From the Ash's

In modern-day distributed companies with employees spread across the globe, it is critical that all of the employees are on the same page.  While many startups still have all of their employees geographically co-located, it is just as critical to make sure everyone is working towards the same goal.  One of the best tools corporate leaders and entrepreneurs have found to bring teams together is a well-defined mission.

The Components

Well gosh, that's simple, I'll just write a sentence to describe my company's mission and we'll be done with it.  Everyone will be on the same page and we'll be good to go.  Eh, not quite.  Does anything good really come that easy?  I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say "no".  There are a number of components that go into formulating a strong mission statement.

These components include your company's mission, it's core values, and the core value proposition.  That is to say it's the what, why, and how of your company. 

For example: Google's mission is to "organize the world's information"; Google values protecting users' privacy, providing value to users through a multitude of services, and making its services free to its users without annoying advertisements (achieved through the more aesthetic Google AdSense); Google provides value to its users by applying its search technology to improve the usefulness many common IT solutions, such as email, instant messaging, and getting directions.

The Purpose

The mission statement is important to everyone involved in the company, from its board of directors and CEO to its customers and vendors to its normal employees.  To each group it means the same thing: a guiding light to aid in making decisions. 

A strong corporate culture focused on a well-stated mission enables senior management to push decision-making down to lower levels of the corporate structure while still trusting that these decisions will be in the best interests of the company.  It expresses to customers the type of services and products they can expect and to vendors the types of behavior that will be tolerated.  It also helps identify potential strategic partners and lay the ground rules for interactions with partners.

Formulating Your Mission Statement

When you sit down to formulate your mission statement, include all of the people I described above in your planning process.  If you already have a team, senior management, employees, customers, partners, or vendors, involve them in the process.  In particular, solicit the opinions of your internal groups (team, employees, management) constantly.  You'll probably only want to run a couple of drafts by your external groups (customers, partners, vendors) to get their input.

Your Mission

The expression of the mission is a few sentences - no more than a paragraph - that sums up the altruistic reason your company exists.  If you don't have an altruistic reason your company exists and you're stuck with "my company exists to make me money", then you might as well just stop now.  Think long and hard about what you're trying to do and why you're doing it.  Remember, Google says their mission is "to organize the world's information" and CASHFLOW Technologies' (run by Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad) mission is to "help people become financially independent".

The purpose of this section of the mission statement is to set the broad focus of your company.  It explains why you're putting in the effort to build your own company rather than join a large corporate entity.  This section is critical for your company's public image, motivating your employees, and guiding decisions of senior management, as well as attracting strategic partners.

Your Values

In your mission statement, you should express your corporate values.  These values include both the character traits you demand of your employees, partners, customers, and vendors, as well as your professional values in how you run your business.

You should enumerate five to seven values or traits that embody all of your values.  A great example of a statement of values is the Seven Pillars of Islam.  It might be taboo to cite a religion in this context; however, realize that true practitioners of Islam (not those terrorist types) - spread across the globe - are all unified by their acceptance and observation of these Seven Pillars above all other rules and customs.  What that means is that while leadership is highly fragmented and distributed, a large body of people can accept the same basic principles of life and live together as such (again, I'm talking about the moderate Muslims, not the terrorists).

When you're drafting the statement of your values, think of your five to seven values, then write one to three sentences to describe each.  Of course you'll probably want to review and revise these, but I'll talk about that a bit later.

Your Value Proposition

The final section of your mission statement is the value proposition.  This section, like the others, should be short - just a few sentences or maybe a paragraph - and to the point.  It should be easily memorizable and explain how your altruistic mission is put into action to serve your customers. 

For example, Google's value statement would be "we are the leading provider of search technologies", in Microsoft's case it might be "we are the leading provider of productivity software and operating systems for computing devices".  This proposition is important to help you both convey to your customers and your employees what it is your company does.

Putting It Into Action

Show some of your drafts to all the people in the orbit of your company - your vendors, partners, and customers.  Ask them to comment and critique your draft.  This process will provide you with a lot of additional value, because it will help you connect with your customers more - they may see your value to them differently than how you see it - and get feedback from everyone with whom you work.  It may catch some flaws in your attitude and performance that you hadn't seen before and also show you things that you do well that you don't know about.  I guarantee you that this process, while it may be painful at times, will make your company stronger and improve your opportunity to succeed.