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Chapter 11 The Return of the Mission Statement • 195

• Developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about
change.
• Striving to buy, sell, and use environmentally friendly products.
• Recognizing that fiscal responsibility is essential to our environ-
mental future.
• Instilling environmental responsibility as a corporate value.
• Measuring and monitoring our progress for each project.
• Encouraging all partners to share in our mission.

A Mission Statement Has an External Focus
Many mission statements focus on the company alone. One mission
statement for a financial services company states: “We want to be the
leader in wealth creation.” Although “wealth creation” suggests the com-
pany is addressing the customer—who it would create wealth for—the
focus is that the company wants to be the leader. The rhetorical question
is, who wouldn’t want to be a leader, or world-class, or highly regarded?
As a consequence, the mission statement doesn’t really mean a lot.
Consider how Nike improved its mission statement. On its Web site
it writes that until 2001 its mission statement was to be the best sports
company in the world. Nike further writes, “While it may have been a
worthy ambition, it was focused only on the company; it was entirely
about us.” Earlier I already highlighted Nike’s new mission statement:
“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If
you have a body, you are an athlete.)”

The Mission Statement Should Be Specific
Many mission statements do not explain what drives the company, what
it excels at, or in general how it chooses to add value to its stakeholders.
A typical example would be: “We strive to offer the best products and
services, based on a superior understanding of the specific needs of our
customers, while being operationally excellent to drive our costs down.”
This mission statement doesn’t make sense. It tries to satisfy everyone’s
needs, but the lack of clarity achieves the opposite. Such a mission state-
ment doesn’t give any guidance as to the company’s strategy system
because it describes almost every possible strategy.
In reality, a focus on offering the best products means ensuring supe-
rior quality of raw materials as well as superior processes to assemble