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Mission Statement

urfan1

urfan1

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Found this on AD website:

MISSION STATEMENT The University of Richmond’s NCAA Division I Intercollegiate Athletics Program collaborates with the University community to educate, inspire, and help student-athletes to thrive, achieving their academic, athletic, and personal aspirations, while emphasizing equity and inclusion; to represent the University with integrity; and to foster lifelong pride in the institution while providing focused, structured support to compete and win conference championships and to achieve national recognition.
 
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FWIW, a version of that mission statement dates back to 2011, if not earlier.

A Strategic Plan for Spider Student-Athletes

Approved: April 22, 2011 1 A Strategic Plan for Spider Student-Athletes University of Richmond Athletics MISSION STATEMENT The University of Richmond’s NAA Division ...
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MrTbone said:
So here’s the good news, there’s a mention of winning something tangible/specific. The bad news is it’s at the tail end of the statement and sort of feels like an afterthought.
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OGM like reading my mind. Of course that might not sound good to you lol. National recognition would’ve been doing their BEST to get into the Big East with men’s b-ball.
 
We have 16 D1 sports (7 for men, 9 for women). Here's my attempt at ranking them during the six seasons since Hardt arrived in 2017, based upon the criteria of winning:

1. Men's lacrosse – 6 winning seasons, 4 conference titles and 4 NCAA appearances – Our clear flagship program
2. Women's lacrosse – 6 winning seasons, 3 conference titles, 3 NCAA appearances – A close second
3. Women's golf – 2 conference titles, 2 NCAA appearances
4. Women's track and field – 2 A-10 titles
5. Men's basketball – 3 winning seasons, 1 A-10 title, 1 NCAA appearance
6. Women's cross country – 1 A-10 title
7. Football – 3 winning seasons, 1 NCAA appearance
8. Women's swimming – 1 A-10 title
9. Men's cross country – Not sure how to best summarize this overall, but they have 1 A-10 title
10. Men's tennis – 3 winning seasons, 0 A-10 titles, 0 NCAA appearances (made the A-10 final 3x)
11. Women's basketball – 3 winning seasons, 0 A-10 titles, 0 NCAA appearances
12. Baseball – 4 (barely) winning seasons, 0 A-10 titles, 0 NCAA appearances
13. Field hockey – 2 winning seasons, 0 A-10 titles, 0 NCAA appearances
14. Women's tennis – 2 winning seasons, 0 A-10 titles, 0 NCAA appearances
15. Men's golf – Not great, Bob; best showing was a fourth-place finish in the A-10 tournament once.
16. Women's soccer – 0 winning seasons, complete disaster.

I think this would look different if you weighted sports by importance and amount financial resources devoted to them. Basketball and football would be lower, obviously.
 
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Seems to be a heavy emphasis on really living first 3/4 of that mission statement, while the last sentence seems like a nice to have. That is not really how mission statements are supposed to work, every aspect of the mission statement should have the same weight.
 
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97spiderfan said:
Seems to be a heavy emphasis on really living first 3/4 of that mission statement, while the last sentence seems like a nice to have. That is not really how mission statements are supposed to work, every aspect of the mission statement should have the same weight.
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maybe they do have the same weight and you're just reading it with some bias?

posters here have compained a long time that we don't even have a mission statement (we do) and that we only try to compete but won't put in writing that we want to win championships and achieve national recognition (we did). now we see what we wanted but compain about the order in which it was written?
 
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It was one sentence. How could that not have the "same weight"? LOL at u guys. So, now you find a problem with the mission statement? And, you think the last part should be the first part? Unbelievable.
 
spiderman said:
maybe they do have the same weight and you're just reading it with some bias?

posters here have compained a long time that we don't even have a mission statement (we do) and that we only try to compete but won't put in writing that we want to win championships and achieve national recognition (we did). now we see what we wanted but compain about the order in which it was written?
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So well said, Sman. It's hilarious, isn't it?
 
I don't have a problem with a mission statement. I have a problem with us not really striving to achieve the last part of it. As 23 said, I want a basketball HC that allows us to fully realize what that mission statement says.

And to be honest the first 90% of it, is really just culture that has been ingrained not only in our athletic department but probably 95 plus percent of all college athletic departments. It is the last 10% that separate the chaff from the wheat.

UVA and VCU are two local examples of universities that are "structured support to compete and win conference championships and to achieve national recognition" As Tbone said, the last part kind of feels like an after thought for us because we aren't winning conference championships and achieving national recognition with any type of regularity.
 
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By my count, we have won 15 of a possible 96 A-10 (or other league) titles in 6 years among our 16 sports. So roughly we are winning one title in some sport every year, or about 16% of the available titles. At face value, I'd say that's a pretty good percentage. Of course, about half of them came from our lacrosse programs, and four others came from sports that probably generate $0 of revenue for our athletic department (cross country and women's golf).

I would be interested to know what this looks like for Davidson, GW, Dayton, VCU and a few others in our league, though I suspect we already can guess.

