The SHIFTPOINTS Blog

Your company has a mission.

Otherwise, you should not exist.

As best as I can determine, the term “mission statement” first appeared in an obscure U.S. Department of Commerce document published in 1960. Since then, it has become conventional wisdom to suggest that companies should have One.

While every company has a mission, our research revealed that many—but certainly not all—companies have mission statements.

Crafting a corporate mission statement can be an excruciating process.

In 1983, Bain and Company, the management consulting firm, embarked on the process of crafting a mission statement. The senior partners of the firm spent five days holed up in a cabin in New Hampshire. They agonized over every word and ultimately crafted this statement:

“We help our clients create such high levels of value that together we set new standards of excellence in our respective industries.”

Bill Bain, their founder and CEO, described it this way, “This is the combination of those things that we already do when we are at our best and those things that we need to do to be at our best more often.”

While most of the mission statements we reviewed were vanilla and uninspiring, a well-crafted One—like Bain’s—can help companies create alignment.

This week, we will look at how fast-lane companies addressed this issue. Amazon’s mission is internally focused and articulates what they aspire to become. Tesla’s mission is externally focused and describes what they aspire to do.

To me, aspirations are visions, not missions, but who am I to argue with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk?

Next, we will look at Medtronic. They have been guided by their mission for sixty years!

Finally, we will explore One.org and learn how companies can make their mission more inspiring.

Of course, it is not enough to have One Mission; you must use your mission to guide both big strategic decisions and everyday tactics. You must align everyone—and everything—with it. You must prune things that are not aligned with your mission.

NOTE: These stories are excerpted from my book, Drive One Direction.

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book,Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Vision chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on One Vision.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (www.MADD.com) is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization with over 400 employees, over 8,000 volunteers, and over 200 field locations.

It all started with One Mom.

Candace Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving on September 5, 1980, after her 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunk driver.

In the nearly 40 years since their founding, drunk driving deaths have been reduced by 50%.

While that is impressive, they are intensely focused on One Number: zero.

Zero deaths. Zero injuries. Zero families impacted by impaired driving.

Here is how they bring their vision to life, “At MADD, we believe in zero. Zero fathers who aren’t there for bedtime. Zero mothers who miss the first day of kindergarten. Zero sons and daughters who never come home. We believe in zero victims of drunk driving. Since MADD’s founding, we’ve made great strides … but it is not good enough because every year, drunk driving injures over 290,000 people. It’s not good enough because every year, drunk driving takes 10,000 lives. It’s not good enough because it isn’t zero.”

MADD’s campaign to get to zero has four strategic initiatives:

• High-visibility law enforcement, including DUI checkpoints.
• Ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers, which forces offenders to provide a sober breath sample before operating their vehicles.
• Advanced vehicle technology, including autonomous vehicles which have the potential to eliminate roadway fatalities.
• Public support, since everyone has a responsibility to help eliminate drunk driving.

In Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras introduced the concept of the Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal or BHAG (pronounced bee-hag). Here is how they describe it, “A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines.”

MADD’s “zero” is a brilliant example of a BHAG. It is clear, simple, and inspiring.

It is also a brilliant example of the One Number strategy. When you can summarize your vision in One Number, everyone knows exactly how you keep score.

Lots of numbers are important, but it is the job of the leader to define which One is the most important.

Revenue. Revenue Growth. Profitability. Market Share. Customer Satisfaction. Net Promoter. Earnings per Share. Share Price. All of these (and more) are good numbers.

Which One is the most important? That depends on how you define success. Ideally, find One Number that is simple to measure and simple to communicate.

MADD’s vision is One Word that also happens to be One Number. Brilliant!

If you had to summarize your vision with One Number, what would it be?

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book,Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Vision chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on One Vision.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) began in 1971 as a low-cost carrier with three airplanes flying to three cities in Texas. Now, they have approximately 750 airplanes making more than 4,000 weekday departures during peak travel seasons to over nearly 100 destinations. More than 58,000 employees serve over 120 million passengers every year.

Southwest is a great example of a company whose vision statement clearly articulates their ambition.

In January 2013, Southwest launched a new vision: to become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline. 

Their vision has three components, and each can be measured.

The “most loved” component expresses how they want people—customers, employees, partners, suppliers, and investors—to feel about them. Here is how they are doing:

• Southwest has been #1 in the DOT Consumer Satisfaction Ranking for 23 of the last 27 
• Southwest is ranked #2 on the list of Top-Rated Workplaces in 2018 by Indeed.
• Southwest received 301,825 resumes and hired 6,275 new employees in 2017. 

Since launching their vision, the stock is up more than 300 percent!

The “most flown” component expresses their desire to be the biggest. Here is how they are doing:

• Southwest is America's largest domestic airline in terms of originating domestic passengers with 24 percent market share at the end of 2017.

