Page 149 - ConvinceThemFlip

know the nature of your business
a big-idea statement. But what I found was a company that
needed something for the frontline troops—a ten-second
commercial.
I realized this when I spoke to Andrew Harrison, who
runs a division of the company that specializes in inter-
national rentals. Pick up a car in, say, Lisbon and you can
drop it off in Amsterdam—or almost anywhere in western
Europe. Two years ago, the company had brought in a
consultant to develop a mission statement. After they had
analyzed their business, talked with the managers and the
employees, and done oodles of research, they turned it in.
The mission statement—which management had printed
and posted in every agency office around the world—
read, “We are dedicated to providing the best value in all
of the products and services we provide to our valued
customers. Our rates, service, and product quality are—
and will remain—second to none.”
Andrew summed it up loud and clear. “How does this
help me communicate who we are and why we are spe-
cial? I want to know that if I see the president of Club Med
in a bar, I can walk up to him and—bang—tell him what I
do, who I do it for, and how it makes their life better. Short
and sharp and clear. All the things that this isn’t.”
You’ve seen a thirty-second commercial on TV. It’s so
long that you can get up and go to the fridge, let the dog
out, put another log on the fire, and check out your hair in
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