(Edited to say here that I imagine Hardt and others at the university look at this type of overall data and use it as a way to suggest that we are meeting, or exceeding, the goals of our mission statement.)
 
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I'm with you here Brooklyn. I think a bunch of school's in the same boat. Villanova. Georgetown. To name a couple. The mission statement really doesn't mean anything at UR (or Villanova, or Georgetown, or Providence, or St. John's) Results in basketball drive the interest.
 
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Every serious business has a mission statement and clearly articulated and defined goals. This should be no different. How will you know when you have achieved success if you have nothing by which to measure it? You need to go through the exercise of coming up with these even if they are obvious or seem contrived. And you need to have a leader who works to help the employees achieve said goals and who actually pays attention to whether or not they are doing so.
 
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You'll know what it looks like to you, but that might not be what it looks like to me or to the athletic department. That's why it's important for organizations to define what they consider to be success. If our statement said success means showing up for every game and graduating all our players, I'd say thanks, but I'm done.
 
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Eight Legger said:
Every serious business has a mission statement and clearly articulated and defined goals. This should be no different. How will you know when you have achieved success if you have nothing by which to measure it? You need to go through the exercise of coming up with these even if they are obvious or seem contrived. And you need to have a leader who works to help the employees achieve said goals and who actually pays attention to whether or not they are doing so.
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I am not a businessman, but I thought the main way businesses measure success is through profit, revenue, or market cap?

To me mission statements are pure PR.
 
The mission statement isn't always an external one, but the point is, people don't just show up and work everyday without any clue about what they're trying to achieve. Every level of a company has goals that come from a mission statement. Your boss has expectations of you and her boss has expectations of her. They have to be written down and expressed so that people know what they're doing.
 
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Sure, but the school / athletic dept. has to put out a mission statement that is all encompassing. Whatever, it's fine.

My expectations for the basketball team are my own and have nothing to do with it - I want high level, consistent success. It's my mission statement as a fan of the program. I hope those in charge of the program agree and are driven and capable enough to deliver just that.
 
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Eight Legger said:
By my count, we have won 15 of a possible 96 A-10 (or other league) titles in 6 years among our 16 sports. So roughly we are winning one title in some sport every year, or about 16% of the available titles. At face value, I'd say that's a pretty good percentage. Of course, about half of them came from our lacrosse programs, and four others came from sports that probably generate $0 of revenue for our athletic department (cross country and women's golf).

I would be interested to know what this looks like for Davidson, GW, Dayton, VCU and a few others in our league, though I suspect we already can guess.

(Edited to say here that I imagine Hardt and others at the university look at this type of overall data and use it as a way to suggest that we are meeting, or exceeding, the goals of our mission statement.)
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Only two NCAA appearances in the three real sports.
 
Eight Legger said:
Every serious business has a mission statement and clearly articulated and defined goals.
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my company's mission statement is basically "to use our talents to help our clients make informed decisions". wow. our vision statement is "to be the best at what we do".

Apple's mission statement is “to bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software, and services.” Apple's vision statement is “to make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.”

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Amazon's mission is "to be Earth's most customer-centric company”.

none of them are successful because of a mission statement. every crappy company has one too. because a business school told them they have to have a mission statement.

it's just words.
 
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spiderman said:
my company's mission statement is basically "to use our talents to help our clients make informed decisions". wow. our vision statement is "to be the best at what we do".

Apple's mission statement is “to bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software, and services.” Apple's vision statement is “to make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.”

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Amazon's mission is "to be Earth's most customer-centric company”.

none of them are successful because of a mission statement. every crappy company has one too. because a business school told them they have to have a mission statement.

it's just words.
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I would say you picked the 3 of the most successful companies in the world who are actualizing and living their missions. Google does in fact organize the world's information and make it universal accessible. Apple does make some of the best products with the best user experiences. Amazon did revolutionize the way we buy and sell good goods and one would argue they were so successful because it is so absolutely convenient for customers to use.

The world is littered with companies who are not successful and many of them did not live up to their mission and vision. It is the central core theme about which the company exists, if it does not have a compelling theme and goal that is bought into by the employees and shown to its customers, ultimately the company will more than likely not be successful.

So, I would argue a good mission is more than just words. In that vein, one could argue that last part of our mission statement is something that is not fully bought into by management and employees in our athletic department. To me, it feels like if they accomplish the first 5 lines of the mission, than that is success.
 
spiderman said:
my company's mission statement is basically "to use our talents to help our clients make informed decisions". wow. our vision statement is "to be the best at what we do".

Apple's mission statement is “to bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software, and services.” Apple's vision statement is “to make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.”

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Amazon's mission is "to be Earth's most customer-centric company”.

none of them are successful because of a mission statement. every crappy company has one too. because a business school told them they have to have a mission statement.

it's just words.
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Well said. Why would anyone think a mission statement was so important and would affect anyone's performance, especially in sports?
 
