Easy Writer. in the trenches. Hard data are not always available to marketing. Writing a mission statement is easier with the Delphi technique.

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1 in the trenches Easy Writer Writing a mission statement is easier with the Delphi technique. By Jim Murrow 40 Hard data are not always available to marketing researchers. In the late 1960s, Rand Corp. developed the Delphi technique for forecasting in such situations. Delphi begins with a broad research question followed by recruitment of a panel of experts, in areas such as technology and the economy, to gain its opinions about the future developments or likelihood of events within its areas of expertise. The technique starts with issuing the question about the problem being addressed to the panel. Answers are gathered and analyzed, with a central facilitator issuing a revised question (with the accompanying rationale) based on the expert input. The process continues until consensus is reached as much as possible. Delphi has several advantages including shared expert knowledge, which aids converging consensus and validity. Additionally, the technique has always been asynchronous as far as the panel is concerned, because panel members can reflect on the question being addressed and respond on their own schedule (within a generally agreed timeline). And broader inclusiveness of stakeholders is also relatively easy compared with a group meeting at a single site and time. Further, the technique avoids the high direct and opportunity costs of group meetings. However, Delphi has been very slow historically because of organizations using snail mail to send and receive iterative copy and responses. The U.S. government further developed Delphi in Project Hindsight to formalize it as a tool that would allow a group of experts to reach a consensus when they were using subjective factors for decisions, and quantitative data were not available. That situation effectively describes the need for creating a new mission statement or altering an existing one to reflect changes in markets and organizations. The technique has been used by the secretary of defense to analyze the history of defense acquisition since 1945, by Congress for prioritizing national funding when conflicting goals are present or when the scale of the problem is large, and by the government of Taiwan to organize its entire information technology industry. It s useful and effective in a political or emotionally charged decision environment. And a mission statement alteration or creation is often both politically, and emotionally charged. Mission Statement Problems Prevailing wisdom states that creating or altering mission statements is expensive, difficult, frustrating, and a large opportunity cost because of the time and personnel involved. That certainly was true in the past, particularly in large faceto-face meetings of senior managers and stakeholders. In fact, because of the expenses involved, organizations might not have included some key stakeholders in the process. Accordingly, some managers have claimed that mission statements are not an immediate necessity or not useful in daily operations and that their organizations can delay working on them. That s just wrong. A mission statement should be a constant touchstone for all efforts in achieving an efficient and healthy bottom line, no matter what the bottom line might look like. To have any hope of steering a successful course through all the sea changes inherent in services marketing, an organization had better have a good mission statement and mission derived plan as its polestar; otherwise, it ll be wrecked in short order. If there is any doubt that managers consider mission statements an interesting topic, simply visit the Web to hunt for the term. An April 2005 Google search returned more than 7 million hits. Easier, Faster, and Cheaper The good news is that prevailing wisdom about mission statements doesn t have to be true anymore if organizations use technology and if they adapt the Delphi technique. With it they can meet researchers recommendations for mission I have used the adapted Delphi technique to create and alter mission statements for two healthcare organizations. One was a multi-specialty, physician owned, for-profit clinic and the other was a not-for-profit foundation serving hospice patients and their families. Obviously, the definition of bottom-line success is different between such organizations: The clinic defined it as the patients it helped and the money operations made, whereas the foundation counted it as the money it provided for assisting end-of-life projects. Yet, using the technique, both organizations achieved a working and useful

