Steve Huey’s Blog

Remember a while back that the Mission Statement was thought of as the thing you had to have to effectively run your business.   Then they fell out of favor because they became long corporate type meaningless Hooey!

The idea of the Mission Statement is not wrong!  It is not Hooey!  It is just that people lost their way in creating them.  The Mission Statement became this public declaration to be issued in a press release for the world to see instead of a becaon for the people of a company to ralley around.

We must get back to making the Mission Statement be a ralleying cry to have the people in your company gather around.  A single unifying statement that has purpose.  A mission statement is written as a press release.  A MISSION STATEMENT is written for the members of your Tribe to ralley around.  A MISSION STATEMENT can unify your team, help guide their actions, give them the internal strength to say “No” to bad customers.

A mission statement is a scourge.  A MISSION STATEMENT is a Savior!

Now that you have your key business driver whether it is subscribers, page views, boxes stored, clients served or product listings, focus on driving that metric.  How do you focus well may I suggest the following five ways:

1. Communicate the key driver and the goal to each and every person in your company.  Every person should know what the key metric is what your goal is and what you attained in the past.
2. Post the goal around your shop – write it out so each team member is constantly reminded of the goal.
3. Repeat the goal and the current status at every function, meeting, or gathering.
4. Ask for the teams help in reaching the goal – they have great ideas ask them to think.
5. Become the walking embodiment of the goal by discussing the goal each day with someone on your team.
6. Reflect on the goal and your plans to achieve it everyday (do this alone in a quiet place and do so by thinking about what you are doing and what could be done).  (Bonus method – 6 not 5 as previously indicated)

You will find that soon the goal will be achieved and you will be setting a new higher goal.  Look you have heard this before so why am I telling you this again?  You are busy – being pushed to your limit with the needs of your company.  You are being pulled in the direction others want to take you.  Stop!  Dig in your heals and pay attention to what drives your company.  Focus and you will reap the rewards of that focus.

What one key metric drives your business?  Every business has one.  A few of mine have been; listings, enrollments, downloads, subscribers.  Notice I did not say; sales, revenue, profits, EBITDA.  Yes I track these too but the underlying metrics move the business forward.

Identify these key metrics and focus on them – set a goal for them make them come alive in the minds of your team.  Make sure that the key driver creates the value for your clients and your business.

One of my mentors tells me that his key metric is subscribers.  No care for revenue as he is building a “Tribe” (if you do not know what I am talking about run out and buy Seth Godin’s book Tribe).  You see he has identified what creates enterprise value for his shareholders (I think he is the only shareholder).

Once you have identified the key value driver focus on it relentlessly  no matter what it is.  Yes you have to watch your cash and your sales and etc etc.  Many people only watch those things and then end up focusing on the wrong value drivers or too many “Key Metrics” and end up creating nothing remarkable.  Google originally wanted to be the best search engine period.  Amazon in the begining wanted to focus on expanding the books it had the ability to sell you.  Jack Daniels focused on distilling whiskey.

Find your value driver and focus on it!