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The typical mission statement does little more than state the obvious: We're in the IT business. And that alone isn't going to motivate anybody or tell them anything new. The problem with typical mission statements is that they define the business of the entire organization. Staff don't relate to them because they're too ethereal, vague and grandioseÂ…Effective mission statements define the business of each small group within the organization. They give people a clear understanding of their own purpose.

When missions are defined group by group, they focus staff on their respective customers (be they clients or internal) and their products. They build customer focus, entrepreneurship, empowerment, a sense of identity with end results and pride in the value of one's work. They also enhance teamwork by defining internal customer-supplier relationships.

Business must be run at a profit, else it will die. But when anyone tries to run a business solely for profit... then the business must die as well, for it no longer has a reason for existence.

Saying that a company's purpose is to maximize profits is like saying that man exists in order to breathe. The fact that a man cannot live without breathing is one thing, but the ultimate purpose to which all man's energies must be directed is quite another. Similarly, it is one thing to say that a company cannot survive without a certain minimum of profits, and quite another to say that the purpose of any company is to maximize profits.

When no clear moral purpose is articulated, a company acquires a de facto amoral purpose: expediency. It becomes the kind of company that professes, "We are here only to make money." This can be very successful in the short run, but companies without a clear moral purpose cannot endure; they do not survive the changes they will face in their markets or business environments. Even so, this type of company is preferable to the company that pretends to follow a moral purpose, such as excellence or altruism, but actually practices expediency. This gap between real and professed moral purpose breeds cynicism among employees. Companies that profess moral purpose but do not display it become crisis-ridden and paralyzed, precisely because employees have inconsistent, even contradictory, guidance for their decisions and cannot set priorities.

Business leaders cannot pretend that what they do is value-free, even if they want to. The individual who aspires to be a leader must throw off traditional typecast roles: the wealthy entrepreneur or investor, the famous deal maker, the tough chief executive, even the charismatic leader. These roles have become commodities - they can be adopted at will by individuals, and even bought and sold in the marketplace (a specialty of executive recruiting firms). The true business leader's more significant role is to be in touch with, and act on, the moral currents that influence his or her colleagues. People do not want commoditized leadership; they want principles. To fulfill this role requires understanding of the moral issues that sway individuals, whether they know it or not.

Obviously, leaders need to develop a competitive strategy around their companies' strengths, but the difficult part, the differentiating part, is less likely to be the framing of the strategy than the inspiration that turns it into action. It is moral purpose that drives action consistently and in the long term. Hence moral purpose is central to the kind of modern business leadership that is hard to imitate and thus provides the basis for the kind of enduring competitive advantage that can sustain a company for decades.

People get confused between purpose, mission statements, and vision. "Mission" is basically how you execute your purpose, and vision is a statement of how you see the world after you've done your purpose and mission.

But purpose is the deepest river: You start with "What difference are you trying to make?" Your tactics will change, your ads will change, your mission might too, but your purpose never will.

Pursuing a mission without achieving results is dispiriting; achieving results without a mission is meaningless.

Peter Senge told us, "Mission instills the passion and patience for the long journey." If we can summon both the passion to pursue that journey and the patience to stop for travelers we meet along the way, our organizations will be well served indeed.

Without mission, there's no purpose. Without vision, there's no destination. Without values, there are no guiding principles.

There would be no strength in relying on the teachings of others without a basic capacity for self-reliance. To rely upon the strength and resources of others without a firm purpose of one's own is a sign of weakness.

If you ask young men what they want to accomplish by the time they are 40, the answers you get fall into two distinct categories. There are those—the great majority—who will respond in terms of what they want to have. This is especially true of graduate students of business administration. There are some men, however, who will answer in terms of the kind of men they hope to be. These are the only ones who have a clear idea of where they are going.

The same is true of companies. For far too many companies, what little thinking goes on about the future is done primarily in money terms. There is nothing wrong with financial planning. Most companies should do more of it. But there is a basic fallacy in confusing a financial plan with thinking about the kind of company you want yours to become. It is like saying, “When I’m 40, I’m going to be rich.” It leaves too many basic questions unanswered. Rich in what way? Rich doing what?

Most companies strive to maximize shareholder wealth—a goal that is inadequate in many respects. As an emotional catalyst, wealth maximization lacks the power to fully mobilize human energies. It’s an insufficient defense when people question the legitimacy of corporate power. And it’s not specific or compelling enough to spur renewal.

Here’s the thing: In every corporation and every politician, in every university, in every country, sooner or later, you get envy. You’re struggling, and you see another organization in your space. And the tendency—if you don’t have a purpose that you can articulate—is to strike out on a mission to become a worse them. Purpose says: “Wait a minute; stop it; if we try to be like them, the best we’ll ever be is a worse them. It’s the best we’ll ever be. So instead of being a worse them, let’s become a better us.” Well, you can’t become a better us unless you know what us is.