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Hah, does anyone actually believe a company's "mission statement"?



> We act as #OneCoinbase, putting the company’s goals ahead of any particular team or individual goals.

The thing I hate about this fake corporate mission is there is absolutely no need for the lie.

Just be honest, hey we started this company, the founders will have disproportionate returns because we were first and control the equity power structure, you will work for us and make less money - even in the event of an exit. Sometimes we will fire you. We will make mistakes. Lets be adults.

Instead its: "In our supreme nobility we sacrifice everything at the alter of the almighty cause, and so should you. Follow in our virtuous foot steps. Ask not what your company can do for you, but what you can do for your company!" ...


The only honest mission statement is, "we exist to make as much money as possible"

And until shareholder supremacy is no longer a thing, anything else is a lie

Support your favorite B-corp, folks


Exactly this. I don't understand why companies that exist to make money feel the need to be dishonest about their desire to make money.


Because far too many potential employees still believe in a just world.


Capitalism exists to eat all else. Every class has its own destiny.


Not exactly right anymore. Check out https://www.unepfi.org/publications/investment-publications/...

"Large institutional investors are, in effect, “Universal Owners”, as they often have highly-diversified and long-term portfolios that are representative of global capital markets. Their portfolios are inevitably exposed to growing and widespread costs from environmental damage caused by companies. They can positively influence the way business is conducted in order to reduce externalities and minimise their overall exposure to these costs. Long-term economic wellbeing and the interests of beneficiaries are at stake. Institutional investors can, and should, act collectively to reduce financial risk from environmental impacts."

Also https://theshareholdercommons.com/ / https://engine1.com/ that are working to embed this into corporate DNA


"we exist to make as much money as possible".... for ourselves.

You plebes should just be thankful that you have jobs.


And it better be your favorite B-corp, too, we pay your f'ing salaries.


> Ask not what your company can do for you, but what you can do for your company!

I once had a CEO literally drop that line in to an email, after berating the dev team for failing to hit an impossible deadline, that he'd pulled forwards over the vehement objections of the VP of Development.

It was the most utterly bizarre, and divorced from reality, email I think I've ever seen from leadership.


> The thing I hate about this fake corporate mission is there is absolutely no need for the lie.

I get what you're saying, and I dislike the deception also, but there is an intention and a purpose behind it.

The mission statement is for recruiting and retention. At a good company, it has some truth to it. Coinbase management understood that companies are supposed to have mission statements, and they may have even understood why. They just didn't understand that mission statements are supposed to be true.

(Obviously a lot of other companies don't get that part either.)


I guess that shareholders. If a company lies on its mission how can anyone invest on it?


I would go as far as saying that company's "mission statements" are in fact the inverse of what they do.

It always portrays the image they would like to have and by default do not, otherwise there would be no reason to communicate it so prominently.




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