The “most profitable” component can also be quantified. Here is how they are doing:

• In 2017, they celebrated 45 consecutive years of profitability.

While Southwest calls it a “vision statement,” perhaps it should be called an “ambition statement.” It has three simple components, which makes it easy to understand. Each can be measured, which makes it easy for them to evaluate their progress.

In addition to their vision, Southwest also has a mission statement, a set of core values, and a purpose—to connect people to what's important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel. All of these elements work together to unleash the accelerating power of alignment.

By any measure, Southwest is an amazing company. For the 24th consecutive year, they were named to FORTUNE's 2018 list of “World's Most Admired Companies.” This is just one of many accolades and awards.

Does your vision statement articulate your company’s ambition?

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book,Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Vision chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on One Vision.

Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org) is a global nonprofit housing organization working in all 50 states in the U.S. and in approximately 70 countries around the world.

Habitat envisions “a world where everyone has a decent place to live.”

Millard and Linda Fuller co-founded Habitat for Humanity in 1976. What began as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia has evolved into a global organization that has helped more than 22 million people.

In 1996, former U.S. President Bill Clinton awarded Millard Fuller the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest civilian honor—calling Habitat “… the most successful continuous community service project in the history of the United States.”

Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers. In 2018, more than 1.4 million people volunteered with Habitat, helping families achieve the strength, stability, and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves.

"With a little help, we all have the potential to stand on our own,” explained Habitat CEO Jonathan Reckford. “It is an incredible experience to help homeowners build or improve a place to live and see how they are then able to build a better life for themselves and their families."

Surveys of Habitat homeowners show improved grades, better financial health, and parents who are more confident that they can meet their family’s needs.

Providing “a decent place to live” provides the solid foundation for all of this.

While Habitat has been wildly successful, the need is still great. Over 1.6 billion people in the world do not have adequate shelter, and 100 million more have no home at all.

While 2018 was a record year for Habitat, Jonathan Reckford put their success in perspective, “We have millions of reasons to celebrate, and millions more to keep building toward a world where everyone has a decent place to live.”

Maintaining focus is challenging for every company … but it is especially challenging for nonprofits. Most suffer from mission creep. After all, it is extremely difficult to say “no” to a pressing humanitarian need.

Habitat is intensely focused on housing. They are world-class great at it. I commend them for having the discipline to say “no” to thousands of good ideas so they can say “yes” to the best One(s).

At Habitat, the vision is not just a static statement printed on coffee mugs. Their vision provides an ongoing and dynamic perspective that keeps everyone—and everything—aligned.

Does your company have an inspiring vision?

Note: This is an excerpt from my latest book, Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment. In the One Vision chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on One Vision.

Virgin Hyperloop One (www.hyperloop-one.com) is a California-based transportation innovator.

Elon Musk unleashed the global hyperloop revolution with One Paper.

The problem with most visions is that they are not particularly visionary.

In contrast, the vision articulated for the hyperloop by Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX fame, is an exemplar.

The origin of Musk’s vision—like all world-changing visions—was an extreme dissatisfaction with the status quo. In this case, Musk was dissatisfied with the Caltrain high-speed rail (HSR) proposal to “modernize” the rail service between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Musk wrote a 58-page paper—imagine a college physics term paper written by a billionaire CEO—outlining his vision for a radically better way to modernize and accelerate travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

He also had the audacity to suggest that his hyperloop vision would revolutionize travel worldwide in the same way he was revolutionizing the automobile industry with Tesla and the space industry with SpaceX.

“Sci-fi writers and dreamers have long envisioned ways to travel at high speeds through low-pressure tubes. Rocketry pioneer Robert Goddard in 1909 proposed a vacuum train very similar in concept to the Hyperloop. In 1972, the RAND Corp. conceived a supersonic underground railway called the Vactrain. The idea was waiting for the right combination of talent, technology, and business case to become a reality.”

In August 2014, ten months after Musk published his paper, Hyperloop One was started in a Los Angeles garage to commercialize Musk’s vision.

In May 2016, Hyperloop One launched a “global challenge” that was an “open call to individuals, universities, companies and governments to develop comprehensive proposals for using Hyperloop One’s disruptive transport technology in their region to move passengers and freight point-to-point, swiftly, and on-demand.”

The Hyperloop One Global Challenge yielded 2,600 registrants in five months.

Elon Musk wrote One Paper. It launched what may be the most transformational change in transportation in years.

Thousands of people and millions of venture capital dollars aligned behind Musk’s vision. To them, it was an inspiring purpose worth investing their lives—and their money—to accomplish.

Does your company have a visionary vision?

