have in order to succeed.

The other parts of the triangle we'll cover later but the base of the triangle is the mission. Kiyosaki's Rich Dad said, "Many people start a business only to make money. Just to make money is not a strong enough mission. Money alone does not provide enough fire, drive, or desire. The mission of a business should fill a need that the customers want, and if it fills that need, and fills it well, the business will begin to make money."

With the business part of the equation comes a second side to the mission statement, the spiritual side. The spiritual side of the mission statement could be like Henry Ford's mission to "Democratize the automobile". When automobiles first came out, they were only for the elite upper class. Ford's mission was to bring that kind of possibility to the masses. That mission filled his customers wants and filled them well. He was a millionaire because of it, and his legacy lives on way beyond his death.

Kiyosaki's Rich Dad's spiritual statement involved providing employment opportunities throughout his business. He did own several businesses that employed hundreds. Those business bought other business and created more and more jobs. Robert Kiyosaki's company Rich Dad has a mission statement to increase the financial IQ of its customers which would further allow them to be financially independent.

This whole idea that the mission statement is what drives your business really made sense to me. A lot of times when I try to create an idea to make money. It is really that - an idea to make money. It may work minimally for the short term but does not succeed. I think it is due largely in part to the lack of the mission I am set out to do.

This whole idea coincides nicely with the idea that if you want to be successful you have to provide massive value (which I talked about in a previous post.) Now, with all of this it seems clear to me that I have a very huge hole in my trading gap. In other words, the only way to make money is to exchange value for something. You need clothes so you are willing to exchange the money you have earned in order to buy those clothes. A lot of my plans were solely to make money. I had a very small video game exchange system online where the value I provided was selling games cheaper than anyone else did. I created that value by buying in bulk. Well, the most bulk that I could afford at the time. It really was not that much value though over my competitors.

Now, when I am trying to create an idea into a massive asset, this will be a part of my focus. I feel this idea has really educated me on the idea of creating value even though I though I understood it before.

Til Tomorrow,
Josh

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