Comments on: Profits and purpose http://blog.foghound.com/45/ News and views about marketing and communications Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:56:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Mary Schmidt http://blog.foghound.com/45/#comment-14 Mary Schmidt Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:00:00 +0000 http://foghound.com/blog/?p=45#comment-14 Yes, it can get heated pretty quickly, can't it? I'd suggest it would have been far quicker more productive if the executives had been open to inviting some front-line employees and customers to the meeting. What do we do? What do we want to do better? How do we want to make a difference? What makes us want to come to work? What gets you (the customer) excited? And so on. I've spent way too many hours of my life in conference rooms wordsmithing mission statements that were really nothing more than C-level ego massages (Become the leader in XXXXX by providing world-class service to the Fortune 500 market to enable them to maximize profitability bla-blahhhhhhh). The goals end up being purely financial (as happened in your example) with little to no thought given to the people that must produce the results. I now get on my soapbox with clients reguarly about making it real. If I see words like 'premier' or 'world-class' I just cringe. Yes, it can get heated pretty quickly, can’t it? I’d suggest it would have been far quicker more productive if the executives had been open to inviting some front-line employees and customers to the meeting.

What do we do? What do we want to do better? How do we want to make a difference? What makes us want to come to work? What gets you (the customer) excited? And so on.

I’ve spent way too many hours of my life in conference rooms wordsmithing mission statements that were really nothing more than C-level ego massages (Become the leader in XXXXX by providing world-class service to the Fortune 500 market to enable them to maximize profitability bla-blahhhhhhh). The goals end up being purely financial (as happened in your example) with little to no thought given to the people that must produce the results.

I now get on my soapbox with clients reguarly about making it real. If I see words like ‘premier’ or ‘world-class’ I just cringe.

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