Vision Core · Mission Statement · Module
Scope
What business the organisation is in, and what it is not — drawn too narrowly it goes obsolete with the product; drawn too widely it permits anything.
The idea
How it works
Levitt’s argument was that firms defined themselves by what they made rather than by the need they served, and then failed when something else served that need better. The railways were not in the railway business.
The opposite error is now more common. A scope defined as “helping people live better” permits any activity at all, which means it excludes nothing and directs nothing. Abell’s three questions — which customer group, which need, which technology — keep the definition honest in both directions.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Define by the need, not the product
The product will be replaced. The need the customer has is more durable and is what the organisation should be organised around.
- 02
Answer all three questions
Which customers, which need, which means. A definition missing one of them is either too narrow or too wide.
- 03
Name what is out of scope
The adjacent things the organisation has decided not to do. That list is the useful half.
- 04
Check it against the revenue
Where the money actually comes from is the real scope. If it sits outside the stated one, the statement is wrong.
One level in
The components of scope
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Check the stated scope against where the revenue actually comes from. Where they differ, the statement is the thing that is wrong.
The other modules in mission statement
The statement
What the organisation does, for whom, and to what end — in the present tense, and short enough to be repeated without a document.
LearnRecognisability
Whether the people doing the work can find it in the sentence — the test that establishes whether the mission is true rather than merely agreed.
LearnKeeping it current
What happens when the organisation changes and the mission does not — because drift into inaccuracy is silent and revision should be an event.
Learn