StartupCafe

I thought Dave Black’s response to last wk’s post “Keep it simple, stupid” contained some good points so I’m posting it here for those who might find it useful.  StartupCafe’s Jess also made a good point about being forced to describe what you do in 7 words only – how many of us can do that?  It’s a constant challenge – but one worth taking on 🙂

In the meantime, here’s Dave:

“It’s common to find it difficult to articulate exactly what you are and what you do, whether you’re a business or an individual. We worry about making it sound too simple so we dress it up in flowery language, or we worry about making it sound too complicated so we struggle and stammer trying to simplify it.

Here are 3 common mistakes in self-description – mission/vision statements.

1. Not making it unique.
“We create ground-breaking products for world-class clients”. A famous branding consultant, Wally Olins, would only create a mission statement for a client if over half the members of their board could pick their own current one from a list of five (no company ever did). If it applies equally well to your neighbour, ditch it.

2. Making it obvious.
“We strive to create the best products we can”. Gee, really? What’s the alternative, striving to make really average ones? Never say something that should go without saying.

3. Making it management-y
“We develop leading-edge business paradigms for strategic success”. Do you? Are you sure? Does every employee in your company do this or is it really just the manager who wrote the mission statement? Description statements are about the whole organisation, not just the ones around the boardroom table.

A good branding and design consultant should take you through the ways you can say all of that and more with needing a mission statement in the first place, to straightening out your thoughts and helping you undersatnd your own business better. That’s what you pay them for.”