industries

Write a Really Short Business Mission Statement

Clear your head and cut away the fat – boil your business mission statement down to a short six words. When designing business plans for clients, it always fascinates me that they have a hard time describing what they do. Partly this is because some of these businesses are pretty complex, and often involve major science or technology. So it's hard to get that into words that will please both the owners and the viewers, who often seem to speak two distinct languages.

By Tony Wanless /
Clear your head and cut away the fat – boil your business mission statement down to a short six words.

When designing business plans for clients, it always fascinates me that they have a hard time describing what they do.

Partly this is because some of these businesses are pretty complex, and often involve major science or technology. So it’s hard to get that into words that will please both the owners and the viewers, who often seem to speak two distinct languages.

However, it’s often also a problem because some of them really aren’t that clear on what they do. Or at least they’re not that clear on how to express what they do. Or most likely, they’re afraid to clearly state what they do and so hide behind a wall of jargon and vagary.
 
In business planning terms, what your company does is contained in the (much maligned) mission statement. I say much maligned because most mission statements are formed by committees, and so revert to tired old lines like  “striving always to help our customers, employees, and other stakeholders find value, realize their goals, and make the world a better place.”

Okay, I made that up, but you get the point.  Boring! And meaningless, because it’s loaded with corp-speak.

We live in a fast, and short term world today, so a mission statement should be much more to the point. It should state clearly what you do and who you do it for. Period. In as few words as possible. This is NOT a marketing pitch, (although it can be the basis of one). It’s for you. It should be a corporate memoir, a succinct statement of who you are.

So it was interesting to come across something called the “six word memoir” where various writers summed up their lives in six years. Some were brilliant, such as “Born bald. Grew hair. Bald again,” by A.J. Jacobs. Some not so much.

In that vein, I’m asking everyone to describe their company (whether yours or one you work for) in six words or less. Like “I help people tell their stories” for a marketing firm. Or “We screw everything up!” for a disfunctional workplace

Of course, I couldn’t ask this without first doing it myself….someone has to be the first one on the dance floor.

So, here’s mine: “We advise advisors and knowledge businesses”.

Okay. You’re on. Now it’s your turn to write a memoir statement for your business, or for where you work.