This reeks of a powerpoint slide. Back in the day, when I worked for a small enterprise software company, I couldn’t stand the internal dithering about bland corporate message statements. Waste of time. And Jeff Weiner’s post about the vicissitudes of Yahoo’s mission statement is exactly that.
You can almost see his Outlook calendar peppered with meetings to discuss it. Message Strategy meeting. Message strategy meeting. Review new powerpoint. Message strategy meeting.
Ugh.
On the one hand, it’s an admirable exercise in directing a company. I mean, bravo, you guys do great work and the company’s on the right track. On the other hand, it’s meaningless corporate speak like “leverage our assets” that makes me want to stab myself in the ear. There’s no quicker way to sap somebody’s creativity. Chatty Cathy, clip your string.
That’s why I dig Google’s new tagline: Search, ads, and apps. Short, to the point, no monotous mumbo jumbo. And it leaves the details to the imagination of bloggers and journalists who will invariably consult their “news analysis” tea leaves for its meaning.