Mission "Improvisable"

A mission statement tells customers, employees, and stakeholders why the organization exists-its purpose. It can be concise, like the one from Mary Kay Cosmetics-"To enrich the lives of women around the world"-or it can be more detailed, such as the following from FedEx: FedEx Corporation will produce superior financial returns for its shareowners by providing high value-added logistics, transportation and related business services through focused operating companies. Customer requirements will be met in the highest quality manner appropriate to each market segment served. FedEx will strive to develop mutually rewarding relationships with its employees, partners and suppliers. Safety will be the first consideration in all operations. Corporate activities will be conducted to the highest ethical and professional standards.

• Mission statements are typically constructed to communicate several pieces of information: what the company strives to accomplish, what it's known for, and how it serves its customers. Here are a few examples:
• The Hershey Company: Bringing sweet moments of Hershey happiness to the world every day.
• Microsoft: Our Mission At Microsoft, we work to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential. This is our mission. Everything we do reflects this mission and the values that make it possible.
• Google: Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Assignment

Create hypothetical mission statements for each of these four companies: Outback Steakhouse, Tesoro, Got Junk?, and Staples.  In composing your four mission statements, follow the format suggested previously: each statement should be about two or three sentences long and should provide several pieces of information-what the company strives to accomplish, what it's known for, and how it serves its customers (and perhaps its employees and shareholders, too).

One last thing: your statements should be originals, not duplicates of the companies' official statements.