Out With The Mission Statement, In With The Manifesto

If you add up all the time Cadria team members have spent helping clients define their corporate mission statements, it’s safe to say that we have lost at least one good lifetime. Don't get us wrong; we don't think mission statements are bad things. We just think they’re incomplete (oh, and usually very painful to create). How can a one or two sentence statement provide a complete picture of a company's purpose, goals, and beliefs? It can't. That's why many years ago we started defining company manifestos (and no, not the Unabomber kind). A manifesto is made up of a series of "We believe..." statements that summarize, as holistically as possible, the beliefs, attitudes and aspirations of a company, project, product/service, or brand. It isn't limited by length or word count, just your imagination.

Cadria has two manifestos - one for the external world that communicates who we are as a company and one for our daily office life that reminds us why and how we do what we do. Below is our company manifesto - take a look and let us know what you think:

• We believe the world is in motion and so are we
• We believe that from great experiences come great response rates
• We believe even a small move can be radical
• We believe in attitude without arrogance
• We believe the audience is listening — so say something worth hearing
• We believe curiosity did NOT kill the cat
• We believe in action over reaction
• We believe that inspiration comes from anywhere, and takes you everywhere
• We believe our passion comes from our people
• We believe being professional does not mean being stuffy
• We believe there are many ways to measure success
• We believe success comes from doing the right thing
• We believe in elevating the audience, not diminishing the experience
• We believe true insight comes from asking the right questions
• We believe customer service is a requirement, not an option
• We believe great ideas are contagious
• We believe open minds fill blank pages

The next time you are asked to define a mission statement, try crafting a manifesto instead. We guarantee that it will be more accurate, complete and creative. At the very least, you'll find it to be a far less painful activity. Good luck and have fun.

The journey of a lifetime

Rarely do you get to publicly brag about a team member for something that has absolutely nothing to do with work. Many of you know our fearless chief creative officer, Alan Wallner, is a very approachable, no attitude type of guy. What you may not know is Alan has a passion for motorcycles and can frequently be found racing on the weekends with his kids. Well, leave it to Alan and his friends to take biking to a new level.

Earlier today (Friday the 13th), Alan and friends left Minneapolis bound for Roosville, a town along the Canadian border in northwestern Montana. Their mission, a two week off-road ride along the Continental Divide. For those that need a geography refresher (I did, I looked it up), the Continental Divide is the line that divides the flow of water between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, running from northwestern Canada along the crest of the Rocky Mountains down to New Mexico, through Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental and finally ending at the southern tip of South America.

Over the next two weeks, Alan will journey through five western states - Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico - before riding back to Minneapolis. We wish him safe travels and look forward to seeing our (very sore) road warrior soon.