Put your purpose in writing; a mission statement can give your company the focus it needs for survival and growth - includes related articles on mission statement of various companies

Nation's Business, Feb, 1994 by Sharon Nelton

When Richard G. Haworth succeeded his father as president of Haworth, Inc., in 1976, one of the first things he did was see to the creation of a mission statement, called "The Haworth Creed," summarizing the company's standards and goals.

At the time, the Holland, Mich., manufacturer of office furniture had 250 employees and $14 million in annual sales. Today, the company has 7,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of more than $800 million.

While having a mission statement isn't the only reason for Haworth's impressive growth from a small company to a global one, its leaders believe a mission statement provides a focus for a company--whatever its size.

"We feel a mission statement lays it fight out there as to the kind of company we are and what our principles are and what our objectives are and how we want to work," says Gerald B. Johanneson, who succeeded Richard Haworth as president in January, when Haworth became chairman.

Early last year, Haworth introduced a revised mission statement called "Our Principles," modernizing and simplifying the language so that it is more readily understood around the globe. Haworth now has facilities in more than 20 countries and has 800 dealers worldwide.

Many business owners agree that a mission statement is the tool that can get everyone in the company going in the same direction. Just as important, developing a new or revised mission statement forces managers to think strategically,

"It's a very helpful process in that it makes you sit back and focus on things outside the day-to-day, filling-the-order kind of mentality," says Alan Blazar, president of Blszing Graphics, a graphics production company in Cranston, R.I. The process makes you look at what's happening in your industry, he explains, and "gives an opportunity to look at the long-term situation."

According to Burt Nanus, author of Visionary Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 1992), a mission statement defines what an organization has been established to accomplish, delineating products and markets and, in some instances, going further to state a company's creed or values, its operating philosophy, or its major goals.

While some business leaders, like Johanneson, use "vision" and "mission statement" interchangeably, others do not. Blazar says Blazing Graphics' mission statement, conceived in 1992, expands on the 10-year-old company's original vision of bringing various graphics trades--design, engraving, photography, and printing--under one roof to service the high end of the advertising market and of being "the best graphic-arts producer in the industry bar none." The new mission statement is broader, calling, for example, for creating "an environment that will be both personally and professionally fulfilling."

Blazing Graphics, which employs 75 people and brings in $8 million in annual revenues, was a 1993 state honoree of the Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative. The initiative is a program sponsored annually by the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Nation's Business to recognize small companies that have overcome challenges and emerged stronger.

Developing a mission statement helped turn around Healthtex, an ailing children's-clothing company that was purchased by VF Corp. in 1990. A year after the purchase, says Healthtex's president, Gary E Simmons, the company's managers felt they needed to put in writing what Healthtex wanted to do and who its target customers were. The statement in part reads: "Healthtex x|411 be the most responsive kidswear company in understanding and meeting the needs of targeted consumers and retailers with basic and basic fashion everyday playwear that lasts."

The company, based in Greensboro, N.C. identified its primary customer as a mother of children, newborn to 6 years old, who shops for everyday playwear in middle-market department stores and national children's specialty chains. Healthtex also determined specifically what kinds of clothing the company would make.

"The goal here is that everybody--be it a machine operator, a designer, or the head of human resources--is thinking in a similar vein," Simmons says. "It doesn't mean they all think alike, but at least they all have a central core belief of what this company's trying to achieve."

Healthtox has experienced 40 percent growth in each of the past two years, and its annual sales range from $100 million to $150 million. "We now are a profitable company and are now moving forward very nicely," Simmons says. The mission statement has helped, he says, by getting different groups of people within the company to focus on a strategic direction.

Gerald Johanneson says Haworth, Inc., has been able to win new business as a result of its mission statement. When potential corporate clients visit Haworth headquarters, Haworth's presentations to them include a discussion of the company's mission by company officers. As a result, some visitors decide to place an order because they think Haworth is the kind of company they want to do business with, Johanneson says.