Читать книгу Business Plans For Dummies - Paul Tiffany - Страница 66

A mission statement doesn’t need to be long. In fact, the shorter it is, the better. Even so, the task of creating one can seem impossibly daunting — the Mount Everest of business-planning chores, right up there with that vision thing we encounter in Chapter 3. One reason is that a mission statement has to sum up some pretty grand ideas in a few sentences. Another is that writing a mission statement requires business planners to ask themselves some fundamental questions — and come up with solid answers. And don’t forget, your mission statement should closely reflect the values and vision you set for your company.

In other words, a mission statement answers the basic questions first posed long ago by the famed business guru Peter Drucker:

What business are you in? Who is your customer?

When you conscientiously create a mission statement, you’ll find yourself drilling into the core of your business. Take this example: Home construction toolmaker firms like DeWalt or Makita offer drill bit products to the DIYers who finally gets around to fixing that creaking railing on the back deck. They’re the customers, and the business purpose is the manufacture of metal alloy bits for electric drills — right? Nope. What do these weekend warriors really want? A hole! The drill bit itself is merely a means to an end. Perhaps there’s a looming new laser technology out there that might get the hole-creation task done more efficiently. And the real customer might be the person demanding that the fix-it job finally gets done. If you see yourself only as a shaper and twister of metal for those with lots of nasty little cuts and scrapes on their hands and arms, you’ll likely miss potential competitive threats and focus your marketing efforts on the wrong target.

By understanding the business you’re really in and the customer who truly drives the purchase decision, the firm can address its markets and their needs in a way that better informs the realities they face and decisions they make. A good mission statement will capture this.

A little preparation up front can make the process a bit easier. Ask yourself some background questions as you get ready to work on your company’s mission statement. Don’t worry if the answers are fairly general at this point, because you’re only interested in the basics right now. Research your goals and the practices of the competition and then answer these questions:

 Which customers or groups of customers do you plan to serve?

 What products or services do you plan to provide?

 What needs do you want to satisfy?

 How will your company’s products differ from competing offerings?

 What extra value or benefits will customers receive when they choose your company over the competition?

Need some help? You should enlist managers who are familiar with all the aspects of your business, or if you’re a start-up, call in those advisors who’ve been there before. Follow these steps to begin the process:

1 Get together a small group of people whose responsibilities cover all the major functions and activities of the company.If you run a small company, include trusted friends, former co-workers, and perhaps even your significant other in this group.

2 Ask the group members to prepare for the meeting by coming up with their own answers to the background questions we list earlier in this section.

3 Review the reasons for having a company mission in the first place, and go over what the mission statement should include.

4 Schedule several informal meetings in which group members can present their own perspectives, brainstorm a bit, and begin to form a consensus.

5 Create, revise, and review the company’s mission statement over as many formal meetings as it takes for everyone to be satisfied with the final product.

A well-crafted mission statement is clear, concise, and easily understood. You should also make it distinctive (from the competition) and up-to-date (given the company’s situation and market dynamics).

One rock in the road you have to watch out for is “mission creep.” This can occur when the decision-makers forget to stick to the script and get overzealous about what the organization is trying to do, or what they think it can do. As a result, they tack on a little something here, work in a new objective there, and before you know it, end up with a dog’s mess of conflicting goals and underfunded initiatives. It’s worth installing practices and procedures in your own organization that allow for a systematic review of your mission and whether (or not) it’s still guiding your direction. As firms grow and rewards get objectified, some folks in the organization will see opportunities for personal benefit in the scramble for access to scarce resources, no matter how distant the supposed opportunity is from the firm’s core. One good opportunity to call out mission creep is at the annual strategic review session (see Chapter 17).