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Your company’s mission statement has to draw a compelling picture of what your business is all about. We often refer to this picture as creating a tangible image of the company. We begin with a first stab at a mission statement:

Our [fill-in your product or service] brings unique value to people, wherever they may be.

Not a bad start. This statement says a little something about geography and a bit about being different. But you’re far from done. To work toward communicating the company’s activities, accomplishments, and capabilities with more clarity and punch, we suggest expanding the statement as follows:

We provide the highest quality [name your product/service] with unmatched value to the global [your product/service] industry, which allows our customers to be leaders in their own fields.

This statement conveys what the company does (provides the highest-quality products or services), who it serves (the relevant global industry), and what sets it apart from its competitors (unmatched value, which allows customers to lead their own fields). This is a far more compelling mission statement than the earlier version.

How do real companies go about capturing their purpose clearly and concisely, in 50 words more or less? The following examples provide useful insights. If you want more, just key in “mission statement” after naming an organization, and chances are your search engine will crank it out pronto. We may not agree with the composition of each of these. But after reading this chapter up to here, dear reader, and drawing on your own knowledge of the statements under the microscope, we’ll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions. You even might want to give each a grade, say from one to five with five being the best, and then try to explain to yourself why you awarded that score. Give it a go.

 American Red Cross (an international humanitarian organization): The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.

 Google (leading online search engine firm): Our company mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That’s why Search makes it easy to discover a broad range of information from a wide variety of sources. Some information is purely factual, like the height of the Eiffel Tower. For more complex topics, Search is a tool to explore many angles so you can form your own understanding of the world.

 Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley: Our mission is to help extraordinary people achieve great things. At Haas, we live our distinctive culture out loud by embracing our four Defining Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself.

 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (large international book publisher): Wiley empowers researchers, learners, universities, and corporations to achieve their goals in an ever-changing world.

 Tesla (global manufacturer of electric vehicles): Tesla’s mission is to the accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

 Walt Disney (diversified entertainment company): The mission of the Walt Disney Co. is to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services, and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative, and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.