Guerrin feels mission and vision is not sufficient.

Purpose

To offer freedom of choice and movement for a better mobility experience.


Essence


A solution available at all times, for any distance and need.


Mission


Mobility is our reason for being.
Customer satisfaction is our motivation.


Vision


To be a leader in customer satisfaction and grow sustainably.

Source: https://www.guerin.pt/en/about-us/

Former Southwest Airlines CEO’s Personal Fundamental Objective

“Anybody who seeks wealth as an end in itself is always going to be disappointed,” he said in 1995. “What you really should be doing is seeking excellence in achievement.”


Source: Washington Post Obituary

Beyond Profits: Tesla’s fundamental objective to hasten the transition to electric vehicles

Elon Musk gave an interview that makes it clear that the fundamental objective for Tesla is not profits.

 

Question: The German automakers just presented their responses to Tesla in Frankfurt at the international automobile show. What do you think of the Audi e-tron quattro and the Porsche Mission E?

Any action in the direction of electric mobility is good. Our goal at Tesla is for cars to transition to e-vehicles. That’s why we opened up all our patents for use by anybody.

And who has used them?

Maybe the companies you already mentioned. When I saw a diagram of Porsche’s Mission E, I thought: It looks exactly like our car. Which is fine. It’s more important to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport.

tesla

Source: Handelsblatt.com

Gerhard Steidl’s Fundamental Objective for his Printing Business

Gerhardt Steidl was asked: Many people call you the “king of printing” and some artists will trust no one else with their books. In what way are Steidl’s books different than other books?

He replied:

Most of the publishing houses in the world are owned by shareholder companies and their interest is to make profit. My publishing house is a private business. I founded it in 1968 and it is still owned by me. It is a family business. It is a Manufaktur and we don’t set any limits on cost. A Steidl book is always made in Germany, in Göttingen, in Düstere Straße 4 and there is a guy, Gerhard Steidl, who is hands on. So, believe it or not, I oversee every sheet that tumbles out of our press. This craftsmanship and this know-how we bring to every one of our babies, our books, makes a huge difference compared to the production processes of other companies.

Source:  The Talks

What is impact investing

CEO of Qantas highlights that some private investors explicitly do not focus on financial returns but on social impact. This is called impact investing. 

Joyce writes on LinkedIn: It’s not a well-known term in Australia, perhaps because our economic prosperity makes it seem less relevant. But the impact investment market here is growing, targeting areas of social disadvantage that government funding alone can’t fix, from unemployment to homelessness. The point of difference is that an investment relationship requires much more sustained engagement between the investor and the business they’re supporting, compared with a one-off donation or grant.

Indigenous businesses have a particular interest in the potential for impact investment. The Forrest report found that Indigenous enterprises are 100 times more likely to employ Indigenous Australians than other businesses, so building the capacity of these enterprises is vital. Organisations like the CAPE Fund in Canada and Indigenous Business Australia show the way forward, and Qantas is playing a role through our Reconciliation Action Plan, partnerships with Career Trackers and Supply Nation, and backing for ventures such as the North Kimberley carbon offset project.

To read more about impact investing on the Inside Policy blog, click here, and to read John Simon’s landmark report, More than Money, click here.

Founders sell WhatsApp to Facebook: Motives not clear

The founders of Whatsapp were very clear that did not not what to sell advertisement through the messaging app.  (See their 2012 statement.They did not even want to collect data on their users.  So why did they sell themselves to Facebook, which is all about collecting more data on us to sell it to advertisers?  Here is a clue in their blog.  Maybe they were tired of having to manage a business rather than just design a product.

Deutsche Bank lowers ROE target from 25% to 12%

When a company has a very high financial targets, employees are encouraged to do everything possible to achieve it, which in turn may lead to an unwanted increase in the level of risk that the firm faces. As the FT.com reports, the new leadership of the Deutsche Bank determined that the target was to high. They may have felt that they needed to curb the risk taking in the bank.

Deutsche’s new co-chief executives are expected to make a decisive break with the decade-long era of Josef Ackermann, their predecessor, when they will drop a target of generating a 25 per cent pre-tax return on equity. At a strategy presentation in Frankfurt after 100 days in charge of the bank, Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen are set to announce a “substantially lower return on equity target”, one person close to the situation said.High quality global journalism requires investment. They are also expected to unveil a strategy for much closer integration of the bank’s business lines, make significant changes to the bank’s bonus model and give more details on a plan to take out €3bn of costs.Analysts estimate that the new goal could be in the region of 12 to 13 per cent ROE after tax – a benchmark more commonly looked at by investors than the pre-tax figure.

Full Story on ft.com

Fundamental Objective for Founder of HTC is making unique products rather than margin

Chou [CEO of HTC] said he cares more about making unique products than making good profit margins. He listens and acts quickly. Often, when Beats co-founder and music producer Jimmy Iovine calls with an idea, Chou will have sent off an e-mail about it before the conversation is over, Iovine said. Chou said he tests the music himself. A $300 million controlling stake in Beats Electronics LLC, the headphones maker backed by rapper Dr. Dre, was part of a strategy to lure music enthusiasts with a marketing plan that included bringing singer Lady Gaga to an Oct. 6 audio party in London to release the HTC Sensation XL, its first handset featuring Beats audio technology and headphones.

Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Lehman Brothers’ did not Walk to Talk of its Mission Statement

BRW reports:  “Lehman Brothers’ mission statement nodded in all the right directions. It told employees and investors that

We are one firm, defined by our unwavering commitment to our clients, our shareholders, and each other. Our mission is to build unrivalled partnerships with, and value for, our clients, through knowledge, creativity, and dedication of our people, leading to superior returns to our shareholders.

However, the investment bank did exactly the opposite, gorging on low-quality mortgages and nearly felling the global financial system. Rather than ‘set and forget’,  [mission statements] should be part of a conversation between staff and management.”

(BRW August 26-October 6, 2010, p. 78)

Richard Branson’s Fundamental Objective

The Financial Times posed twenty questions to Richard Branson. Here are the two important ones that touch upon the idea of a fundamental objective.

How important is money?
My priority is learning and trying to improve the world – not being rich.

How do you want to be remembered?
That I have made a difference.

Read full interview.

Strategic Management 1

Topics

Fundamental Objective