slogans

Mission Statements

I gave a lecture today to 200 undergraduates students about company missions statements. We tend to overlook mission statements until a junior arrives who has done some form of business studies. Then what we get is rather bland nonsense about "our workforce being our biggest asset" just as we are about to mechanise operations in order to eliminate five or six jobs. Often mission statements get confused with slogans and we get a slick one liner, which perhaps makes for a great advertising programme but does not fit the role of helping anyone understand the purpose and direction of the business.