2 mission statement within a few hours of effort. Furthermore, the two organizations received and recycled for consideration key personnel s substantial input and review. Therefore, the organizations achieved the required stakeholder engagement and buy in that mission construct experts propose. Even more interesting is that by using this technique, large, geographically dispersed operations can include suppliers and key players as easily as if they were in a central location. Before an organization can use the adapted Delphi technique, however, it must understand the different types of mission statements and their vital components. An organizational mission statement explains just what an organization s aspirations are. It is derived from and communicates the key stakeholders and value chains core values and beliefs. Mission statements specify the purpose of an organization, summarize what an organization does, and target the intended results of its activities. A unit and individual mission statement, on the other hand, explains in more specific detail what the units and individuals of an organization do and how they do it to meet the corporate mission s goals. In the clinic example, for instance, the orthopedics unit mission statement was derived from and supportive of the corporate or clinic mission statement. And orthopedic physicians, nurses, and administrative personnel s individual mission statements were derived from A mission statement should be a constant touchstone for all efforts in achieving an efficient and healthy bottom line. and supportive of the orthopedics unit mission statement. These three types of mission statements result in an interlocking support matrix. A study done by researcher C.K. Bart in 1997 and then expanded in 1998 tracked a wide variety of firm types and their financial performance. The study used 25 components of mission statements and found that six are consistently linked to positive organizational operation, regardless of the type of firm. Those mission components are: a statement of purpose or general (non-financial) goals, assertion of values, specification of behavioral standards, identification of competitive strategy, and declaration of vision and intent to meet the needs and expectations of multiple stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and the rest). Organizations with these elements in their mission statements showed higher financial performance and satisfaction. Other researchers agree that these components are important, but add the objective of affective responses: arousing and energizing stakeholders to create passion and commitment for achieving objectives such as delight of each customer, ensuring recognition of each presenting patient as a person completely worthy of dignity and respect, no child left behind, and so on. This affective component should be unique to an organization and portray its individuality ( What s the big idea of the firm and what differentiates it? per Rosser Reeves, the advertising guru of early 20th century advertising). Further examples of such differentiation might be claims of superior healthcare or exceptional empathy if (and only if) it is supportable and important to the served market. An organization should also build the statement so it is able to endure many years as an applicable and useful guide for decisions at all levels and in all occasions. And just to make the challenge of mission creation more interesting, try making it fit on the front of a T-shirt per Peter Drucker, a specialist in strategy and policy. These criteria seem to be extremely tall orders and they are. But organizations can manage them using the adapted Delphi technique. Launching the Technique The adapted Delphi technique begins with an organization picking a champion who can write the initial, or seed, mission statement in different styles. The champion might be the facilitator of the iterative technique or it might be a shared position between a few stakeholders. The champion might also be an outside consultant, one valued stakeholder, or an internal manager. In the clinic example, the champion was a consultant. And in the foundation example, it was a longtime board member. Regardless of the champion s origin, he or she must have the background and ability to objectively look at the firm and to apply available empirical research to seed mission The firm s advertising agency copywriters might prove the best wordsmiths for the job because a good creative team will already have analyzed an organization s strengths and weaknesses and will already be aware of the needs of served and targeted markets. 41

