Sunday, October 05, 2008

Corporate Bullsh**

Ok, apparently I am just Ms. Curmudgeon these days. Especially on the MBA front. I have a few practical, non-venting (mostly) posts rattling about in my head but in the course of preparing my homework for tomorrow I visited a certain well known corporation's website and happened to look at their mission. Can anyone guess what company this is based on its mission statement alone?

  • To Refresh the World...in body, mind, and spirit.
  • To Inspire Moments of Optimism...through our brands and our actions.
  • To Create Value and Make a Difference...everywhere we engage.
Granted, most companies' mission statements are overdone but since when did the world's largest producer of sugar water aspire to refresh my spirit? Inspire moments of optimism?? And how more generic can one get than "making a difference". (Boring) Have business leaders lost all sense of reality and reason? This is what makes me hate the business world and MBAs in particular. I don't get mission statements in the first place but at the very least shouldn't they be moderately related to one's actual business activity? What is the point of this schlock?

Just another reminder that a plan B career in general management is probably not my best bet.

4 comments:

Samantha said...

I hear you. It's as if no business today wants to even admit that they'd like to make a profit!

MaybeMBA said...

Ha. Yes, I was thinking wouldn't Coke's mission statement be more aptly stated as "we want to make more money than g-d".

Soni said...

Isn't creating stockholder wealth supposed to be in the mission statement, or is that just a given?

MaybeMBA said...

well creating stockholder wealth doesn't seem to be every corporation's mission (unfortunately) ... but that would be a good one too.