The Five Ws (and One H) of Effective Mission Statements

It’s not all about touchdowns for BYU’s football team, though you’d never know it judging by last year’s knockout season—or the past four seasons, for that matter. During the past four years, the Cougars have won forty-three and lost nine, a record surpassed by only four other schools in the country.¹

What most people don’t know is that head coach Bronco Mendenhall attributes much of the team’s success—both on and off the field—to the creation and implementation of a mission statement, a creed that emerged shortly after he started coaching at BYU.

“So many people were interested in which direction the program was going to move,” Mendenhall says. “It became clear there was going to have to be one statement to encompass the principles and ideals our team would have.” 

Mendenhall and his staff set out to develop a mission statement. After a three-hour brainstorming session, the following statement emerged: “To be the flag bearer of Brigham Young University through football excellence, embracing truth, tradition, virtue and honor as a beacon to the world.”

Notice there’s no mention of winning. “Winning to me is not the most important part,” Mendenhall concedes. “What I believe is a measure of whether we’re succeeding is: are the men reaching their potential?” 

And he believes they are. Since the mission statement’s implementation in 2005, Mendenhall has had many reasons to smile. For starters, he’s seen more than two-hundred players leave to serve full-time missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He’s watched players become excellent husbands and fathers—more than one hundred have tied the knot, and more than twenty of those have become fathers. Scholastically, the Cougars have the highest grade point average among NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools that participated in an informal survey. 

Even though the players love the game, Mendenhall says, the mission statement has helped them develop a sense of purpose for what they do on a daily basis. “It gives them a deeper motive. It’s a cause, not a job. It’s a purpose, not an activity. When you really believe in a cause or a purpose, you’re willing to try and do a lot more.” Clearly a winning strategy for the BYU football team.

Why Mission Statements?

The presence of a mission statement alone may not promise the level of success the Cougars have achieved, nor will the lack of a mission statement guarantee failure.² But research suggests there are innumerable benefits when companies and organizations have such a creed. Here are just a few: 

• Increases organizational effectiveness 
• Doubles the chances that employees will follow guidelines 
• Increases return on certain financial measures 
• Motivates staff
• Improves leadership
• Results in wiser use of resources
• Establishes a common 3, 4, 5

Haley Rushing, co-founder of The Purpose Institute in Austin, Texas, helps companies identify and articulate their purposes. She firmly believes that once an organization has a solid vision in place and lives it, success will follow. “We love profit. That’s the byproduct of putting your talent and energy toward something that matters,” she says. “The more purpose-driven you are, the more profit-driven you are. There is no trade-off.”

Who Needs a Mission Statement?

Mission statements are the most widely used management tool; the cost is small and the dividends are high. A recent survey by Boston-based consultants Bain & Company revealed that nine out of ten Fortune 500 firms use them.⁶ More and more profit and nonprofit organizations are adopting strategic management activities into their day-to-day operations with mission statements being an essential first step in the strategic management process.⁷

Rushing believes that companies big and small need to define their purpose, and she’s seen what having that focus can do for a company’s performance. “If you want a great brand, you have to stand for something, and you have to commit to making a difference,” she says. “Organizations with a purpose and core values are built to last.” 

Jon Ladle, president and chief operating officer of Advanous, a pricing and margin analytics firm in Richmond, Virginia, has experienced the far-reaching benefits of implementing a mission statement. His company’s mantra guides every decision: “Employees are number one, and we are going to provide amazing customer service.”

Recently Advanous considered outsourcing some of its key software development activities. “As we looked at that decision, we had to understand how that would affect our employees,” says Ladle, who earned his MBA from the Marriott School in 2000. With fewer than twenty-five employees, he says, it’s critical that they feel valued, challenged, and an integral part of the company’s strategic plans. 

Crafting a Family Mission Statement

Christy and Jerry Fiala, who each earned their MBAs from the Marriott School, applied their fresh business knowledge to their first venture together: marriage.

When the couple married in 1990, they did what seemed fit when striving to build a successful organization—they created a mission statement. 

