There are too many bad company mission statements in the world. And I mean really bad. Long, verbose, over-burdened, unclear. Often they end up expressing all of the how and none of the what. Many are created by committee.
A mission statement should be so clear that you should be able to ask any employee of that business what the company vision was and they’d be able to tell you in one sentence. As Seth Godin has said, it should be so unambiguous that it forces the company to make tough decisions about what the company stands for. The communication of it should express the vision in a way which is not at odds with the philosophy it encapsulates and not over-burdened with lenghty explanations (if you have to explain it, it’s already wrong). Which is why this is so perfect.
Robert Kalin, founder of Etsy.com, expressing the vision of his business by narrating the story of Swimmy the fish. The story fits perfectly with Etsy’s vision to empower a community of smaller fish in creating a new environment in which they can prosper and make the world a better place. I’ve never seen anything like this before, and it’s excellent.
Thanks to James for the link.
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