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Writing a Mission Statement

Some Ideas

• List the organization's core competencies; its unique strengths and weaknesses.
• List the organization's primary customers, internal or external, by type, not by name.
• Review how each customer relates to each of the organization's strengths. Ask them if possible.
• Write a one-sentence description of each customer/strength pairing.
• Combine any that are essentially the same.
• List the sentences in order of importance to the organization's vision, if one exists.
• Combine the top three to five sentences into a paragraph.
• Ask your customers if they would want to do business with an organization with that mission.
• Ask your employees if they understand and support it and can act on it.
• Ask your suppliers if it makes sense to them.
• Incorporate the feedback from customers, employees and suppliers and repeat the process.
• When you have refined the paragraph into statements that clearly articulates the way the company wants to relate to those it affects, publish it to everyone. Post it on the wall, email it to everyone
• A good mission statement provides strategic vision and direction for the organization and should not have to be revised every few years. Goals and objectives are the short-term measures used to get there.
• Revise the organization's mission statement when it is no longer appropriate or relevant.

From Entrepreneur.com

Answering the following questions will help you to create a verbal picture of your business's mission:

• Why are you in business? What do you want for yourself, your family and your customers? Think about the spark that ignited your decision to start a business. What will keep it burning?
• Who are your customers? What can you do for them that will enrich their lives and contribute to their success--now and in the future?
• What image of your business do you want to convey? Customers, suppliers, employees and the public will all have perceptions of your company. How will you create the desired picture?
• What is the nature of your products and services? What factors determine pricing and quality? Consider how these relate to the reasons for your business's existence. How will all this change over time?
• What level of service do you provide? Most companies believe they offer "the best service available," but do your customers agree? Don't be vague; define what makes your service so extraordinary.
• What roles do you and your employees play? Wise captains develop a leadership style that organizes, challenges and recognizes employees.
• What kind of relationships will you maintain with suppliers? Every business is in partnership with its suppliers. When you succeed, so do they.
• How do you differ from your competitors? Many entrepreneurs forget they are pursuing the same dollars as their competitors. What do you do better, cheaper or faster than other competitors? How can you use competitors' weaknesses to your advantage?
• How will you use technology, capital, processes, products and services to reach your goals? A description of your strategy will keep your energies focused on your goals.
• What underlying philosophies or values guided your responses to the previous questions? Some businesses choose to list these separately. Writing them down clarifies the "why" behind your mission.

Talking points are small pre-prepared arguments or phrases that political strategists issue to representatives or supporters of a party or administration to be used repeatedly in speeches, talk show appearances and debates. The strategy is to create a meme and make the idea a common assumption by sheer means of repetition. Talking points are often gross simplifications of issues, and become name calling if used too often. The most effective talking points consist of one or two words, e.g. "flip-flopper", "job loser", and "ACLU member".

The Backgrounder

Definition: A document that explains the history of a company or product.

The Backgrounder will be a description of specific products or services. You may also need a backgrounder for your company, as a whole. Here are some aspects you may want to include in your product and company backgrounders:

1. Product Backgrounder:
1. What your field or industry did before your product came along.
2. Explanation of any scientific terms or jargon of the industry.
3. The problems your industry or field has had.
4. What your company discovered - results of that discovery.
5. What your specific product can do, how it can resolve previously unresolved problems.
6. Your products advantages over existing products.
7. What the future holds for your product or where your product may lead the industry.
2. Company Backgrounder:
1. Where your company is located, when company started, why company started.
2. Explanation of your product.
3. The kind of company that you have and what the company does.
4. Information about the key people in your company.
5. Information about your industry.
6. The accomplishments of your company.
7. Any "firsts" your company has achieved. Meaning, was your company the first to achieve recognition for a product or service in your field?
8. The future of your company.

Go to your favorite search engine and do a search for "backgrounder." You will be able to read many examples of various types of backgrounders. The more that you read, the more you will begin to get a feel for what you should include for your specific product or company.

You will find that some are very complex and contain a great deal of information. Others are more down-to-earth and contain easily readable information.

You will need to consider your product and your company and determine the "mood" or the "image" that you are trying to convey. If you are developing an Online Press Center, people other than the media are going to read your backgrounder. If you are developing a Press Kit to send to the media, you may want to get into more specific details and industry jargon.

FOR YOUR GROUP
Must write your own mission statement based on the questions you all know about yourselves.