Lesson 12: Choosing a Mission

Choosing a Mission that Covers Your Pivots

Every start-up needs a clear mission. Without one, it becomes too easy to lose track of the purpose, values, and goals for which the start-up exists. However, a mission is far more than what modern corporate culture would have you believe. A real mission is not a cliché. It’s also not vague, unachievable, or deluded. No, your start-up does not need to be intent on saving the whole world. It also doesn’t have to fix every problem in society. Your start-up can and should focus on tackling a specific subset of issues that resonate with your purpose, goals, and overall existential narrative.

In this regard, a mission becomes a powerful asset, a road map which provides your start-up with a clear path, reason, and strategy to achieve your ultimate goals as a business. Moreover, a mission gives your team a plan to follow during times of change, even when you decide to pivot.

As a start-up, your mission should be memorable, manageable, measurable, and motivational. It should have a clear sense of direction and point toward the end goal which you aspire to accomplish. In its earliest stages, a start-up may find itself at a loss for defining specific goals which it can build a sustainable and profitable business around. A mission that has a clear direction gives the start-up clear answers to key existential questions that may emerge in your first weeks, months, and even years.

A mission is tactical. It is focused on the now, as opposed to the future, which is a vision. To stay on course, your mission must account for the decisions that are made along the way to maintain continued progress towards the long-term goal. Embracing a culture of quick iteration, learning, and innovation is also essential to driving your mission towards new frontiers that can prepare your start-up to fundraise and scale for massive growth. But having a mission is what makes it possible!

Your start-up team will eventually experience the reality and inevitability of failure but will also learn from setbacks. As you develop a healthy risk-taking culture, execution gathers momentum across your team. This drives employee engagement as your people feel connected to the mission and are more willing to contribute to achieving it. It also strengthens the team’s resolve in your strategy and motivates them to deliver a high impact. A clear and coherent mission is fundamental to achieving such an outcome.

Your mission must be designed to cover future pivots, because change is a timeless constant in business. Companies often change direction because of shifts in market conditions, regulatory frameworks, or even technological advances. When the time comes for a start-up to pivot, it must be ready to shift gears in a smooth and calculated manner that preserves momentum.

This means your start-up mission must account for the inevitability of a pivot in the future. The business function or process that you provide today may not be needed tomorrow. Alternatively, its scope may expand to encompass new layers of intricacy and potential added value. The last thing you want is for your start-up to be caught off guard when this kind of situation arises. A high impact mission that covers future pivots is one that is broad enough to include future changes yet actionable enough to execute.

Think for a moment of your start-up mission as a sport. During the event, your preferred play or strategy may change to adjust for the actions of the opposing team. Yet, despite such shifts, you are still playing the same game. Your mission remains the same: to win the game, even though your strategy or tactics for doing so may vary greatly throughout the journey.

Your start-up may currently be in the business of providing some specific product or service, but you may eventually learn that there is a far greater need or demand for an ancillary or complementary solution that you are well positioned to offer. Similarly, your business may need to shift its direction within the same industry or market due to an unviable business model. A mission that accounts for pivots will empower your start-up for future success.

Having a mission does not mean there is a trade-off between having a business that is viable or having one that is profitable. Your mission should take both into consideration for efficient operations.

Here are a few examples of companies with solid missions that demonstrate a clear direction, yet provide enough flexibility to account for future pivots:

• Google – To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

• TED – Spread Ideas.

• Sony – To be a company that inspires and fulfils curiosity. 

• Tesla – To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

• JetBlue – To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.

• IKEA – To create a better everyday life for the many people.

• PayPal – To build the web’s most convenient, secure, cost-effective payment solution.

• Nike – Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete.

• Warby Parker – To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.

• Prezi – To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.

• Whole Foods Market – To nourish people and the planet.

• Honest Tea – To create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages.

• Kickstarter – To help bring creative projects to life.

• Squarespace – To empower people with creative ideas to succeed.

• Patagonia – To build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

• Coca-Cola – To refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit. To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions.

Does your company mission cover potential pivots? Take some time to think about how your current mission has impacted the overall performance and outcomes of your business, because the groundwork you lay down now will have a big impact on the future direction of your business.