Are you on a Mission?

Buddhist philosophy teaches that Perfect Thought, Perfect Word and Perfect Deed are the path to enlightenment.  The Buddha CEO system provides tools for each step along the path.

The second Perfect Thought tool in our series is the Mission Statement.  The war for talent, capital, credit and customers is extremely competitive.  Therefore, you will need more than an exciting vision to be successful.  You must also create value.  You communicate your value proposition through a Mission Statement.

Mission statements function as advertisements for your customers.  They should communicate your unique value proposition for your targeted customer.  The value proposition must be differentiated and compelling.

The Hedgehog Concept

When working on defining your mission, a key paradigm to keep top of mind is the Jim Collins Hedgehog Concept metaphor.  The basic premise of the Hedgehog Concept (see “Good to Great” for an in-depth discussion) is that if want your business to excel vs. exist, you must define a mission in the context of the following test. 

Where can you carve out a piece of the market that perfectly hits the bull’s-eye of the intersection of the following three constraints?

1. Where do you have the opportunity to become THE BEST?
2. What are you passionate about?
3. What does the marketplace value?

This therefore creates an acid test that you can double back to and determine if your mission statement is a winner.  If you can’t be the best at the core commercial purpose as defined in your mission statement, you are wasting the limited resources of business oxygen that could be better allocated to other endeavors either by you or someone else. 

If you are not deeply, truly, honestly passionate about your mission, you will fail to achieve optimal results.  If you are not going to be able to achieve the best results, what is the point in even trying?  This life is too short.  Use it wisely on something you can be deeply proud of accomplishing. 

Passion is a critical element because in business it is simply too hard day to day to keep your strength if you are running on anything else other than pure passion.  I know this for a fact as I have worked in the business world in many capacities.  

All of my above experience has had one common denominator; it has been difficult day to day and hour to hour.  I continue to be amazed at what all can happen in one business day to sap your strength and rob your joy.  Passion is the essential ingredient that keeps you forging ahead to accomplish you mission and ultimately achieve your vision.

You simply must be passionate about what you do, who you do it for and who you do it with or your work life will not produce the fruit of enlightenment.

Lastly, Stephen Covey always points out that we can never forget that even with all of the good intentions of being the best plus the benefit of being passionate etc, that no margin = no mission. 

If there is not an economic model for your organization that will reward all of the stakeholders from the customers, to the team members, the vendors, stockholders and the community at large, there is no purpose in getting started or continuing on.  There is an absolute unconditional guarantee that your efforts will fail in this 21^st century flat world if there is not a sufficient profit model for your business.

Are you on a mission?  If so, please share yours with us!