Management by Missions: First Successes

Many companies –large and small– have at some time in their history conducted a in-depth review of their purpose: “what they are there for”. The result very often is a mission statement, values statement, or some such. The real challenge, however, is to get that mission and those values across to the company as a whole, so that they are espoused by all members of the organization. The problem is that, apart from a few aids such as communication plans, training courses or speeches to employees, there are hardly any management tools for building what might be called “mission-focused organizations”. Because of this, in many cases the mission is not implemented methodically, but according to the intuition and good intentions of individual managers, with their unevenly developed communication and leadership skills. In view of this lack of proper methods for implementing the mission and values in companies, in 2002 we started a research project to formulate ideas and solutions. More than eighty well-known companies (Allianz, Solvay, Toshiba, Endesa...) have taken part in this project. We have also gathered experience from consulting activities carried out in companies of different sizes and in different industries (Sony, Abertis, RHM, T-systems...). As a result, we have developed a management method that has been discussed in various publications under the name of “Management by Missions” (MBM). * Professor, Managing People in Organizations, IESE ** DpM Consulting