NOTE: In February 2018, the state of California cancelled the “high-speed” rail program after extensive cost overruns and schedule delays.

Every company has a vision.

But most of them are pretty blurry.

Only 35 percent of adults have 20/20 vision, and an even smaller percentage of companies do.

Most companies suffer from some sort of vision disorder, such as myopia—where they can’t focus on the long-term, or tunnel vision—where they get blindsided by market shifts and discontinuities.

Worse yet, according to Achievers’ 2015 North America Workforce report, a whopping 60 percent of employees did not know their company’s vision.

Fast-lane companies create alignment by having just One Vision. After all, how can you create One Company when every division has a different vision?

While it is critical to have One Vision, there are many ways to articulate one. In fact, we discovered four common ways:

• The “visionary” vision
• The “inspiring” vision
• The “company ambition” vision
• The “Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)” vision

In fast-lane companies, the process of defining the vision is as important as the vision itself. They use a collaborative process that combines top-down aspirations with bottom-up forecasts.

Assumptions are debated. Competitors are studied. Trends are extrapolated.

Of course, smart companies do a gut check before launching the vision. They understand what it will really take to turn the vision into reality. They have “counted the costs.”

There is nothing more demoralizing to a company than a unilateral, top-down vision that is more of a delusional pipe-dream than a vision.

And finally, high-performers make the case for the vision. Every executive—not just the CEO—can passionately articulate the vision and can explain why this is your vision.

Of all the visions you could have chosen, why did you select this One? If you can’t answer that question, no one will buy in.

This week, we will examine how Virgin Hyperloop One, Habitat for Humanity, Southwest Airlines, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with their unique, One-of-a-Kind Visions. NOTE: These stories are excerpted from my book, Drive One Direction.

BTI360 (www.bti360.com) is a rapidly growing software development firm that works with government clients.

They create alignment—and a Differentiating Competitive Advantage—with an intense focus on One Thing.

BTI360 provides their software development as a prime contractor to the federal government. However, over three hundred other companies compete for the same work.

So, how do you stand out when you have 299 competitors that look alike, sound alike, and essentially provide the exact same service?

BTI360 decided that they could become differentiatingly great at “developing ultimate teammates.” This led to phrases like “software development is a team sport” that are a key part of their unique culture.

Thus, “developing ultimate teammates” became their One Thing.

MJ Wivell, their co-founder and CEO, says it this way, “Most companies use people to build the business. We use the business to build people.”

BTI360 then applied our “Decide One Thing, Align Everything, Win!” model to align everything in their company.

“Once we found our One Thing, decision-making became very easy,” said Jeremy Nimtz, BTI360’s co-founder. “We would simply evaluate everything with one simple question, ‘Will this help us become differentiatingly great at our One Thing?’”

Since going through the Decide One Thing process, BTI360 has experienced amazing results. The company has quadrupled in size and has won eight—and counting—Best Place to Work awards.

I am (obviously) biased, but I think that aligning your entire company with the strategy of becoming world-class great at One Thing is one of the best models.

Customers may not care about your vision. Or your mission. Or your values.

But they will flock to a company that is world-class great at solving One of their problems.

Is developing people your One Thing?

P.S. BTI360 calls people teammates, not employees, which is exactly what you would expect from an organization that puts people first. 

Photo Courtesy of Bud Moeller

Ferrari (NYSE: RACE) might be the ultimate fast-lane company.

When your stock ticker is RACE, you better be fast.

Ferrari began competing in the Formula One World Championship in 1950, the year the competition was established. Ferrari is the only constructor to have raced in every Formula One season—and they have won more championships than any other team.

Ferrari’s One Thing is racing, and they put their money where their One Thing is.

Ferrari invests roughly $600M per year in their Formula One racing program. While the majority of this is recovered through sponsorships and Formula One’s profit sharing, the net investment is believed to be in excess of $100M.

When you invest over One Hundred Million Dollars in one thing … it is your One Thing!

In 2003, they started Corse Clienti, which enables a small group of people to buy and race Ferrari Formula One cars. Here is how they describe the privilege, “Corse Clienti makes the car’s owner feel like a real Scuderia [Italian for “stable”] Ferrari driver. Owners don’t have to worry about anything except putting on their gloves and helmet, driving, and having fun, Corse Clienti does the rest.”

In 2010, Ferrari also started the Ferrari Driver Academy to develop young Scuderia drivers. “I’d like to think that Ferrari can create drivers as well as cars,” explained Enzo Ferrari.

A recent trip to a Ferrari store was a testament to the amazing power of Ferrari’s investment in racing.

The store’s prominent feature was a red (of course) Ferrari Formula One car on display. The store sold T-shirts, scale models of Ferrari cars, Ferrari sneakers, Ferrari hats, Ferrari luggage, Ferrari gloves, Ferrari pens, Ferrari sunglasses, Ferrari flags, and more.

