Chapter 2, 2.1

Per the text, a company's mission statement answer's the question, "What business are we in?", and should focus on market/s served rather than goods/services.

I like the mission statement for the non-profit organization The Dwelling in the Woods, with which I am involved as a consultant: Our Mission is to nurture the healing, growth and transformation of the human spirit. (www.thedwellinginthewoods.org) Although this says nothing of what the organization does, it speaks to the multi-faith, supportive environment the Dwelling seeks to create and its market role as a place of spiritual retreat.

I like the mission statement of my business, actually, for similar reasons: The Center for Happiness provides a nourishing and challenging environment to promote physical health, emotional happiness, and spiritual awareness. (www.centerforhappiness.com).

I googled "bad mission statements" and came up with some amusing ones. For example:
To maintain Playboy enterprise with many windows of opportunity to expand the Playboy franchise and develop other related entertainment franchise globally by leveraging Playboy’s strengths of publishing, brand management, and marketing. (Playboy) Obviously, some mention of the market itself would be helpful here!

Another company that seems reluctant actually to comment in its mission statement on its actual market is Victoria's Secret: Committed to building a family of the world’s best fashion brands offering captivating customer experiences that drive long-term loyalty and deliver sustained growth for our shareholders. Again, a tighter description of "What business are we in?" would be useful, and the mention of shareholders should be omitted from the mission statement.

And lest we think that the hot-and-steamy markets are the only mission-statement crashers, there's always, Providing solutions in real time to meet our customers’ needs (Halliburton). It's difficult to improve the mission of a company that has become a pop-culture joke, but it is nonetheless funny.