Mission Statements

Dear Import/Export Compliance Manager,

I manage an import/export compliance department in a mid-size company.  I’ve noticed that some other departments have mission statements.  They mostly sound hokey to me, but maybe I’m missing something.  Is it worth it to have a mission statement for my department?

Messaging in Mesa

Dear Messaging,

The Import/Export Compliance Manager used to think that mission statements were the product of marketing people with too much time on their hands.  It just felt like there was too much of a ‘kumbaya’ feeling to it that any attempt to make and disseminate one would immediately label the department as one that was trying too hard to ‘look’ like a successful department without actually doing the work required to be successful.

Well, that was then.  The Import/Export Compliance Manager is now a strong advocate for mission statements, particularly since the benefits far outweigh any disadvantages.  But before extolling their virtues, let’s define them using the reputable-sounding businessdictionary.com’s definition: “A written declaration of an organization’s core purpose and focus that normally remains unchanged over time.” 

Keep in mind that the mission statement has two audiences.  The first is obvious: your stakeholders, i.e. other employees at your company.  Many or most of them have little idea what the Import/Export Compliance Department is and what it’s there for.  In fact, just the word ‘compliance’ is enough to make your department sound rather scary.  The mission statement, by being a brief one sentence summary of your department’s purpose is, will tell people immediately:

-        What your team is responsible for

-        What it is not responsible for

-        How you try to go about your jobs

Are you trying to keep the company within the law?  Put it in the mission statement.  Are you trying to facilitate trade?  Put it in the mission statement.  Are you providing expertise, tools and/or services?  Put it in the mission statement.  Are you dealing with international trade, domestic trade or both?  Put it in the mission statement.  Then put it out there for other employees to see including at the top of your internal webpage, at the beginning of all of your training presentations and any other medium you can think of that wouldn’t be overkill.  You are giving outsiders, who may be clueless about your department, a very quick understanding of what you are about, saving time due to confusion or having to take your own time to explain it to them.

There is another audience for the mission statement: your team.  A well-crafted mission statement also provides a sense of purpose and camaraderie among your team members, knowing that they, despite their different tasks, responsibilities, roles, personalities, histories and pay scales, are all working together for the same goals.  It won’t cure all the dysfunction that you have but it can serve as yet another tool to have everyone work better as a team. 

In fact, creating a new mission statement from scratch with the cooperation of your team is a good group exercise.  Don’t just come up with something from on high.  Instead, solicit your team’s input to come up with something that is likely to be a better product than what you would have come up with yourself and that everyone feels they have more of a stake in.

It can be argued that a mission statement still looks a little goofy.  Even so, the benefits of having it out there far outweigh this little drawback.  It doesn’t even take a mountain of effort to create one (bring in a marketing person to help if you have access to one).  You’ve seen other departments’ efforts; pull them into a list to use as a template and fit what you want to emphasize about your department into them.  

As an example, if the Import/Export Compliance Manager’s column had a mission statement, it might look something like this:

The mission of the Import/Export Compliance Manager’s blog is to propagate best practices, lessons learned, deep thoughts and a small dose of humor to the import/export compliance community for the betterment of individuals and the career field of import/export compliance as a whole.

It may be that a mission statement doesn’t fit with the style of your department.  In the end, you’re trying to ensure the company is compliant; if you think a mission statement won’t help, don’t do it.  The Import/Export Compliance Manager isn’t aware of it even being a mitigating factor in the event of an investigation by a government agency.  Regardless of your decision, good luck!