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Sunday, June 15, 2008

The construction business mission statement reviewed


This image is from a Google cached version of California contractor RTI Construction, Inc.'s website.
The company's real mission statement is:
"We, at RTI Construction Inc., feel it is our responsibility to provide the highest level of quality construction services at a fair and competitive price for our customers.
"We believe that the longevity of our company will come through repeat and referral business achieved by customer satisfaction in all areas including timely attention to detail and service-minded attitudes.
"Employees are dedicated to bringing back the lost art of skilled craftsmanship in our trade."
I think the placeholder page: "Under construction. Come back soon. " works a whole lot better.


Ugh. I realized on Friday I couldn't remember our company's mission statement, even though we had reviewed it just a few months ago. And I'm the company president! We have some work to do here -- and, by that, I certainly don't mean holding group sessions within our business where employees are expected by drill and rote to memorize the mission statement.

Here is the statement as it is now (and reviewed at the last planning session -- after I had forgot it there, as well!)

The Construction News Group:
Breaking new ground,
Building new bonds
and
Delivering news you can use every day.

Why doesn't this stick in memory -- so strongly and effectively that we almost sing it every day? Is something lacking in the statement itself, or am I don't something wrong in leading/implementing it?

Maybe the challenge is the possible distinction between the corporate mission statement and the real mission statements, we as individuals must use. My personal mission statement may be "I love digging out stories and sharing the news." I suppose that is partially covered in the corporate statement, which of course must accommodate others in the organization.

Can we do better?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mission statements always baffle me. Companies need them, but as you succinctly point out, they are harder than heck to remember. Hinutech has a one-line mission statement: to be the best in the world at serving our customers through innovative, collaborative software solutions.

By using something this simple, we have all of our bases covered, and everyone involved with us is able to remember it.

Construction Marketing Ideas said...

Josh, agreed, maybe part of the solution is to boil it down to a "twitter" phrase.