Mission Statements

During the past fall, I was on a major internship search. I was looking for a good internship that would give me the experience that I needed to jumpstart my career. To get into a company, it is all about nailing the interview. And to do that, you would like to know as much as you can about the company and their environment. One easy way of getting to know a company before you actually meet them is by reading their mission statements. A mission statement tells a lot about one’s company. It expresses to everyone their goals, their approach to their environment, what they can offer to their customer and most importantly their purpose. These mission statements aren’t just first impressions, but also some of the company’s true intentions and guidelines in running their organization. Let’s take a look at one of the most well known brand in the world and see if we can defer much from their mission statement:

“When Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman made this observation many years ago, he was defining how he viewed the endless possibilities for human potential in sports. He set the tone and direction for a young company called Nike, and today those same words inspire a new generation of Nike employees.

Our goal is to carry on his legacy of innovative thinking, whether to develop products that help athletes of every level of ability reach their potential, or to create business opportunities that set Nike apart from the competition and provide value for our shareholders.

It started with a handshake between two visionary Oregonians - Bowerman and his University of Oregon runner Phil Knight. They and the people they hired evolved and grew the company that became Nike from a US-based footwear distributor to a global marketer of athletic footwear, apparel and equipment that is unrivaled in the world.

Along the way, Nike’s established a strong Brand Portfolio with several wholly owned subsidiaries including Converse Inc., NIKE Golf, Cole Haan Holdings, Inc., and Hurley International LLC.

Our world headquarters is located near Beaverton, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. So while the Pacific Northwest is the birthplace to Nike, today we operate in more than 160 countries around the globe. Through our suppliers, shippers, retailers and other service providers, we directly or indirectly employ nearly one million people.

That includes more than 30,000 Nike employees across six continents, each of whom make their own contribution to fulfill our mission statement: to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.”

The reason why I decided to choose Nike is that their mission statement weren’t so clear cut, unlike some of the more corporate ones where everything is given to you structurally. As you see, under their corporate overview there are six paragraphs, but to pick out the importance of their statement, it will take some perceptions. From my observation, I got the most out of paragraph two, three, and six. (This is pertaining to the characteristics I was looking for in their statement.) I could see their goals are to continue their pursuit for innovation in their products and focusing on how their product can better serve athletes. In addition they also talked about attaining opportunities and creating value for their owners. They then established their purpose in their environment by informing us about how they are providing their product from a US market to the global market. Toward the end, they included their employees and restate their goal which I think seems to be their “thesis” of the six paragraphs.

In a board view, we can see what Nike’s goal, purpose and plans for the future. However, as an interviewee, one will not know how Nike run things besides the fact they want to bring innovation and inspiration to their customers. One can get a sense of where Nike stands and their history, which can be helpful. However, this can only be the start of their research in learning more about Nike. What do you guys think?