There is even a children’s section that sold Ferrari onesies, Ferrari baby shoes, and all sorts of other items to indoctrinate your child into the faithful.

Several years ago, I was in Italy on the weekend of the Formula One race at Monza, Italy—the home of Ferrari. The Ferrari Scuderia won the race, and the entire nation went wild.

Very few brands achieve iconic status. Fewer still achieve the kind of fanatical evangelicalism among their customers that Ferrari does. And the most fascinating thing about Ferrari is that most of its passionate fans will never own one of their cars. (They only sell 9,000 cars per year!)

Think about that. How many people who will never be your customers are nonetheless fanatical ambassadors for your brand?

For Ferrari, it all starts with racing.

Is speed your One Thing?

Herman Miller (NASDAQ: MLHR) is a manufacturer of office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings based in Zeeland, Michigan. Founded in 1905, the company has over 8,000 employees, over 600 dealers in 109 countries, and 33 Design Within Reach retail studios.

Their One Thing is perfectly clear: “design is a central part of our business.”

Herman Miller’s designs are part of museum collections worldwide. They have also received the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and ranked Number One on Contract Magazine’s list of “Brands that Inspire” for four straight years.

Some of the notable Herman Miller designers include Charles and Ray Eames, designers of the famous Eames lounge chair and ottoman; Isamu Noguchi, designer of the iconic Noguchi table; George Nelson, known as the father of American Modernism; and Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick, designers of the Aeron, Embody, and Ergon office chairs.

A visit to the Herman Miller website features the profiles of dozens of other designers from all over the world.

In the last chapter, we learned that while not everyone at Dyson is an engineer, they encourage everyone to “think like one.”

Herman Miller expresses the same idea, “You don’t have to be a ‘designer’ to make things better—for customers, for the communities we do business in, and for a better world.”

In addition to designing better furniture, Herman Miller is committed to designing better workspaces:

“Organizations are struggling with the remnants of standardized workplaces, which only accommodate two broad categories of work—individual and group—by providing two generic types of spaces—workstations and conference rooms. This type of floorplan cannot begin to support the diverse array of activities people do throughout the day.

It’s clear that we need a more human-centered and diverse model for the workplace. And to implement this model, we need a more aligned process for designing and delivering the workplace—one where each stakeholder, from Facilities to HR to IT, is connected and involved from the outset.”

They apply workspace design to improve organizational alignment!

Herman Miller is good at lots of things. Perhaps they are great at several things. But they are world-class at design.

Is design your company’s One Thing?

Note:  This is an excerpt from my latest book, Drive One Direction: How to Unleash the Accelerating Power of Alignment.  In the One Thing chapter, we highlight companies who unleashed the accelerating power of alignment with an intense focus on One Thing.

From its origins in a small workshop in rural England, Dyson (www.dyson.com) has grown into a technology company with a global footprint. They now employ over 8,500 people.

Dyson is good at lots of things, but they are differentiatingly great at engineering.

The Dyson website makes this crystal clear, “For us, engineering is everything.” Or, in our language, engineering is their One Thing!

Not everyone at Dyson is an engineer, but they encourage everyone to think like one. And they are focused specifically on “transforming people’s lives with our radical ideas, by solving the problems others ignore.”

The story of Dyson is a testament to the irrational perseverance required to become differentiatingly great at something. It took James Dyson five years and 5,127 prototypes to perfect the Dual Cyclone^™ technology that is at the core of the Dyson vacuum.

In 2007, Dyson created The James Dyson Award, an international award that inspires the next generation of design engineers. Each year, hundreds of engineers submit their designs.

In 2018, the grand prize went to Nicolas Orellana and Yaseen Noorani for their O-Wind Turbine, a 25cm sphere that converts wind into electricity. Other winners included a water-cleaning robot, a smartphone device to test for malaria, and a wheelchair designed for air travel.

In 2017, the company launched the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology in partnership with University of Warwick. Students work in a position at Dyson for four days a week, receive a salary, and have their tuition fees paid, allowing them to graduate debt free.

“These capable young engineers will be developing new technology alongside world-leading engineering practitioners, creating real products that end up in real homes—doing their academic work alongside their engineering projects.” explained Dyson.

“Our philosophy remains the same as it was 25 years ago when James Dyson invented the first cyclonic vacuum cleaner. We remain family-owned. We don’t bow to outside shareholders or report to the stock exchange. Instead we plot our own path, unshackled from conventional thinking.”

James Dyson is driven to apply engineering to solve problems that other companies ignore. Perhaps that is why he is now Sir James Dyson, appointed to the rank of Knight Bachelor in 2007.

Is engineering your company’s One Thing?