One of the primary obligations of leadership is defining why a company exists and what goals it should pursue. It’s easy to confuse these terms or to elevate one over the other in importance.
That this is not just a theoretical exercise is evidenced by the heated debate between President John F. Kennedy and NASA administrator James Webb in 1962. Kennedy had committed the country to putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade and saw NASA’s mission in that context. Webb saw NASA’s mission as more general and strategic.
This short article from Strategy+Business, A Goal Isn’t a Mission, recounts their discussion and how it was finally resolved, with the moral being “Don’t mistake a goal-no matter how big hairy, and audacious – for a compelling organization mission.”
Are your company’s goals and mission meaningful?
