Mantras versus missions

I am just now going through an exercise of visioning what the next phase of Premier home & family is going to look like. And I’ve been wanted to find the 2-5 words that will really describe us.

Talk about good timing: Guy Kawasaki, the former Apple evangelist, is now blogging, and wrote about mantras versus missions.

An excerpt:

I give up trying to get people to create short, different, and meaningful mission statements, so go ahead and spend the $25,000 for the offsite, facilitator, and consultants to create one. However, you should also create a mantra for your organization. A mantra is three or four words long. Tops. Its purpose is to help employees truly understand why the organization exists.

If I were the CEO of Wendy’s, I would establish a corporate mantra of “healthy fast food.” End of story. Here are more examples of corporate mantras to inspire you:

Federal Express: “Peace of mind”
Nike: “Authentic athletic performance”
Target: “Democratize design”
Mary Kay “Enriching women’s lives”

Perfect!

My only problem: the one I have in mind (“educational products for families that support schools”) is three words too long, according to Guy.

Yikes. How can I reduce it?

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Note, I’ve talked about some of our revisioning previously.