Unlock Success: 6 Types Business Manifestos You Must Know

Are you struggling with direction and clarity in your business?

Without this, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters and you can waste time, money and effort working on the wrong things. This means your business can fail to reach its full potential.

Creating Direction and Clarity in Your Business

The solution is to create a business manifesto.

Over the past ten years, I’ve collected hundreds of examples of business manifestos and helped many clients create their own.

To help you focus on what’s important, today I’ll share the six types of business manifestos you need to grow your business.

You’ll probably recognise all six types. That’s not the useful thing here.

Instead, I’ll share when and how to use each one. That’s what you need to know. Choosing the wrong type of business manifesto can be worse than having no direction at all.

What is a Business Manifesto?

Now, you might be thinking, what’s a business manifesto?

Aren’t Manifestos only for startups, starving artists and serial killers? Not quite.

Every business, regardless of its size, industry or age has a manifesto of some sort. They might not call it that, but that’s what they have.

A manifesto is a public declaration of your intention.

Whenever you stand up and say ‘I want this’ or ‘I’m going to create this’ you’re creating a manifesto.

That makes it an umbrella term for things like missions, visions, purpose and values. And these are four types of business manifestos. (I thought you might recognise them!)

The Big Problem with a Business Manifesto

The big problem with the way people in business use these types of manifestos is that they don’t clearly differentiate between them. Instead of being clear and concise, they’re fuzzy and unclear. And they all tend to end up being the same. It’s a Manifesto Tangle.

You might have heard the expression, if the only tool you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail. That’s what happens when you don’t differentiate between these four types of business manifestos.

Let’s change that right now. Here are four definitions and four examples that will clearly show the difference between them.

1 Mission Statements

Businesses love mission statements because they love productivity, results and achieving specific outcomes. And that’s what a mission statement is. It’s a specific outcome or goal you want to achieve. It’s a RESULT. This is a good thing to focus on BUT it also has its limits. (I shared my experience with this here.)

Here’s Spotify’s clear mission statement:

By giving a million creative artist the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunities to enjoy and be inspired by it.

The important thing is the two numbers – million and billion. That’s one million artists and one billion fans. This makes it two specific results to achieve – two missions.

Mission statements are about producing a specific result. If it doesn’t have a number, it’s not a mission.

2 Vision Statements

The second most popular type of business manifesto is a vision statement.

A vision is a description of your destination – or how the world will look when you’ve fulfilled your business. It’s the IMPACT you want to have.

And here’s an example from Toyota:

Toyota will lead the future mobility society, enriching lives around the world with the safest and most responsible ways of moving people.
Through our commitment to quality, ceaseless innovation, and respect for the planet, we strive to exceed expectations and be rewarded with a smile.
We will meet challenging goals by engaging the talent and passion of people who believe there is always a better way.

The important point here is that it’s future-paced. Toyota will…

It does need more of a description of what that will look like. But it’s a good start.

(I found it really hard to find a good example of a Vision Statement because many of them are presented as ‘mission statements’ but aren’t or they fit the definition of a Purpose Statement. It seems that businesses are reluctant to create a vision that describes a complete outcome.)

Often people confuse a mission and vision. Read this post, if you want to know more on the difference between vision and mission.

3 Purpose Statements

Next, we have the hottest type of business manifesto at the moment.

It’s a purpose statement. And this declares your reason for being. It’s all about your MOTIVATION.

A great example of this is from Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe:

To develop and manufacture the finest timepieces in the world

Can you see that it’s not a mission – there is not a specific result to achieve. And can you see it’s not a vision – it doesn’t describe what the world looks like. Instead, it’s very clearly a motivation for what they create.

4 Values Statements

Our fourth type of business manifesto is a set of values. Your values are statement of how you want to behave. And that makes them a great tool for building CULTURE.

I love this example of values from Australian software company Atlassian because it shows a lot of personality.

Too many companies put our boring bland and beige values like integrity, teamwork, honesty and innovation. They can work as values but they are boring and generic. And companies wonder why their staff aren’t engaged.

More here – how to define your values

5 Brand Manifesto

Ok, they’re the four most common types of business manifestos. Here’s the fifth one – and you’ve probably heard of this one too: A brand manifesto.

Your brand is all about how you want to be seen. In other words, POSITIONING.

One of my favourite examples of a brand manifesto is an Apple TV commercial from the 1990s: Here’s the Crazy Ones. It connects Apple with a series of famous creators – and says we make tools for the crazy ones who want to change the world. Inspiring!

6 Thought Leadership Manifesto

Now for the sixth type of business manifesto. You might recognise it when I say it: a thought leadership manifesto. A thought leader is a person or an organisation that provides insight or learning for others to consider. It’s about how you succeed. In other words, EXPERTISE.

A great example of this is the Edelman Trust Barometer. Edelman is a communications or public relations company. They believe that trust is the ultimate currency. And they demonstrate their belief by researching this and sharing their insights. They’ve been doing this for 25 years and this builds their brand and shows their expertise.

More: Three big reasons to write a Thought Leadership Manifesto

Bonus: The Seventh Type of Business Manifesto

On the surface, this one might appear to be a specialist manifesto for a select few. But, a Design Manifesto is not just for designers. It’s also for clients wanting to employ a designer or any other type of contractor or supplier.

For more, read this: Your Ultimate Guide to Write a Powerful Design Manifesto

Which Type of Business Manifesto do you need?

Now for the big question, which one do you need right now to grow your business in the next 12 months?

• If you want to achieve a specific result use a Mission Statement.
• To set a general direction to head toward use a Vision Statement.
• Do you need to motivate your organisation? Then use a Purpose Statement.
• If you want to define a high-performing culture then use Values.
• If you want your business to be seen in a particular way create a Brand Manifesto.
• And if you want to demonstrate your expertise then create a Thought Leadership Manifesto.

More on Types of Business Manifestos

If you want more on the types of Business Manifestos to grow your organisation then read these blog posts next:

• Write a Personal Manifesto: Seven Ways to be Inspired – you can easily adapt these types of personal manifestos to become your Business Manifesto
• How to write a Manifesto: The two most powerful ways
• 12 Personal Mission Statement Examples by Famous People – with one controversial example