The Value of a Mission Statement

The title of this blog is probably a bit misleading to most who read it, especially if they’re in an MBA marketing class.  You see, I’m not really sold on the idea of a mission statement.  Sure, the idea sounds great in theory and there are certainly many very successful companies with mission statements.  The mission statement strikes me as an idea doled out in a management curriculum and now used in businesses everywhere because everyone else is doing it.  Let’s take another seemingly overused word and ask if there is true “value” in mission statements.  I’m willing to concede I may be wrong on this, but I think the value is little to none, possibly even, dare I say it, “value” destroying in the fact that it seems like a bit of a waste of time.

I first came into contact with mission statements when I was in the Air Force.  Over my 20 years in service, I seem to recall reading about some new mission statement every 3-5 years.  I viewed them as platitudes at best and managerial drivel at worst.  Of course we also had our fair share of vision statements thrown in there so we could see where we were going with our mission statements. 

Just to make sure all the bases were covered we even had an official motto, which was essentially a slimmed down version of the mission statement.  You may recognize some of the words that the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, a four-star general and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent time thinking about and declared would be our motto, “Aim high… fly, fight, and win.”  The “aim high” was part of a recruiting ad campaign while the “fly, fight, win” part was an early slogan.  I liked the fly, fight, and win slogan.  It was catchy, simple, and to the point.

Enough about the beguiling motto, let’s get back to mission and vision statements.  Here is an example of a USAF mission statement circa 2005:          

“To deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests - to fly and fight in air, space, and cyberspace”

I guess our mission then was to fly and fight, but not necessarily win.  And it was important to make the distinction we were flying and fighting for the US and not, say for example, Canada.  I do have to admit being a little fuzzy on how one flies in cyberspace.  Anyway, at the same time the vision statement was “Global Reach, Global Power.”  Three years later in 2008, we got a new Chief of Staff and a new mission statement:

“To fly, fight, and win ... in air, space, and cyberspace”

Finally, we were back to our winning ways!  And somewhere along the way the new vision statement became “Global Vigilance, Global Reach, Global Power.” 

Just this year, the latest Chief of Staff refocused the Air Force vision statement to “The World’s Greatest Air Force — Powered by Airmen, Fueled by Innovation.”  This guy obviously went to business school.  Maybe in a couple of years when I’ve completed my MBA I’ll understand how this is a vision and not just another slogan.

I point all this out because the United States Air Force, and its predecessor the Army Air Corps, has been the premier force in the air since the early 1940’s.  It mattered little what the mission statement was or if, as in the early days, we even had one.  It’s not the mission statement that counts, it’s the mission – supporting ground troops with air strikes, transporting much needed supplies, delivering aid and disaster relief, providing air superiority, performing aeromedical evacuations, gathering intelligence, and much more.   These are the things we did and others still do today.  We do them better than any other nation in the world and it has nothing to do with mission statements.