Customer value is your survival metric. Everything else—vision, mission, purpose—is just noise if you’re not delivering value first. Customer value is what keeps your business alive, period.
I’m not saying you shouldn't have a vision, mission, purpose, and company values statements; just make sure you nail customer value first.
Most Statements Miss the Mark
Let’s be honest. Most vision, mission, purpose, and company values statements read like they were written by committee agonizing over every word… because they were written by committee agonizing over every word—and it shows.
What you wanted was a horse; what you got was a camel that just shat itself. Too much jargon, too little clarity. It’s the kind of corporate gobbledygook that sounds important but says nothing. Worse, these statements often overlap, confusing everyone from employees to customers.
Here are the common pitfalls:
Wordsmith woes: Endless debates by non-professional copywriters over wording that means nothing to the intended audience.
Fluff: Statements so vague and full of buzzwords that they are entirely meaningless. For example, “We’re committed to leveraging innovation to disrupt paradigms in pursuit of synergy.” Seriously WTF?
Too long: No one remembers a 100-word (or nauseatingly longer) vision or mission statement.
Misplaced focus: Prioritizing internal cheerleading over external relevance.
The result? A whole lot of effort is spent on words that don’t matter to the people who matter most—your customers.
Start with Customer Value
Customer value is the foundation. If it’s not there, nothing else matters.
Your customers don’t care about your vision or purpose if you can’t deliver value today. They’re asking: “What’s in it for me?”
If your website, messaging, and sales pitch can’t answer that question in a heartbeat, nothing else will save you.
So, what is customer value?
It’s the tangible and intangible benefits you deliver that solve a customer’s problem. It’s what makes them choose you over the competition.
The Role of Vision, Mission, Purpose, and Company Values
Vision: The Big Picture
This is your long-term aspiration, what you’re building toward. Investors care about your vision because they’re betting on your future. But if your vision isn’t grounded in delivering real value—today and in the future—it’s just corporate poetry that no one believes.
Who it’s for: Investors and strategic partners.
Where it belongs: About page, investor pitch decks, and investor relations page (if applicable).
Mission: The How
Think of it like a roadmap. This is the practical “how you’re going to get there,” which guides what you do every day. Internally, it helps your team align their efforts toward delivering value. But let’s be honest—customers don’t care about your mission. They care about what you can do for them right now.
Who it’s for: Employees and internal stakeholders.
Where it belongs: Keep it internal. Kill it on the website.
Purpose: The Why
Purpose is your reason for existing beyond profit. It attracts employees who want to feel they’re contributing to something bigger. Customers may care if it aligns with their values, but only if you deliver value to them first (and ultimately, you need to make money by delivering that value).
Who it’s for: Jobseekers and purpose-driven customers.
Where it belongs: About page, Careers page.
Company Values: The Culture
Your values guide behaviour and decision-making. Internally, they shape your culture. Externally, they attract jobseekers and customers with similar principles. But let’s not kid ourselves—most companies have a nice-sounding laundry list prominently displayed on the wall that no one remembers.
If your company’s stated values don’t match the lived reality, it’s time to stop faking it and fix the culture. And keep it to three or four. The less, the better. You don’t have to be dull with these, either. (And yes, I know a few workplace culture experts who can help you.)
Who it’s for: Employees, job seekers, and occasionally customers.
Where it belongs: Usually the Careers page, but sometimes the About page.
Customer Value: The Priority
Customer value is what earns trust, builds loyalty, and drives revenue. Everything else is secondary.
Who it’s for: Customers, customers, and—let me say it again—customers.
Where it belongs: Everywhere. Your homepage, product pages, case studies—every touchpoint should be clear in what you can do for them—now! Not five or ten years from now.
Keep It Simple, Keep It Real
Customers don’t care about your fancy statements. They remember how you solved their problem.
Debating and getting alignment on direction and strategy? Absolutely worth your time. But spending hours with your C-suite arguing over a single word in one of these statements? That’s a massive waste of time and effort that sadly happens too frequently.
Wrapping It Up
Customer value is the foundation for everything else. If your business narrative doesn’t make it obvious, put the effort in to make it obvious.
Ask yourself:
Does your website make it crystal clear what value you deliver to customers today?
Is your vision, mission, purpose, and company values aligned with delivering that customer value? Or are they just noise?
Focus on the one thing no business survives without: delivering value to customers. Reassess your narrative. Simplify it. Because if customer value isn’t at the core of your story, your business is already losing ground.