3 in the trenches 42 Creating Seed Mission Statements ASC Seed Mission Statement 1 The mission of ASC is to be and remain the best source of ethical, patient centered, personalized healthcare, which is (1) effectively and efficiently delivered to individuals using the highest available levels of trained healing specialists and technology, and (2) applied with empathy, responsiveness, caring, humanity, and profound respect for the dignity of the patient. Recognizing that patients are served best only through the good efforts of our employee and supplier stakeholders, as well as the physician owners, ASC strives to create an environment in which the dignity and happiness of all are supported and encouraged to thrive. ASC Seed Mission Statement 2 The mission of ASC is to: excel in providing superior-quality, comprehensive, and accessible healthcare services to all who present themselves to us for care. provide and promote a culture that supports and develops a caring, competent, compassionate, and quality-oriented workforce. consistently exceed the expectations of our customer-patients, direct stakeholders, business partners, and communities. be proactive, innovative, and creative in all aspects of our provided services and operations. be cost-effective and value-added in all operations for our patients, our business associates, and those people with whom we work within ASC. be exemplar within the total healthcare industry as an ethical healthcare provider, employer, and business partner. ASC Seed Mission Statement 3 Above all else, we at ASC are committed to the care of our patients and the improvement of all aspects of human life in the communities we serve. Recognizing this commitment, we will do whatever is required to deliver value-added, high quality, safe, cost-effective, and accessible healthcare. To accomplish this mission we recognize that we must also promote a culture that develops and supports a caring, compassionate, competent, and quality-oriented workforce. ASC Vision The ASC vision is to be recognized as the healthcare provider of choice for superior healthcare in all areas and communities we serve, and as an innovative leader in healthcare education and research. ASC Values All our efforts to deliver healthcare in those areas and communities we serve will be based on the ASC core values of trust, creativity, respect, innovativeness, responsiveness, reliability, commitment, empathy, compassion, assurance, excellence, and ethical intent and action. If that isn t the case, it is time for either a new agency or a change of creative team, at the very least. The Clinic Example In the Midwest, All Specialties Clinic (ASC) not its real name operates in affiliation with a large regional hospital. Created as a two-physician partnership a few decades ago, the clinic has grown to more than 110 physician-owners. An internal board of elected representatives governs it with appointed special committees for operational tasks such as marketing or finance. Responding to increased competition and changing markets, the board of governors decided to create a brand image for its clinic. During agency reviews, the board realized the lack of a mission statement and lack of awareness of the served markets perceptions would hamper any marketing efforts. The board surveyed the markets as well as the internal stakeholders, and performed a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis. The champion, a marketing consultant, reviewed the mission literature and the analysis results, and the marketing committee directed the champion to form seed mission (See Creating Seed Mission Statements sidebar). Next, the champion ed the stakeholders or Delphi committee designated employees, managers, supervisors, and suppliers or value chain partners the seed mission statements, with a cover letter about the vital components of a mission statement, so the committee could determine style and content. The committee then read, altered, and edited the seed mission statements as it deemed necessary. The board of governors empowered the committee to complete these tasks at times of its choosing. (This enables better quality responses than a large, off-site meeting.) Many times, the changes were simple statement rearrangements. In both the clinic and foundation examples, the Delphi committee quickly came to an agreement on the best style of a statement. Furthermore, that success built morale and aided the committee in focusing on the remainder of the tasks. Next, the committee electronically returned its changes to the champion, who collated the data, made revisions, and then sent these revisions with commentary and explanations back to the committee. These iterations continued with generally a few days interval as the returned comments deadline. (Frankly, the closer the deadline, the more likely the champion is to promptly receive the input and quickly and effectively create or revise the mission statement.) The committee completed the tasks in three iterations over a three week period. After presenting the results to the general ownership and making a required minor edit, ASC had its vision and mission statement. (See Final Vision and Mission Statement sidebar.) That document allowed the board of governors to proceed

4 with brand building and integrated communication with the focus necessary to capture desired effectiveness and efficiencies. And the vision, ASC, Your Choice for Superior Healthcare, did indeed fit on the front of a T-shirt. Does It Really Work? Knowledge workers in healthcare are famous or notorious for being difficult to manage. Administrators and participants of healthcare organizations often use the herding cats analogy for them. It might be that by using the adapted Delphi technique, organizations avoid the posturing and negativity as intellect often prevalent in face-to-face groups, groupthink, and strong personality leadership of the discussion. The good news is that the electronic age has empowered managers to avoid off-site drawbacks losing weekends with family and dropping big dollars in direct and indirect costs as they struggle to update or create their organizations mission Organizations know they must work on mission statements to reflect where they are going and what they stand for within developing environments. The bad news for consultants is that they might lose some big dollars if firms utilize ASC Vision Final Vision and Mission Statement Our vision is to be recognized as the provider of choice for superior healthcare. ASC Mission Statement Our mission is to provide superior, personalized healthcare delivered in an ethical and efficient manner by the best available personnel and technology in a humanitarian, compassionate, and responsive manner with respect for the dignity of the patient. adapted techniques and technology that is available, relatively simple, and effective. But that s even better news for organizations in need of mission statements that work. MHS About the Author Jim Murrow is associate professor at Drury University Breech School of Business Administration in Springfield, Mo. He may be reached at jmurrow@drury.edu. 43

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