Yahoo's Incomprehensible Mission Statement
Yahoo! powers and delights our communities of users, advertisers, and publishers - all of us united in creating indispensable experiences, and fueled by trust.
Wow. This might be the worst mission statement I've ever read - is that even correct English? WTF does any of that mean? Who exactly does the "all of us united" part refer to? Are people outside the company part of that? And the dangling modifier "and fueled by trust?" Which bit is that modifying? And what exactly is an "indispensable experience"? Is there such a thing?
Is this really the answer to "Hey, Yahoo, what is it that you do?" Crikey. If I was attending the next Yahoo stockholder meeting, just for comedy sake, I would ask Jerry Yang to read that statement and tell me what it means.
Interesting to note that this is a relatively new mission statement for the company, appearing within the last year or so. Last May, it was
To connect people to their passions, communities, and the world’s knowledge.
That statement, while a bit bland and generic, at least had the merit of being a readable sentence. Which makes it 20 times better than the current version.
Anyway, this is the reason why I think Yahoo has no brand. Even they can't tell you what they do. Not in any readable manner anyway....