“When it comes to sharing a vision, marriage is a little like starting a business,” says Jerry, who earned his MBA in 1991. “You’d rather have the partners get together right at the start of it to decide what their values are.”

Nine children later, the family mission statement penned twenty years ago holds true today. “It’s still relevant. We aligned ourselves and nothing’s changed,” says Christy, who earned her MBA in 1990. 
The Fiala mission statement begins: Our ultimate goal is to gain eternal life as a family. It is followed by a paragraph of explanation, followed by focus areas, such as career, education, physical development, and spirituality. 

At the start of each year, the family sets goals and marks its calendar with activities like family home evenings, outings, and temple trips—all in support of the family mission statement. “Everything else that comes up during the year needs to fit in the remaining slots,” Christy says. “As the year progresses we sometimes have to move those initial dates around, but we don’t move them unless we can find other dates.” 

The Fiala family mission statement resides in a simple notebook in their Glen Allen, Virginia, home.

In referring back to the company objectives, leaders at the company decided against using an external company because it could potentially deprioritize the employees’ value to the company. 

Implementing the company mantra, which also emphasizes delivering amazing customer service, has helped Advanous to achieve a retention rate of more than 80 percent of its production customers during the past six years. “Our customers have consistently told us that we have far exceeded their expectations and that’s the reason why they stay with us,” Ladle says. 

What are effective mission statements?

Rushing has also co-authored the book It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For with Roy Spence. Spence is chair and CEO of GSD&M Idea City. The premise of their book was born out of working with some of the most-recognized companies in the country—Walmart and BMW, to name a couple—who were outperforming competitors fifteen to one. 

Rushing and Spence looked at these top-notch businesses and asked, “What’s at the heart of these companies?” They discovered two common denominators: purpose and values. Essentially, Rushing says, the companies that are succeeding aren’t just profit-driven; they’ve put values before earnings. 

Rushing isn’t alone in her thinking. A research study on mission statements was conducted with a sample of 136 large Canadian organizations.⁸

Results showed that companies whose mission statements contained quantitative financial goals had significantly lower organizational performance. Why? The authors suggest it may be because the real purpose of such statements gets lost in the presence of financial goals. As such, the authors conclude that high-performing firms are leaving financial goals out of their mission statements.

On the contrary, those firms whose mission statements contained organizational values, purposes, or goals enjoyed significantly higher firm performance. Here’s an example: “Our purpose is to meet and exceed customer needs and expectations.⁹

Purpose is about people—not just money. “Purpose should feel like a lofty and noble goal that you’re putting your life’s work into,” Rushing says. “Nobody wants to make his or her life’s purpose to be increasing quarterly earnings.”

When is it time to establish a mission statement?

Ladle’s team at Advanous wrote its mantra on day one. “It is absolutely critical to establish the rules for how you’re going to run a company,” he says.

And if a company that’s been in existence for some time doesn’t have a mission statement in place, the time to write one is now. 

If the business is becoming a global player, it may be time to revisit a mission statement, advises Dee Allsop, CEO and managing partner at Heart and Mind Strategies in Washington, D.C. Additionally, says Allsop, a BYU grad, “If your business is leveling off, you need to find an expanded scope on the mission, or greater relevance, so you can keep on an upward trajectory.”

Where should mission statements appear?

A mission statement doesn’t have to be chiseled into the architecture of an office building to be impactful. Many corporations tailor their mission statements toward stockholders and potential investors by including the statements in annual reports and other investment literature.10 Other mission statements appear in brochures, booklets, and handbooks. Some companies frame and display mission statements in high traffic areas; others reproduce them in wallet-size formats for ease of distribution to employees and other interested parties. 

Some mission statements are even wearable. Players on BYU’s football team wear a coin around their necks with a flag bearer on the front and the mission statement on the back. Coach Mendenhall says the football team’s mission statement also appears in the school agreement all athletes must review and sign. 

How do I know if what I have is good—or how do I start?

Rushing says an organization may want to rethink its mission statement if one of the following two scenarios is true: 

1. You get ten company employees in a room, ask them what the company mission statement is, and you get ten different answers.
   
