Patagonia

Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

–Patagonia's Mission Statement

Using Andrew Campbell’s scale to evaluate a Mission Statement, I rated the Patagonia statement as a 13. According to Campbell, any score above a 15 is exceptional while any score less than 10 indicates the statement could use some tweaking. I felt the Patagonia Mission Statement was well structured, easy to read and made me want to learn more about their company.

The Patagonia statement is simple and straight forward. It clearly sets for an inspiring purpose of creating a great product with as little impact to the environment as possible and in the process of doing business addresses environmental issues. I gave the mission statement a score of 2 on questions 1,5,6,9 and 10.

Questions 2, 4 and 1 received a score of 1 each. The “flavor” of the mission statement addresses stakeholder responsibility, strategic positioning to gain competitive advantage and behavior standards. However, the statement does not clearly set forth any specifics in each of these areas.

The statement is somewhat vague in that the exact product produced is not identified, a business domain was not defined and standards for employees to judge their behavior were not set forth. If you are familiar with Patagonia’s product line and that they use their environmentally conscious approach to create a competitive advantage the statement can stand on its own. Someone unfamiliar with the company may not gain a clear understanding of what this company does. I gave the statement a score of 0 on questions 3 and 8.

When you include Patagonia’s vision statement with the mission statement, many of the unanswered questions in Campbell’s scale are resolved. They take a simplified approach to improving the products used in their outdoor adventures while preserving the quality of the outdoors into the future.