Mission possible

The reason your company exists is expressed through its mission statement. But do employees take mission statements seriously?

Quick! Name the most popular management tool of the past 20 years. Now name the least respected. In both cases, the management tool in question is the "mission statement." By now, just about everybody has heard of mission statements those warm and fuzzy phrases that typically go something like: "We, the management and staff of ABC Corp., hereby pledge our continuous effort to provide the best service, selection, satisfaction and value for each and every customer, whether the need be large or small... yadda, yadda, yadda."

Whatever the phraseology, …