You need a mission

January 3, 2024

This post may seem like a continuation of my most recent one, and in some ways, it is. It’s something, I realize, that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about since I started my career in late 2017, and also something I want to expand my thinking on. It’s about the concept of mission — mainly in the corporate sense of the word, but also in the team and individual role sense of it. I’ll get into my definition of the concept and its implications a little later in my post, but I’ll start by saying something that I’ve noticed, which has been the spark for me in deciding to write this: too few companies have clear missions — and I believe that this is detrimental not only to focus, but ultimately engagement, productivity and success.

What’s a mission?

One of my favorite business strategy writers, Lenny Rachitsky, describes the mission as follows in a great article on the topic:

Mission: why does your team (or company) even exist? What are you trying to achieve? What is your purpose?

He goes on to give a few examples for iconic companies:

  1. Tesla: “Accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
  2. TED: “Spread ideas.”
  3. Stripe: “Increase the GDP of the internet.”
  4. IKEA: “Create a better everyday life for the many people.”
  5. Patagonia: “Use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

So, in essence, a company mission is a statement about why the company exists in the first place.

Why having a mission is important

A company mission gives the outside world a clear standard to measure the company on and helps to position it, and it gives the company’s employees a cause to rally around.

In the era of growth at all cost and pivot-until-something-works, I’ve too often seen (and experienced), companies and CEOs chasing valuation and the ultimate payday of an acquisition as their only clear raison d’être. “When we exit…” becomes the de facto mantra for making product decisions, under-investing in the brand and justifying questionable behaviour. Financial incentives work, and they’re important, but alone and without a clear mission, are doomed to fail.

I’ve also worked at companies that got it right. Pleo, one of Europe’s most successful fintech companies, exists to “make people feel valued at work”. As an employee, knowing that I was contributing, even if in the slightest of ways, to achieving that mission gave me a clear sense of purpose. As a team leader, it simplified and accelerated my decision-making, allowing us to focus on the bigger-impact projects. The concept was so deeply embedded in the company culture that each team had their own mission which tied in to the company’s overarching one. One of the first things I did when I took on the role of Growth Product Manager was to write a one-page manifesto that helped align the team on our mission, i.e. why we exist. It gave everyone on the team a clear sense of purpose, aligned expectations and helped us move fast and ship impactful products.

Choosing a mission statement

I don’t believe that there’s a right or wrong mission. Each company or team ultimately exists for a unique reason, other than financial profit. They exist to see a change in the world. This change can be small, like helping accountants work more more efficiently, or big, like accelerating the world’s transition to renewable energy. I also don’t believe that it’s ever too late to choose a mission statement and start to incorporate it in your company’s decision-making process and culture. I do believe, however, that not having a clear mission statement is dangerous, and ultimately leads to the problems I’ve outlined above.

Getting to a mission statement is more art than science, and probably requires multiple brainstorming sessions and team retreats over an extended period of time. There’s no one-size-fits-all and no silver bullet. It takes work, but it’s worth it. If you’re a business or team leader and you feel like you don’t have a clear mission statement, I encourage you to invest time in finding and refining one — and eventually, making sure that it’s clearly communicated across the company and every business unit. It will pay dividends.