A colleague asked me a question the other day.  He asked me what my company’s mission was.  I couldn’t answer him, properly.  I realized that we were doing this work for our clients but we hadn’t taken the time to do it for OZZ.

Which begs the question:

How can you achieve success if you don’t know what success is – what it looks like, and with that in mind, how can you achieve success if you don’t know where you’re headed?

So, I thought I’d use this post to show you what we’ve created; to show you what I’ve been building and why; to talk about the purpose of OZZ and the passions that have driven me.  My hope here is that you are inspired to take the time to think about your own mission, the purpose behind it, and the vision you have for your future success.

As my colleague pointed out, there is no shortage of information regarding Mission statements on the web.  Google it and find out.  Your Mission statement should include the market you serve and just as importantly, it should set out your purpose, your reason for being.

As I said some time ago through the Story of OZZ, I created OZZ to bring people together, which has never been more necessary, as people line the streets to protest capitalism, corporations, and anything else associated with business, while others points fingers at our governments, our unions, our special interest groups for over-spending, or for whatever they’re mad about.  After watching President Obama’s State of the Union the other day it was clear that people didn’t agree with the picture he painted, many choosing to sit and stare instead of joining a standing ovation like we’ve seen many times before.  Regardless of which side you choose, we’ve never been more polarized, and our world has never been more stuck.

With governments around the world cash-strapped, and with politicians polarized, a solution to the recession isn’t going to come quickly from the public sector.  Many governments around the world will continue to provide useful services to people, but it’s corporations that will make the investments, create the innovations.  With many balance sheets full of cash, it’s corporations that will spark the revolution everyone’s waiting for.

Bringing people together is a natural solution to the problem.  So how do you do that, when each of us is isolated by computers, and smart phones and headphones and busy commutes back and forth to work?  How do you get people to work together instead of against each other, which is clearly what is happening in many corners of the world?  I created OZZ because I imagined a world where corporations and their stakeholders co-exist.  Our purpose as a modern day media company would be to facilitate that in someway, somehow.

Naïve?  I don’t think so.

In the not too distant future, a change in thinking will occur that helps corporations transform from being primarily driven by capital, to companies that broaden the scope of who they are, by broadening the scope of who they serve.  Markets will realize, some day very soon, that supporting companies like this brings greater profits, while people in general will support them because they know these companies will listen.

Everyone in between will change too, from managers and staff to sub-contractors and suppliers.  Everyone will realize that communication technologies aren’t just there to play video games, to chat youthful energies, and to promote the latest product.  They’ll realize they’re there to exchange ideas between corporations and people, which will ultimately make a better world.

It’s corporations who are going to make the world a better place, but only when discover the value of an idea- exchange with people.  I’m not going to tell you exactly what this looks like, which ideas will propel us out of this recession, because I don’t know, any more than you, or the next guy, or the next girl, or whomever.  We don’t know on our own, but collectively we do.  We know that the thoughts of the whole help the few.  We know because each of us has a skill, a seed of knowledge, and maybe a tool that can help.  We know collectively what we don’t know as individuals.

There are many companies that do good things for people, others that make great products and services, and others that do both, but there are also a whole bunch of companies that don’t.  In the not too distant future, these companies will transform.  They’ll have to.  Gone will be the fortresses that make it a chore to contact them, those frustrating behemoths that view people as their enemy.

When I broke it down, all the components of OZZ, the motivations, the value propositions, the success stories and the like, I came up with a statement, which after refining several times with my colleagues, looked something like this:

To create a better future for everyone by facilitating the exchange of ideas between corportions and people through world-class movies, music and e.books and unique video applications

I want to be clear.  The idea-exchange I'm talking about isn't limited to any specific area of the company.  I’ll leave that work up to the expert consultants who bring specialized knowledge to a particular company.  I’m talking about bringing people together to share ideas, perspectives, and passions, thoughts and solutions that affect the entire organization, inside and out, horizontally and vertically.

So with our Mission clear in my mind, I moved on to the vision for my company, the picture of the future.  Again, working collaboratively with my colleagues, including the one who asked me the question in the first place, we created a vision statement:

To lead the world in the positive transformation of both corporations and the societies in which they operate, one story at a time, one corporation at a time, one person at a time.

Our Vision involves bringing like minded companies together, each of them sharing their purpose with the world, each of them interacting with their stakeholders, each of them creating mututally profitable relationships because both the corporation and its stakeholders know what they want from each other.

So there you go:  a clear idea of our purpose, the Mission, and now a clear Vision of our future.

But there is one last thing.  If you know your purpose, and you know where you’re headed, do you really know what drives you to get there, do you know the values that will keep you on your path as you navigate the some times murky waters of life?

For OZZ, it’s quite clear. Three core values drive everything we create:

Inclusiveness.

We bring corporations together with people to build human relationships.

Perspective. 

Understanding creates orientation. 
Orientation increases efficiency and profit. 
Common purpose creates action.

Balance.

Human relationshps thrive when everyone agrees to succeed together.

Mutually profitable human relationships.  This is worthy of a second look.  Mututally profitable human relationships means increased profit for the corporation, because as mentioned on this blog before, including a corporation’s stakeholders in the development of a corporate vision creates orientation to it, buy-in, belief.  It also includes profit for the stakeholders, and not just the shareholders, profit in terms of monetary gain or other forms of ownership.

So there you go, our Mission, Vision and Values, also known as a strategic framework, which we can use as the basis for our company’s strategies moving forward, a reference point if you will.  

Applying Your Mission, Vision, and Values

I hope this discussion helps you prepare a Mission, Vision, and Values for your company, or your personal life for that matter.  But creating a strategic framework is only one part of the equation.  The next step is applying it to the real world.

So how do you do that?  How do you ensure your stakeholders get what you mean, especially as your organization morphs along in our rapidly changing world?  How do you apply your personal “strategic framework” to your life in a world as unpredictable as the weather?

Stay tuned for the answer to that one.  In the meantime, I’ll let you get to work so the next time someone asks you “What’s Your Mission?” you’ll be as ready as I am.

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John Pineau, MCP is the CEO & Founder of OZZ media corp & the OZZ media network

We bring Collective Genius™ to the world.

www.OZZmediacorp.com