2. If it’s more than a paragraph long, it’s probably not effective. Nobody will ever remember it.

Crafting an exceptional mission statement requires brainstorming, researching, and perhaps some soul-searching. A quality mission statement expresses an entity’s aim, conveys the organization’s identity, and considers the organization’s strategic direction.¹¹

Here are some tips for creating lasting mission statements.

Discover the Purpose

For it to be effective, Rushing and Spence suggest crafting the mission statement in the context of a purpose. “Purpose is a definitive statement about the difference you are trying to make in the world,” they say. “That is the hinge that everything else hangs upon.”¹² They suggest to start by asking, “Why do we do what we do?” and “Why is it important to the people we serve?”¹³

Stay Focused

Powerful statements have a single-minded focus.¹⁴“Focus on what you are trying to accomplish because how you will accomplish it will probably change and evolve over time,” say authors Rushing and Spence.¹⁵

Keep it Simple

A child should be able to easily digest a mission statement. Walmart’s initial purpose statement, crafted by Rushing and Spence at The Purpose Institute, was: “Improving the quality of life by lowering the cost of living.” Greg Chandler, director of reputation marketing at Walmart and a 1996 Marriott School MBA grad, insisted the purpose be rewritten so any of his six children could understand it. That’s how “to save people money so they can live better” came about.

Aim High

A mission statement should be something to which people can aspire. “You may not always deliver, but if that’s why the organization ultimately exists, then put it on a pedestal and preach it,” Rushing says.

Implement, Implement, Implement

Once the mission statement is in place, it’s time to roll it into action. “The leadership of the organization needs to believe in it and start operating with it as their north star. If it’s not genuine, it won’t ever take root in a way that leads to performance,” Rushing says. “They have to live it and make it real.”
And that’s when the great trickle-down effect comes into play. Leadership embraces the mission, employees are inspired and follow, and the outside world feels it and witnesses it. 

Organizations may not have huddles between each play as the Cougars do, but with a mission statement in place, they can have a unified purpose and strategy. Whether the end result is a touchdown or a business acquisition, a mission statement is clearly a winning strategy for any team. 

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Article written by Jennifer Mathis
Illustrated by The Heads of State

About the Author
Jennifer Mathis is a freelance writer based near Richmond, Virginia. In the midst of writing this article, she suggested to her husband that they create a family mission statement. Without hesitation, he supplied a single word he thought would be appropriate: Simplify.

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NOTES 

1. www.byucougars.com/Filing.jsp?ID=13409.
2. Christopher Kenneth Bart and Mark C. Baetz, “The Relationship between Mission Statements and Firm Performance: An Exploratory Study,” Journal of Management Studies, 35:6 (November 1998): 828.
3. Shirleen Holt, “Mission Possible: Can Mission Statements Keep a Company on Track? Absolutely—but Staff Input Is Critical,” BusinessWeek, 7 September 1999.
4. Christopher Kenneth Bart and Mark C. Baetz, “The Relationship between Mission Statements and Firm Performance: An Exploratory Study,” Journal of Management Studies, 35:6 (November 1998): 827–9.
5. M. Klemm, S. Sanderson, and G. Luffman, “Mission Statements: Selling Corporate Values to Employees,” Long Range Planning, 3, 24, 73–78, 1991.
6. R. Grede, “Marketing Lowdown: The Mission Statement,” Sales & Marketing Management, 22 December 2009.
7. D. S. Cochran, F. R. David, and C.K. Gibson, “A Framework for Developing an Effective Mission Statement,” Journal of Business Strategies, Fall 2008. 
8. Christopher Kenneth Bart and Mark C. Baetz, “The Relationship between Mission Statements and Firm Performance: An Exploratory Study,” Journal of Management Studies 35:6 (November 1998): 823, 845–46.
9. Ibid.
10. L. Godkin, S. Valentine, H. Boler, and T. Lambert, “An Analysis of Mission Statements from Top Companies: Content And Style,” Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 4, 1, January 2000, p.76(9).
11. Ibid.
12. Roy M. Spence Jr. and Haley Rushing, It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For. New York. (2009): 10.
13. Ibid: 39.
14. Ibid: 52–53.
15. Ibid: 58.