Page 221 - Performance Leadership

210 • Part III Principles from the Values and Social Dimensions

of the products and services. For instance, product characteristics can
be benchmarked with the product characteristics of the competition,
such as the absorption power of paper toweling or protection against
bacteria for baby diapers. Then, the mission statement suggests improv-
ing consumer’s lives. For instance, this could be done by measuring
how much time and effort consumers save in cleaning the house and
changing a baby’s diapers. Lastly, the mission statement even suggests
a few core lagging performance indicators, such as market leadership,
sales, and profit. P&G shows how an effective mission statement helps
create alignment.

Call to Action

Most organizations have a mission statement, so I will assume your
organization has one too. Answer the following questions:

• Is your mission statement to the point? Specific and broad at the
same time?
• Does it have an external focus, explaining your basic function in
society? What do you achieve for others, and who are your
stakeholders anyway?
• Is your mission statement truthful?

A truthful mission statement reconciles the sometimes conflicting
nature of the social and values dimensions. The external focus should
be heartfelt and recognized by the outside world. If the market or soci-
ety at large don’t recognize the value you describe, the mission state-
ment is hollow and cannot be implemented. At the same time, if the
mission statement doesn’t reflect your values, implementation will not
succeed.
With a good mission statement in mind, you can start thinking about
how to implement the complete performance leadership framework in
Part IV of the book.