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A mission statement is meant to direct effort and help executives make ambiguous decisions. "Our mission is to be profitable in the payments space" is both too
by woah 3y ago
A mission statement is meant to direct effort and help executives make ambiguous decisions. "Our mission is to be profitable in the payments space" is both too narrow and too broad. "Being profitable" is too broad because of course they want to be profitable. They will shut down if they aren't. It's literally just the definition of running a business. It doesn't help anyone make any decisions. "in the payments space" is too narrow because it specifies the "payments space". Now anybody trying to make decisions that align with the mission has to have an agreed definition of the "payments space", and what activities fit within it.
"Our mission is to grow the GDP of the internet" is much better since it captures the value they are trying to create. Presumably this is mostly things that make online payments faster and more ubiquitous, bringing more commercial activity onto the internet.
With "Our mission is to be profitable in the payments space", someone might decide to open Stripe check cashing locations, which presumably is not something that upper management wants the company spending time on. With "Our mission is to grow the GDP of the internet", Stripe's activities will be much more closely focused on their core competencies.
- JohnFen 3y ago> "Our mission is to grow the GDP of the internet" is much better since it captures the value they are trying to create. Huh. I thought that mission statement was terrible. It's vague to the point of uselessness, and the phrase "grow the GDP of the internet" is pure cringe.
- willsmith72 3y agoi think it's far less vague than "organise the world's info" or "bring the world closer" i actually think it's an interesting mission, because it differentiates them from pure value-capture of existing businesses wanting online payments. They literally want more businesses to accept more payments, even to the point of making it easier for john doe to create a business. that's not an obvious direction for a payment company to go, but still obviously benefits them
- JohnFen 2y ago> think it's far less vague than "organise the world's info" or "bring the world closer" True, but that's a bit of damning with faint praise. You see a meaning in that statement that I simply don't see, though. To me, it sounds like too vague to be useful. I'm not even entirely sure what they mean by it. That you have clarity when I do not tells me that the statement was not aimed at me. Fair enough.
- ergocoder 2y agoI've found the mission statement rarely matters... in any company. It's purely for marketing.