It’s one of the unspoken truths in corporate America — a good mission statement is hard to find. Some say it’s impossible.
Why? Whether the blame falls on design-by-committee, FOLSO (fear of leaving something out) or poor planning, most miss the mark. They’re long word salads filled with clever buzzwords that ultimately fail to inspire action, provide clarity or create impact. In fact, new research from Rice and Texas A&M universities reveals that mission statements don’t improve financial performance at all.
That’s why any company that wants to retain a dedicated workforce to pursue innovation must move from a mission statement to being mission-driven. A mission-driven company uses whatever is at its core to do more than simply generate profits. They promote justice, advocate for others, make a positive difference in society or make other meaningful contributions.
A mission-driven company has leaders who live out a mission statement, use it to guide decision-making and connect everything each employee does back to it. Chris Fanning lives this out as CEO of KPA. “Some ideas are well-intentioned, but if they don’t support our mission and provide value to the client, they may not be worth investing in,” he said. Read on to hear more from Fanning and his counterparts from across the Colorado region.
AIR Communities is one of the country's largest owners and operators of multifamily housing, managing high-quality properties in most major markets, including Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami.
What is your company's mission? What problem are you solving in bigger and better ways?
AIR Communities’ mission is to consistently provide quality apartment homes in a respectful environment delivered by a team of people who care. We have a high calling to provide our residents with more than just an apartment. We provide homes and we take that responsibility seriously. We strive to foster a community where residents find both a welcoming home and a place in which they enjoy living year after year. When we look for new teammates to join AIR, we look for those who connect with the importance of our mission and are passionate about service.
How does your mission help you and/or the business stay on track? Give a specific example.
AIR’s mission is a constant reminder that we provide one of the most important environments in people’s day-to-day lives.
Resident retention is a critical part of our business and we work hard every day to ensure our residents continue to choose AIR Communities as a place to call home. We are consistently looking for opportunities to improve the living experience of our residents by enhancing our community amenities, providing new smart home technology for convenience and ease of use and encouraging teammates to make a difference in a resident's or teammate's day when they recognize the opportunity to do so. These efforts provide a better customer experience, which leads to residents choosing to stay with us longer.
AIR’s mission is a constant reminder that we provide one of the most important environments in people’s day-to-day lives.”
How can jobseekers cut through the fluff to determine whether a company has a mission worth supporting?
It’s important for job seekers to research a potential employer and learn more about the company's mission. At AIR, our mission is universal and is more than just words on a page. We have the noble calling of providing homes and creating environments for our residents and our teammates that are filled with moments that matter. We look for those who are passionate about consistently providing a world-class level of service to our residents. We welcome those who believe in the power of collaboration and are dedicated to positive relationships. We foster an environment that encourages people to take an active role in planning their futures.
KPA provides environment, health and safety (EHS) and workforce compliance software and services helping mid-sized businesses minimize risk so they can focus on what’s important — their core business.
What is your company's mission? What problem are you solving in bigger and better ways?
KPA's mission can be described very simply yet very powerfully. It is to keep people safe and to keep businesses compliant.
To dive a bit deeper, we help companies create and digitize environmental, health and safety (EHS) programs using our top-tier software, expert consultants and comprehensive, award-winning training. This helps our clients create a safer environment for their employees. By supporting our clients in this way, we’re helping more human beings return home safely at the end of the day.
KPA is addressing workplace safety differently by having that three-pronged approach. We have objectively great software, over 125 expert EHS consultants who work directly with our clients in the field and award-winning training focused on EHS. We’re the only company that has all three, and this creates a big differentiated advantage in the market.
How does your mission help you and/or the business stay on track? Give a specific example.
Whenever discussing a new product idea, we always ask ourselves why the customer would care about it. Simple as it sounds, thinking about whether or not we are helping them keep their business and employees safe and compliant is vitally important. Even if there’s money to be made, some decisions are not consistent with our mission.
Even if there’s money to be made, some decisions are not consistent with our mission.”
How can jobseekers cut through the fluff to determine whether a company has a mission worth supporting?
Understand that when you’re interviewing at a company, it’s a mutual process from the first interview. Learn as much about us as we do about you so that you can form an opinion about how mission-driven a company actually is. Does the mission come up in interviews? Is the mission statement forgotten, or is it an important part of the company’s fiber?
Most people at KPA understand that we help people stay safe, and they also understand and can articulate how the work that we do impacts that mission. Be curious and ask questions. It should become apparent if a company’s mission statement is just there for publicity or truly part of the culture.
