What’s a mission statement?

What does Cook’s new mission statement mean and what does it mean to you?

Near the end of 2019, the new Cook Medical mission statement was unveiled. Do you remember your first thoughts when you saw it?

Odds are, a lot of you don’t. And who could blame you at this point? Not only was that over a year ago, it was also “one-of-the-most-turbulent-years-in-world-history” ago.

My memories of the mission statement’s release are a bit more concrete, though, for a couple of reasons.

For starters, I knew that some of my colleagues in Marketing had a hand in the crafting of the mission statement and in its initial rollout to the global Cook Medical community. So, I was interested in seeing the fruits of their labors.

But when it did come out, I remember wondering, “Why do we even have a mission statement?”

And then, “Why do we need a new mission statement?”

Did you know we had an old mission statement?

The new mission statement actually replaced, “Cook is dedicated to bold leadership in pioneering innovative medical solutions to enhance patient care worldwide.”

Our new mission statement

So, then I read our new mission statement.

This immediately raised more questions.

Were employees going to understand what things like a “portfolio” or a “healthcare system” are? (I know I wasn’t totally sure that I understood them.)

Anyway, the new mission statement was announced, and we swapped it in for the old one in the masthead of the Angiogram. Then I went back to business as usual—not really giving the new mission statement another thought. That is, until a couple of months later, in early 2020, when I was assigned a project for the Marketing Business Plan—to increase employee awareness and understanding of the new mission statement.

A storytelling strategy

The project was divided into two phases.

• The first phase was about education—answering those initial thoughts I had after first reading the new mission statement: “What is a mission?” “Why do we have a mission?” “What do these words mean?”

• Then, in the second phase, we wanted to have people from around the company talk about the mission statement, how it impacts them, and how they are actively supporting it.

By the fall of last year, we had a collection of graphics (see below) approved and distributed them to Communications team members around the globe to begin using. Over the last several months, you’ve probably (hopefully) seen them showing up in places like blog posts, the Angiogram, digital newsletters like Vascular Weekly and Engage, and breakroom, cafeteria, and production video screens.

These graphics include definitions and explanations of the words, phrases, and purpose of the Cook Mission statement. Basically, these are answers to the questions I had when the mission statement was first released.

To get these answers, I went right to the people who worked with Pete to craft our new mission statement. The writing process for the mission statement took around four months. During that time, in-depth discussions were held around what he wanted the company to be, how we should be presenting ourselves, what differentiated Cook as a company, and what the key changes were in Cook’s business strategy that would be represented by the new mission statement. Feedback was gathered from a wide variety of sources throughout this process, including the Cook Medical executive and leadership teams and attendees at Pete’s monthly feedback lunches.

For the final version of the new mission statement, every word was intentionally chosen and expressed exactly the ideal that Cook was striving to be.

Now we would like your help.

Because of the late start we got on the first phase due to COVID, we weren’t able to get to the second phase in 2020, so that was pushed to this year’s business plan—and is the main reason I am writing the blog post that you are reading right now.

In the second phase, you are still going to see the first phase assets around—there are always going to be new people joining Cook and who among us doesn’t benefit from a refresher every now and then?

We want to hear, and share, your stories about the Mission Statements.

What do YOU think about the mission statement?

• Does it motivate you?
• How does it impact your day-to-day work for Cook?
• Are there parts that really resonate with you?

If you are willing to share your thoughts about the mission statement with the rest of the Cook world, let’s talk. Send me an email at Jon.Hancuff@CookMedical.com, leave me a voicemail at x. 10-2211, or use the feedback tool on CIRCLE. Your responses could end up in places like the Life@Cook blog the Angiogram and other Cook newsletters around the globe, Cook social media accounts, and on the breakroom and cafeteria video screens.

Thanks for reading this. I hope to hear from you soon.