Leftovers
Miss Sun (a paean to Boz Scaggs)
Everything is called a mission these days; and that’s what’s missing.
What is it about miss-shun that has made it the most overused of all misunderstood words! In marketing you hear people say “What’s your mission?” like “How’s your soup?” without really caring what the answer is. Yet mission is as important as messaging in media training. When the core value, statement or motto of a company—what could be written on the bathroom wall in large non graffiti letters—is clear, it can effectually make the hard work tons easier.
Not sharing The Mission is selfish and a crappy business strategy. It deftly explains why so many overblown ideas tanked as corporate entities in those mission-free 90’s: Someone (a Venture Capitalist probably) knew what the goals were. They didn’t share it with anyone—except their accountant.
The importance of mission is redoubled when we accept that in the milieu of citizen journalism every employee is a potential usable spokesperson. The key to everyone wanting to build the same strong, unerring ladder is being on a non-clichéd playing field with full open book knowledge of what’s happening inside, and where daily responsibilities of one’s job are leading the company.
A dozen years ago the chairman of Bloomingdales stood in front of a customer acquisition panel and said without blinking: “The most important people are those that go up in the elevator at 9 and leave at around 6.”
It was his fancy way of telling the attendees that his staff needed to be happy before any customer was going to readily spend cash at his beloved place of business. Too often, the “mission” of a company is to succeed at any cost, probably because of the altogether capricious economy.
When we think of successful companies, we imagine those few where people within the organization get what they’re doing and why they are there, and what the goal is for everyone in attendance.
Think Apple.