The mission statement is a sentence indicating purposes and the reasons for developing your business. As staff and clients read it, they have to immediately grasp the concept of values, ethics, and fundamental goals of your company. So yeah, it’s not an easy task. First, prepare for self-interrogations and all Whys and Hows. Here are several tips on how to write a mission statement.
1. ANSWER ALL WHYS AND HOWS
- What do we do today? (sell bamboo toothbrushes, print logos on T-Shirts, create video-content);
- For whom do we do it? (for environmentally conscious people, for corporate companies, for bloggers and advertisers);
- What is the benefit? (the support of environmental movements, personalization, creative content);
- Why do we do it? (to reduce the waste of plastic toothbrushes, to help companies enhance corporate culture, to create unique videos with professional video footage).
Before writing the concept in one sentence, understand what your company does. Determine its standards and the reasons to promote the product (except for revenue).
2. BE CONCISE
Recall the story from the beginning. Instead of writing “Fire escape” and putting an arrow to the left, I used redundant words like “create positive experiences”, “entice processes”, “alignment to global strategies”. These are the buzzwords. They have a vague meaning. The usage of buzzwords indicates bad mission statements. Insert these phrases everywhere and they will fit every context. Fit and destroy the uniqueness. Being concise means to get rid of redundant words and take only those phrases that are the most relevant. Read and think if you like the following sentences with the recurring “positive experience” phrase.
- Selling bamboo brushes, we create a positive environmental and hygienic experience;
- Our mission is to create a positive corporate experience for companies;
- We create positive content experiences by making top-notch videos.
3. BE AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE
If it doesn’t harm the content, make your statement short. TED.com is a great example. It’s a platform with talks on different topics – from science to pop culture. Their mission statement is “Share experience”. Although it consists of only two words, it precisely describes the peculiarities of the product. Also, it’s easy to remember. For me “Share experience” has become a firm association with TED.
Many companies write a one-paragraph mission statement with more than three sentences. Perhaps they have reasons for it. It may be a variety of services, products, and achievements. However, when I was searching for examples for this article, I noticed that the longer the statement the harder it is to recall it later. Added with buzzwords and no sense, it seems like the aim of the person who created it was to annoy you, take away your time and, well, cause a facepalming syndrome.
4. DON’T DO IT ALONE
Yes, big enterprises hire business analytics and marketing professionals to write missions for them. However, we suspect that if you google “how to write a mission statement for a business” it isn’t the case. Small and mid-sized companies spend spare money on something more global than a mission statement. So we suspect you are either a CEO or someone who has been told by your CEO to write it.
No matter the situation, don’t write it alone. Ask the team to help.
You: Okay, I came up with “we revolutionize hygienic routine by selling bamboo toothbrushes”, any other ideas?
A: I would change revolutionize into change – it’s less pretentious
D: We should highlight the fact that we are sustainable.
H: Yes, and we also plan to sell organic toothpaste. Shouldn’t we include it as well?
See? Your teammates can show another perspective. Use it.