This is one way for me to make a purchasing decision, I always like to match the statements to what I am getting from a company, is they following there mission statement, if the product or services are that bad then I know that I should not be buying from this company.

I am putting together a company with my son at this moment and we are going round and round on what a mission statement should be about. Our philosphy on business is pretty much in line but this statement issue has us in a deep discussion of morals etc, believe it or not.

I see a mission statement much like the cover of a book, it must be inticing and inviting but the contents of the book will prevail as to the quality of the read. I remember a very specific instance when I work for a multi-national company and the mission statement went something like this: “If we do not take care of our customers, someone else will”. This statement was taken very seriously by one of our large customer (and account) when it through it into our face because he felt we were not taking care of his company, and under the circumstances I had to agree with him.

I did a recent blog on company mission statements. Its really fascinating to see how they are constructed and what keywords they are using to reinforce their company values – as your article above points out.

And yes, as a matter of fact, the “good will” of a company IS part of its bottom line. It actually has a net worth which is always argued when determining a company’s value (I know, this probably comes as a shock to you. I am sorry).

So when “…the citizens of the Earth” begin to chant “Yahoo means jail” (which could be just a few more unwarranted arrests away), you’ll be able to see how important the concept of “Good Will” actually is to a company.

I bet that will be a new experience for you, Mookie!

http://ultramookie.com/wayback/2007/01/22/its-all-about-people/

Jack: Name a company that does say, “it’s the money, stupid, and nothing else.” Don’t be so naive. If companies were not into making money, what are they here for? The good will of the citizens of the Earth? Get off your Google Fanboy soapbox.

Yahoo’s so-called mission statement, “To connect people to their passions, communities, and the world’s knowledge,”

…..is another way of saying…..

“We at Yahoo happily, eagerly and without resistance or hesitation of any kind immediately connect (uh, identify) any Yahoo member on earth to the secret police, death squad or kangaroo court of any dictatorial regime, rogue state or human rights abuser even if such identification will obviously result in said Yahoo member’s arrest, torture, life-long imprisonment and/or death.

“Our other mission is to cram as much unwanted software into your personal computing experience as we can possibly get away with, whether we have your permission or not, which helps significantly with our first mission.

“Together, these dual missions increase our bottom line, which drown out the horrific screams of agony of those we’ve ‘connected,’ and, for that matter, the wails of sorrow cried by their families for years to come.

“Yahoo – it’s the money, stupid, and nothing else.”

Google has been the winner due to its simplicity and very much user friendlyness in their user interface designs in each and every application. It seems that they study the user expectations well before doing an application. That’s why they are always different and most appreciated.

Also, it’s important to note that users of social sites are quite fickle. One wrong move by Yahoo on a particular service (e.g. Yahoo TV) and users may switch to a different service. Search users are not quite so fickle – it takes a significantly improved product for users to change their default search engine.

Foolish me. Forgot about Orkut which does indeed play a big role in the social space for Google itself. Your 100% right, since it is an invite-only system, it never hit the mainstream as myspace or facebook did and now its too late for that type of success.

As far as your question on co-existing…that’s exactly why Yahoo is taking the direction its taking on now.