Dan Sullivan asks "Who do you want to be a hero to?" and Michael Schrage asks "What do you want your customers to become?" Answer both and you have your company's mission. The best companies know this, whether they say it out loud or not.
I think the two best questions in marketing are Dan Sullivan's "Who do you want to be a hero to?" and Professor Michael Schrage over at Harvard Business School's question, "What do you want your customers to become?" Because when you put them together, it's like, who— what do you want for the people who you want to be a hero to? What is it that you wish for them? What is the new state that you wish for them to achieve? Because that's a vision. And that kind of vision is what really should be driving a company or enterprise because it's your mission. In the market. And then the way that you act in the market is going to be a reflection of that. The way you treat your employees is going to be a reflection of that mission, because it's going to be towards that which is moving out. You'll be inspiring people to want to also accomplish that mission, because you desire to be a hero to those people, because you care about them, and you have a vision for where it is that they can go, the potential they have not yet achieved. That, to my mind, when I hear that, that vibe in a company, even if they're not explicitly using those exact words, that's a company that I want to invest in. That's a company I want to help.