Choozle provides a digital advertising software platform that leverages detailed consumer data to power programmatic advertising campaigns across display, video, mobile and other mediums — all from a single, intuitive interface.
What is your company's mission? What problem are you solving in bigger and better ways?
There is always something new in the advertising world. There are new targeting tactics, new tools, new tracking capabilities, new content, new measurements and new strategies. The change is constant, and our clients are busy marketers. The pressure is on them to deliver, and more often than not they are working with small teams. They need a reliable way to deliver results. Enter Choozle. We are the digital media partner that is more than just a digital platform.
We exist to be a comprehensive solution for the best media inventory with exceptional people to help guide our clients' strategies. We’re organized around our clients and we provide customer-centered marketing solutions. We also provide optionality through our partners with best-in-category leaders, and we leverage in-platform AI optimization.
How does your mission help you and/or the business stay on track? Give a specific example.
We have to constantly be innovating, adding new features or functionality into our platform and delivering new offerings or services. Our product and engineering team is exceptional at making our platform a comprehensive solution for our clients. An example of that is in the way they incorporate our clients’ direct feedback into their sprints and product releases. They’ve put processes in place that prioritize our clients’ voices, ensuring that Choozle can quickly address any pain points or requested enhancements.
Our product and engineering team is exceptional at making our platform a comprehensive solution for our clients.”
How can jobseekers cut through the fluff to determine whether a company has a mission worth supporting?
Jobseekers should ask the interviewers directly why that company exists and what problems they are solving for their clients. Don’t just ask one person, but ask multiple interviewers throughout the process. Are they all giving you a similar response? If so, that probably means the mission is woven into the fabric of their organization. It’s up to the candidate to determine if a company’s mission aligns with their individual values, beliefs and career aspirations. Do the responses you get move you? If so, that company might be the right company for you to join.
FareHarbor is shaping the future of travel through its reservation platform for tours, activities, rentals and attractions.
What is your company's mission? What problem are you solving in bigger and better ways?
I have been working with FareHarbor for over five years. Our mission, to make experiences better for everyone, is always front of mind. We’re addressing the problem of streamlining the numerous tasks that burden business owners. This includes managing multi-channel reservations, setting prices and promotions, coordinating schedules and tracking inventory usage all while developing strategies for business growth. The combination of powerful software and our customer-focused team empowers business owners to streamline operations and make data-driven decisions to achieve growth. Ultimately, this allows operators to have more time to focus on what they really love, which is sharing their experience with the world.
How does your mission help you and/or the business stay on track? Give a specific example.
I think that a mission should be seen behind every decision made and every company initiative pushed. Keeping the goal to improve experiences front and center helps me and the company stay on track. In my day-to-day life as a manager on the account management team, I integrate our mission of making experiences better for everyone while working with my team to analyze client data. When we are reviewing client website performance and booking behavior, we focus solely on data points that identify areas for optimizing their operations and profitability. Implementing suggestions that come from this analysis also enhances the booking process for their end customers. Both the experiences of the business owner and the booker are improved. It is a win-win scenario.
A mission should be seen behind every decision made and every company initiative pushed.”
How can jobseekers cut through the fluff to determine whether a company has a mission worth supporting?
A good place to start in determining whether a company’s mission is worth supporting is evaluating if the mission is clear. Not just clearly written on their website or the job posting, but clearly embodied in who they are and what they do every day. During the interview process, don’t just ask questions about what the company's mission and values are, but also how they are integrated into their daily operations. Secondly, does this mission align with your personal values? Is it something you get excited about working towards every day? If both of the answers are yes, then you may have a fit!
BombBomb’s software empowers users to foster relationships with simple, personal, one-to-one videos.
What is your company's mission? What problem are you solving in bigger and better ways?
BombBomb is on a mission to rehumanize communication. So much of our interpersonal and professional communication is relegated to impersonal, typed-out text. BombBomb brings you back into your communication with simple videos wherever you work. Use your wit, smile and body language to make stronger connections with people you're working with.
BombBomb makes personalization at scale possible through our exclusive CRM and marketing integrations, enabling marketing leaders to configure their messaging campaigns to intelligently incorporate personal videos for maximum impact. No other provider has done the work to integrate as deeply with existing marketing and outbound sales tools to deliver the demonstrable impact that BombBomb has achieved in systems like Salesforce, Marketo and Hubspot.
How does your mission help you and/or the business stay on track? Give a specific example.
Our attention is always on the individual communicator. What about video gives them superpowers? What about video gives them pause before they find their groove? When these folks find success with video, BombBomb becomes indispensable.
