WHAT'S YOUR COMPANY'S GUIDING STAR?

In days of old, mariners steered their course by the stars, often picking out one particular star to follow.

Today's companies often have a mission statement which should (but seldom does) serve the same purpose. A mission statement is like a compass, which can keep your company from veering back and forth as the makeup of your management team changes.

Republicans recently read the US Constitution out loud to start the new congressional session. They obviously felt that the country was off course, and were trying to focus attention back on what they considered to be the "national mission statement." If there is this kind of disagreement over our country's direction, how much easier is it for a company to drift off course?

Unfortunately, for many companies, the mission statement doesn't get much attention once it's created. It's dusted off once a year for the annual report, and may appear in a customer presentation or two, but no one really pays much attention to it.

An impressive exception is Johnson & Johnson's CREDO. It's worth a look. This 300 word mission statement addresses the company's relationship with its four most important constituencies: customers, employees, the community, and stockholders. It does this in plain language, and explains why it says what it says. For example, when it states that costs should be kept low, it specifies that this is not to bolster profits, but to hold prices down.

Here at the beginning of a new year, and in the midst of challenging economic times, it might make sense to exhume your mission statement and think about breathing some new life into it. Right now it may be a toothless lion. But if you develop a meaningful mission statement and give it the ongoing attention it deserves, it can be a compass that will help your company sail through troublesome times without expensive and unproductive zigs and zags.