A few weeks back I posted about the change to MicroMash’s Pass Guarantee. In that post, I mentioned that I would periodically discuss issues that affect or impact our students or our business. This post will be the second time I discuss a bit of the behind the scenes, day to day operations of MicroMash. In an effort to keep the length of this post reasonable, I’m introducing the discussion today with follow up posts once a week for the next couple weeks.

As mentioned in the previous post, I have been with MicroMash since July 2009. The first thing I did when I came aboard was to sit down with every employee to discuss what we did well and what could be improved; how we operated, and how we wanted to operate; what our products were and how they were priced – typical immersion therapy for any new executive joining a business.

During those initial meetings I learned that MicroMash was operating without a formal mission statement, and I resolved to change that as quickly as possible. Formally defining who we are and who we want to be quickly became job #1. I suspect a number of you are scoffing right now because you consider a mission statement nothing but corporate bureaucracy. I strongly believe (in both a business and a personal context) that “if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything”. We all need a touchstone, a guidepost to ensure we are focused on the right things (even companies), and a strong, well thought out mission statement provides a company and employees with direction; it ensures we are focused on the right issues; it also helps us avoid distractions that do not fit our mission. By defining what you are and what you want to be, you also define who you are NOT and what you will NOT do.

As a precursor to drafting our mission statement, I asked all of the members of our team to consider companies that they loved doing business with. What is it about those companies that make them different? What need do those companies satisfy? Why do you enjoy doing business with them? We spent a few hours reviewing a diverse assortment of companies such as Zappos, Netflix, Southwest Airlines and many others. We also looked at companies that we hate doing business with (I won’t name names here) so we would know what practices to avoid. We took pages and pages of notes which helped us focus our thinking even further. The actual mission statement came together pretty quickly. We were left with a bunch of what I call “value” words that could have impacted our values statement. I asked the team to vote on each and we compiled them in order of the number of votes. What follows is the official MicroMash Bar Review Mission Statement and Values Statement:

Mission

MICROMASH is a trusted partner to time-pressured bar exam takers. We provide a convenient, flexible, easy to use bar study program that ensures you pass the bar exam of your choice. GUARANTEED!

Values

We want our customers to view us as:

• High Quality
• Reliable
• Great Service
• Easy to use
• Knowledgeable
• Convenient
• Modern
• Innovative
• Good value
• Interactive

The new mission statement was officially adopted in late July 2009, so we’ve been living with it for a while now. I have it as my background on my laptop, in an attempt to remind me daily what we are and what is important to us. As anticipated, it has guided many decisions we have made since July, impacting dozens of situations and customers. In future weeks, I’ll be sure to share with you the ways in which the new mission statement has affected both MicroMash and our customers. In the meantime, please feel free to share your MicroMash experiences (both good and bad) in the comments section below. Tell us what you like about doing business with us, and what you would change if you were in charge. We LOVE feedback from customers because it is the basis of our improvement. Cheers!

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