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On a
plaque in the lobby of Arrow Automotive Industries' headquarters is emblazoned
the auto-parts maker's mission statement: ``we make good parts. We ship on time.
We all sleep good at night.'' Developed by top managers a few years ago, the
mission statement appeared on company literature for about five months. But then
employees lost interest. Mission statements are to some they're inspirational
exhortations; to others they're useless boilerplate. No matter what, the
corporate mission statement is as commonplace in the business world as company
letterhead. Like the project proposal and the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation,
the writing of mission statements has been elevated to a management art. Every
firm from the smallest widget maker to the largest Fortune 500 Company seems to
have one. In fact, 9 out of 10 firms now have them, compared with 1 out of 3 in
1985.
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Companies have embraced the statements, putting them on everything from plaques
to coffee mugs, as an important marketing tool. An entire industry of
consultants has sprung up to help companies develop mission statements. But
naysayers argue the statements are balderdash. Although mission statements
became hot earlier this decade, today's employees say they don't always need a
formal code to understand the inner meaning of their jobs. Today's mission
statements read like a corporate wish list, citing companies' commitment to
lofty ideals such as ethics, customer satisfaction, employee development,
diversity and devotion to the larger community. More cynical hopes for the
bottom line also often creep into mission statements. Mercer Management
Consulting in Lexington, Mass., who has worked on numerous mission statements
with clients, has identified what is called the ``third-third-third rule.''
About one-third of businesses ``have a mission statement, believe in it, use it
as a reference,’’ another third ``have one but can't find it,'' and the
remaining third scoffs at the whole idea.
Drafting a mission statement can be a drawn-out process, and large firms often
hire consultants to help out. Consultants can charge between $2,000 and $5,000 a
day to work on mission statement projects. At Staples Inc., chief executive
Thomas G. Stemberg came up with the mission statement when he founded the
company in 1986. Every employee at Staples is issued a laminated, wallet-sized
card bearing the statement - ``Slashing the cost and hassle of running your
office!'' Some firms try to turn mission statement writing into a consensus-
building exercise. At General Electric Co., based in Fairfield, Conn., tens of
thousands of managers passing through the company's retreat campus in Ossining,
N.Y., between 1982 and 1992 contributed ideas to an emerging mission statement.
Appearing for the first time in a 1992 letter from Chairman John Welch Jr., the
``GE Values'' declaration espouses a broad vision of happiness for all.
According to the statement, GE's managers, among other tenets, ``have a passion
for excellence and hate bureaucracy,'' ``live quality . . . and drive cost and
speed for competitive advantage,'' ``have global brains . . . and build diverse
and global teams.'' Once the mission statement is written, executives face the
task of selling it to their employees. Often, the chief executive calls an
employee meeting to formally present the statement, which also can appear in the
company newsletter, on its Web site or on a lobby plaque. Some non-profit
organizations like The Society for Nonprofit Organizations and The Learning
Institute and the Colorado Association of non-profit organizations, however,
make their mission statements public with flair. Gimmicks go only so far toward
convincing doubters, who think mission statements are pointless at best and
laughable at worst. Some workers say a mission statement simply states the
obvious.
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