the BBC
I just launched my new project, “curated matter” and defined its mission, vision and core values. I had the idea in March 2008 but it took months of passive reflection to come up with its final definition. The good thing about defining the mission of a venture beforehand is that you can then easily understand what the goals and priorities are.
What interests me in defining a mission is that the final statement looks the same whatever the size of your project, or its nature. A mission statement should be as simple for a multibillion company than for a non-profit association of 5 people. This apparent simplicity is what makes the intellectual work so interesting. Here are some examples: the BBC, Coca-Cola, Starbucks coffee, HP. You can read more missions on WikiAnswers. It is not easy information to find though. I think it should be on the website of every organization, and I mean not a customer friendly version, the real missions.
The mission of curated matter sounds maybe a little too exoteric and is not that clear, compare to the BBC for example. But I wanted something playful and exciting for the imagination.
To show how much a mission statement is important, here are some thoughts about the one of the BBC. I went to their tour last week, and even if it was at the end more for kids, it put me in the mood.
The BBC mission is “to enrich people’s lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.” No mention is made on which of the three aspects is more important: inform, educate or entertain. This leads to the recurrent debate on how much BBC should entertain. After all, private broadcasters do already entertain people. It remains that you can clearly see that the BBC portfolio strictly follows this mission: inform, educate and entertain.
The vision of the BBC is “to be the most creative organisation in the world.”. It seems to me a strange vision. Is it really what people want above all from the BBC? And is the BBC best placed to be the most creative, with its duty to inform and educate? Obviously, that creativity is arguably important to inform and educate. And that the BBC without creativity is dead. But I’m still wondering what this vision actually means in terms of ambition and actions. I think this is eluding the central question of what is the most important to broadcast. Nobody could however deny that the BBC is genuinely trying to achieve this vision, with frequent new programs, some very ambitious in terms of creativity.
Then, the BBC values are listed. I just have one remark for the fun. It states “Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest” and that “Audiences are at the heart of everything we do.”. But putting audiences at the center, is that not a form of dependence? Some facts or programs might not please an audience but still be genuinely important. It is the dilemma between encouraging people to watch a program and remain impartial on what is shown, even if boring or disturbing. Again, the BBC’s values don’t provide any answers. Imagine for example what would happen if the second value was “Getting audiences knowledgeable and providing them with the most refined entertainment is at the heart of everything we do”.
I should say that most of those remarks are addressed in the Public Purposes of the BBC Trust. I would however question why they are not at the same level of importance than the BBC overall mission.
Any mission statements you would like to share? What are your thoughts on the mission, vision and values of the BBC?
