Mission, vision, purpose, BHAG, North Star. Are they useful, or academic nonsense?Mission, vision, purpose, BHAG, North Star. Are they useful, or academic nonsense?

For many of us, these are highfalutin’ terms that have no role in early stage startups, because we’re too busy making stuff and realizing that customers actually wanted something else. By the time the company is large, there are teams of people⁠—probably in marketing⁠—carefully sculpting these things as sentence fragments in large serif fonts on “About Us” pages that no one reads and no one believes. And by no one, I mean not employees, not customers, and not investors. Phrases that sound grand but are just grandiose.

How can these terms matter, when pundits can’t even agree on their definition? Take “mission.” One interpretation is like “missionary”⁠—our higher purpose, something bigger than ourselves, which we are helping to bring about. So Patagonia’s mission is “to save our home planet,” though what it does is sell outdoor clothing. Or Tesla’s mission is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy,” though what it does is sell cars, followed by selling batteries and solar panels. Or Coca-Cola’s mission is “to refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit,” but what it does is sell barely-potable chemicals and containers of said chemicals embedded in carbonated water. Well, two of those three companies are at least fulfilling their mission.