The meaning of mission statements

“WE ARE A community company committed to maximum global impact. Our mission is to elevate the world’s consciousness.” The opening lines of WeWork’s prospectus for its planned initial public offering in 2019 seem to confirm the worst about mission statements. People sit in a room earnestly discussing the differences between their purpose, their vision and their mission. There are whiteboards and bottles of kombucha. Nonsense ensues.

But even guff has meaning. For investors in young companies in particular, the mission statement sends useful signals. It articulates what a firm does and gives clues to where its priorities lie. Such information matters all the more when founders exercise outsized voting power. The WeWork prospectus helped elevate the consciousness of investors that the property company had lost its marbles. WeWork ended up scrapping both its listing and its boss.