The Mission Statement: Thoughtsoft’s Mission is to provide the best service to its customers, have excellent relationship with its vendors, and provide a motivating and fulfilling atmosphere for its employees and be a good corporate citizen in all the communities it operates.

Words etched on rich granite lab, planted strategically for all to see as one enters the impressive reception of Thoughtsoft (name changed). A mission statement arrived at after much consultation, thought and man-hours, something, which needs to be on granite, glaringly visible, lest people forget the obvious.

It seems that a lot of organisations have mission statements because their brochure needs one. There is even a website which gives you sample mission, vision and value statements by industry segment. Making mission statements is a big consulting business, but if the result is, the obvious, something worthwhile has become routine, pedantry and a big farce.

One of the best examples of how a mission statement can be used to energise an organisation and lead to extraordinary performance is the story of how Jan Carlzon turned around Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) back in 1981. The business classic “Moments of Truth” by Jan Carlzon, an oft- referred story is worth recalling, since it shows how mission statements need to capture the basis of how the business needs to get transformed, and how the systems, leadership, behaviour of employees, and decision making criteria must revolve solely around the mission statement.

When Jan Carlzon, took charge of SAS, the entire airline industry was in trouble and SAS was facing huge losses. After a thorough analysis of SAS, introspection and involvement of the people at SAS, he arrived at the following strategy, “to become the best airline in the world for the frequent business traveller.” Jan Carlzon did not call this the mission statement; perhaps at that time he did not even know of such a term. But he often refers to this statement in his book as the vision for the airline, he made sure that every one in the airline knew about it and imbibed it internally. People were made aware that the litmus test for taking any decision was whether it was in line with the organisation’s purpose. For instance he says “… we scrutinised every expense, every resource, every procedure and asked ourselves, ‘ Do we need this in order to serve the frequent business traveller?’ If the answer was no, then we were prepared to phase out the expense or process no matter what it was or how dear it was to those within the company. If the answer was yes then we were prepared to spend the money to develop it further.”

The power of the mission statement was further illustrated when he describes how a plan which seemed to be in so much of a jumble fell into place with surprising ease. “Why? Not because of the vision of the top management but because people throughout the company were able to see that vision and take the initiative to put the pieces where they belonged. The change in employee attitudes was the most significant result of the SAS turnaround strategy. The entire company from the executive to the most remote check in terminal was focused on service.”

The most important utility of a well-defined mission statement is that it empowers people to take decisions. As long as the decision helps in reaching the organisation’s mission, any employee can take that decision and be free of any fear of being questioned on it. Which means that the culture and leadership of the company needs to help people get the confidence that what matters the most is the companies’ mission and nothing else.

The following example from the book itself illustrates this: A business man arrives at the SAS check-in counter and realises that he has left the ticket back at the hotel. He explains this to the SAS person at the counter. And the agent says with a smile “ Don’t worry, Mr. Peterson, here’s your boarding card. I’ll insert a temporary ticket in here. If you just tell me your room number at the Grand Hotel and your destination in Copenhagen, I’ll take care of the rest.” While Mr.Peterson waited, the SAS person called the hotel, found that the ticket was exactly where Mr.Peterson said it would be, got an SAS car to pick up the ticket and then handed it over to a very surprised Mr. Peterson.

No need for permissions, no fear of taking decisions, total commitment to giving a great service. This happens when in an empowered organisation were people are intuitively aware of what needs to be done because of a clear purpose. No need for procedures, manuals and supervisors.

Gautama Buddha said “You cannot travel on the path until you become the path itself.” The mission statement is useless unless the people in the organisation have totally internalised it. And if people have the purpose etched within, there is no need to have words engraved on Granite.

SAS turned around in the first year itself, and in 1983, Fortune named SAS the best airline for business travellers in the world. As Jan Carlzon says, “The most powerful messages are those that are simple and direct and can serve as a battle cry of sorts for people across all organisational levels. The message does not need to be lofty or even original.” n

Theauthoris the ChiefCatalystof businessgyan, his areas of interest are business strategyand innovation. For feed back and more information send mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Issue BG28 July03

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