Deciphering The Company Mission-Practice Gap
Edition #009
Introduction
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Company Mission
by Tom Blomfield
Companies' mission statements often become chest-thumping exercises or pithy statements displayed in company corridors. It may be bold and ambitious, but many borders around the area of satisfying the ego of Founders, CEOs, Promoters etc., to tell the world how smart they are or how they want the company to change the world. Still, many times, the customer is forgotten.
Monzo, a new age digital bank, in its mission statement, mentions the reason to exist, which is outlined very well by its CEO Tom Blomfield. It has a deep sense of empathy or connect with what they attempt to do for its customers, and another nice touch is the Tone of Voice which is a way to tell employees or every associate in the bank how to live the mission every day.
Seeking wisdom in the Theory of Games
with Prof. Yadati Narahari
Prof. Yadati Narahari is the Dean of Computer Science and Automation at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He is recognised globally for his work in Game Theory, Mechanism Design and Artificial Intelligence.
We had a wide-ranging discussion with Prof. Narahari. Here is a snapshot of a few topics we discussed:
The convergence of Artificial Intelligence and Game Theory,
Applications of game theory in social media,
The legacy and impact of John von Neumann,
The contribution of Hal Ronald Varian (who serves as Chief Economist at Google and holds the title of Emeritus Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was founding Dean at the School of Information. Varian is an Economist specialising in Microeconomics and Information Economics)
The conflict between Intuition and Optimisation,
The Power of Incentives
H also spoke to us about what success means to him, among many other topics.
Listen to the full episode on:
Future of Creativity
This is an excellent conversation between Nobel laureates May-Britt Moser, Edvard Moser, Randy Schekman, Michael Levitt, Robert J. Shiller, and Carl Wieman. They discuss how technology might affect creativity at the Nobel Week Dialogue.
They share their thoughts on what they think is creativity, how creative breakthroughs happen, would we as humans be more creative in 30 years than we are today, to be creative how do you balance the conflict between the need to be an individual and the need to collaborate, how much did creativity contribute to their success and will there be a machine that will be awarded a Nobel prize in the future!
Deciphering The Company Mission-Practice Gap
Companies take a lot of effort to define and get their Mission Statements right, but the people who work there every day may not care as much or may find it difficult to understand or practice them.
Many mission statements looked and sounded picture perfect. Let’s take some examples - Google’s mission statement - ‘To provide access to the world’s information in one click’ or Apple - ‘To bring the best user experience to our customers through our innovative hardware, software, and services’ or Nike ‘To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.’ or Airbnb ‘To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere’ or Tatas ‘Improving the quality of life for the communities we serve globally’ or Decathlon ‘To sustainably make the pleasure and benefits of sport accessible to many’ or HDFC Bank ‘To be a world-class Indian bank’ or Adidas ‘To be the global leader in the sporting goods industry with brands built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle’.
The interesting thing is to close your eyes, imagine these mission statements and see which one of them practices what they have put out in their Product offering or Service delivery. The challenge in making this happen is the gap between Company Mission vs Personal Mission. When you look at some personal mission statements of say, Sir Richard Branson, ‘To have fun in my journey through life and learn from my mistakes.” or Novak Djokovic, “I make an effort to be open-minded, always to bring new detail into my life – whether it is with practice, my diet, mental approach etc. Anything that will give me an edge and allow me to improve my game, mental approach, or emotions on the court. Of course, I have my formula, but that can be changed because I am a man who changes, just like any of you. We must adapt to these changes.” or Kobe Bryant, “If you want to be great at something, there’s a choice you have to make. What I mean by that is that there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that. Family time, hanging out with friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be.”
Companies or individuals must ponder to see if there is an alignment between the company mission and personal mission amongst most people who work there. This starts right at the time of hiring, where beyond qualifications and experience, companies must carefully look at the personal drivers or aspirations of these individuals. Also, accountability lies in the hands of individuals applying for a company to see if their personal mission statement aligns with that of the company. If you don’t have a personal mission, write one down and see if it matches with that of the company and then take a call to apply or not or even work.
When missions don’t match, the process of daily practice, rigour, discipline and action suffers. It starts to show on products, service, culture and performance.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
Company mission statements need to articulate more than just the passion and purpose of the firm. It needs to get closer to what it can do for its customers. It is also vital to close the gap between the company mission and align it to every individual’s personal mission to succeed.
Creativity happens when you bring two unconnected ideas and look for patterns never seen before. For this to happen, you must learn to collaborate, seek to explore, know and learn new things constantly. Creativity is driven by being open, curious, and keen eye for observation.