We've spent a ton of time making capturing and sending video easy and fast regardless of where our customers are. Sales professionals have a huge advantage when they add video content made with our five-star mobile apps to their personal enthusiasm and professional knowledge.
We've spent a ton of time making capturing and sending video easy and fast regardless of where our customers are.”
For finance and mortgage professionals who need to communicate nuance and detail, being built into their CRM and other business workflow processes helps them to walk clients through some of the biggest financial decisions of their lives, leading to peace of mind and greater success.
Helping our customers win in their own businesses by putting their whole selves back into their communication is what makes BombBomb win at its mission.
How can jobseekers cut through the fluff to determine whether a company has a mission worth supporting?
Missions are never one-size-fits-all. When looking for a company with a mission that matters, you need to start with you. What do you care about? The answer to that question is going to shrink the pool of employers whose work is aligned with who you are. That can be intimidating but if you can make that match and find a business on the path you want to be on, you've found something pretty special.
SambaSafety is North America’s leading provider of cloud-based mobility risk management software solutions for commercial and non-commercial drivers.
What is your company's mission? What problem are you solving in bigger and better ways?
At SambaSafety, we are united in our mission to promote safer communities by reducing risk through data insights. In doing so, we are aiming our collective efforts at a big problem: the ever-growing risks related to driving and automotive mobility. Our data helps a wide range of customers to understand driver risk and act on those insights. They do so by selecting and retaining the right drivers, providing training to remediate unsafe behaviors and managing the complex task of reducing risk in their businesses. Or, as we are sometimes known to put it more succinctly, we help save lives.
How does your mission help you and/or the business stay on track? Give a specific example.
Our mission is our North Star, but it is guided by our purpose. We don’t directly manage our customers’ risk and safety programs — we give our customers the confidence to act. Thus, when we provide them with our solutions and data, we always try to walk in our customer’s shoes. What can we do to help them achieve their important business outcomes? Turned inward, we use confidence to act as a high hurdle in our own decision-making. We challenge ourselves to hit these high hurdles because our mission demands it. Safety and mobility risk management leaves no room for error and relies on our best work.
Safety and mobility risk management leaves no room for error and relies on our best work.”
How can jobseekers cut through the fluff to determine whether a company has a mission worth supporting?
Most companies will prominently display their mission to employees and candidates. My advice would be to ask detailed questions. I would listen to people's words carefully and look for their own personal “why.” Do they speak of something compelling? Are the answers delivered with pride and passion? Can they share stories about customers and how they’ve been helped by what the company does?
Another important aspect I would consider is whether the people I’m engaging with describe how their skills, backgrounds and contributions relate to the mission and how those skills are valued. Smart companies will see the focus on these things by a prospective team member as a net positive. They help demonstrate that the candidate not only cares about a job but will be a valued contributor to the mission.
FRONTSTEPS is a resident engagement platform powering HOA communities to be safe, informed and efficient.
What is your company's mission? What problem are you solving in bigger and better ways?
As the landscape of technology and community management continues to evolve, FRONTSTEPS is steadfastly committed to intensifying our endeavors to support community managers. We’re on the verge of revealing our renewed vision and mission. Our new vision is to empower community managers to thrive and inspire associations to build harmonious communities where we all want to belong. The mission is about innovating with heart by building intuitive software solutions that foster transparency, efficiency and collaboration for everyone who calls an association home.
We relentlessly drive innovation, enabling community managers to leverage advanced technologies that increase efficiency and leave a profound mark on the homeowners they support.
At the heart of our mission lies upholding the best talent in the community manager role. Our state-of-the-art technology alleviates mundane tasks, allowing these professionals to amplify their impact on both the community and its board of directors. In an era marked by high turnover due to stress, our technology solutions aim to bring joy to homeowners and the dedicated CAMS that serve them.
How does your mission help you and/or the business stay on track? Give a specific example.
Every innovative venture at FRONTSTEPS is subjected to a rigorous evaluation. Each product or project proposition must meet two essential criteria. First, it must enhance the lives of CAMs or the homeowner. Next, it must offer an internal rate of return for all stakeholders. Falling short of these benchmarks returns us to introspection, ensuring every stride we take resonates with our foundational principles.
How can jobseekers cut through the fluff to determine whether a company has a mission worth supporting?
Unlocking the essence of genuine corporate missions requires active engagement. Start by initiating meaningful conversations with company leaders or team members on professional platforms. Those who are truly passionate about their company's mission will eagerly participate in open dialogues. Dive into the company's digital content to see if it aligns with its stated mission and vision. Remember, one-on-one interactions often yield insights that reviews cannot.
Unlocking the essence of genuine corporate missions requires active engagement.”
