2.2 Mission Statement Setup

The first stage of Idealized Design is formulating a new Mission Statement. Unlike a classical mission that states what an organization does, a Bumponomics mission specifies what the organization is trying to transform.

Russell Ackoff provided an absolutely brutal rubric for what constitutes a valid mission statement. If it fails these five criteria, he argues, it must be discarded as hollow propaganda:

1. Uniqueness: It must establish absolute uniqueness. If an organization wants nothing that others do not want, there is no reason for its existence.
2. Thriving over Surviving: It must define what it chooses to do to thrive. To say a corporation seeks "to make an adequate profit" is like saying a person's mission is "to breathe enough air."
3. Measurable Performance: It must make progress toward objectives measurable. If a mission statement cannot physically be used to evaluate performance, it is hollow.
4. Universal Stakeholder Unity: It must state how it intends to serve all stakeholder classes. A fatal deficiency is to fail to appeal to non-managerial employees. If they do not commit, the mission fails.
5. Inspiratonal Gravity: It must enlarge perspective, be exciting, and inspire. No matter its other properties, if it fails to challenge, it fails entirely.