One of my favorite professors from college was my marketing professor Ken Germann. He taught the class the whole quarter with no notes and nothing on his desk but a cup of coffee, a cigar, and a binder so that he could collect our assignments, you see, he had a photographic memory (or so I think). Ken Germann was (is) was a larger fellow with a slight limp, but he was one of the most powerful people I have ever met (presence wise).
When Ken walked into the room he gave off a presence that said “I’m in charge,” people listened to Ken. In college, attendance isn’t usually mandatory and classes are usually half full, not in Ken’s class, people showed up and they paid attention, Ken made sure of that. Ken used to tell a story of how he presented a strategy to a bunch of Coca-Cola execs, he noticed that they were tuning out or fiddling around so he said “You are all whores!” Well the execs quickly perked up and they started listening. Coca-Cola decided not to work with Ken, but they did end up using the strategy he created. Ken was (is) marketing.
So why my rant on my old marketing professor? Because I have been going through some of my old notes and ideas. In particular I was going over mission and vision statements and I want to share a quick no bullshit way to explain what they are supposed to do (as Ken would naturally do).
Mission Statement
A mission statement needs to have 3 things:
- The value and belief of your organization
- It needs to explain the business you are in
- And, it should profile your customer/explain who your customer is
Vision Statement
You need a visionary to make the vision statement work, every company needs a visionary! A vision statement also needs to have 3 things, it needs to explain:
- Who are we today
- Who are we tomorrow
- How do we get there
What are some of your favorite mission and vision statements and why? check out some examples here
Thanks for reading and thanks Ken!
Comments