I can't think of a blatantly crappy company to search for their mission statement, but I'm sure it would be equally as well-defined as "to make the best products on earth" or "to be Earth's most customer-centric company".

wait. how about a crappy cable tv company?
Altice USA's mission statement is "To be the company that reinvents the future of customer experience through an enduring commitment to challenge ourselves to deliver innovative, best-in-class products and services that unlock the limitless potential of our customers, our people and our world."

that's actually pretty good. good words, anyway. way better than "to make the best products on earth".
but it's still a crappy cable tv provider. and I'll still stream.
 
Eight Legger said:
The mission statement isn't always an external one, but the point is, people don't just show up and work everyday without any clue about what they're trying to achieve. Every level of a company has goals that come from a mission statement. Your boss has expectations of you and her boss has expectations of her. They have to be written down and expressed so that people know what they're doing.
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Maybe in your world. I would think the other 99.9% of us are not robots, and can actually think a little bit.
 
If you want to drive from Richmond to San Francisco, you have a few options. You can either get in your car, start driving west and hope that eventually you get there (and figure out along the way where to stop for the night, assuming you can find a hotel with vacancies or within your budget that are also along the route you happen to follow)... Or you can plan ahead using GPS, figure out how long you’re going to be able to drive each day and exactly what route you're going to take, and make hotel reservations at each stopping point so that you know exactly how long the trip will take and what you'll be doing every day. Guess which way will get you there faster (and probably for less money)?

I'm not saying that merely having a mission statement is a be-all or end-all, but every company you cited certainly has built tangible goals based upon their mission statements – and as a result, they have made their employees and leaders accountable. The mission statement is a northstar vision of what you want to achieve: "We aspire to make the NCAA tournament three times every eight years," for example.

If that's your goal, then you start building out specific plans for how to get there, you educate everyone associated with the program about what the goals are, and you hold each other accountable to meet those goals. I'm not making stuff up here. This is how business works.
 
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Eight Legger said:
If you want to drive from Richmond to San Francisco, you have a few options. You can either get in your car, start driving west and hope that eventually you get there (and figure out along the way where to stop for the night, assuming you can find a hotel with vacancies or within your budget that are also along the route you happen to follow)... Or you can plan ahead using GPS, figure out how long you’re going to be able to drive each day and exactly what route you're going to take, and make hotel reservations at each stopping point so that you know exactly how long the trip will take and what you'll be doing every day. Guess which way will get you there faster (and probably for less money)?

I'm not saying that merely having a mission statement is a be-all or end-all, but every company you cited certainly has built tangible goals based upon their mission statements – and as a result, they have made their employees and leaders accountable. The mission statement is a northstar vision of what you want to achieve: "We aspire to make the NCAA tournament three times every eight years," for example.

If that's your goal, then you start building out specific plans for how to get there, you educate everyone associated with the program about what the goals are, and you hold each other accountable to meet those goals. I'm not making stuff up here. This is how business works.
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Yawn.
 
VT4700 said:
Maybe in your world. I would think the other 99.9% of us are not robots, and can actually think a little bit.
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So your suggestion for how to run a business is to just hire a bunch of people, pay them regularly and just hope they do what you want them to do? Without any publicly expressed vision? Without any accountability? Without any check-ins or performance reviews? Just roll the ball out there for 32 games and hope for the best?
 
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spiderman said:
I can't think of a blatantly crappy company to search for their mission statement, but I'm sure it would be equally as well-defined as "to make the best products on earth" or "to be Earth's most customer-centric company".

wait. how about a crappy cable tv company?
Altice USA's mission statement is "To be the company that reinvents the future of customer experience through an enduring commitment to challenge ourselves to deliver innovative, best-in-class products and services that unlock the limitless potential of our customers, our people and our world."

that's actually pretty good. good words, anyway. way better than "to make the best products on earth".
but it's still a crappy cable tv provider. and I'll still stream.
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Not every company is a great company. A mission statement is just a bunch of words unless you have the people and plans in place to actually realize what you express in it. That's the accountability piece. If you aren't reaching the goals you express in your vision, then either you have the wrong vision or the wrong people trying to implement it.
 
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Eight Legger said:
So your suggestion for how to run a business is to just hire a bunch of people, pay them regularly and just hope they do what you want them to do? Without any publicly expressed vision? Without any accountability? Without any check-ins or performance reviews? Just roll the ball out there for 32 games and hope for the best?
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I've been at my company a long time. I looked up the mission statment today. yes, somehow the company managed to succeed and I've managed to succeed without knowing our defined mission statement was "to use our talents and resources to help our clients make informed decisions". shoot, if they had only told me that when I started ...

I think teams know the goal is to win. oh, our mission statement is to win championships? I'll try harder then.
 
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Eight Legger said:
So your suggestion for how to run a business is to just hire a bunch of people, pay them regularly and just hope they do what you want them to do? Without any publicly expressed vision? Without any accountability? Without any check-ins or performance reviews? Just roll the ball out there for 32 games and hope for the best?
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I doubt Murray and Jokic needed a company mission statement to help them win the title last night. You obviously think they did. I guess in your world, the team who has the best mission statement wins. Laughable.
 
As usual, you're making things up. Par for the course. As I explained, the reasons you have a mission statement (and we have one! Hooray! I guess you hate it..) are to explain to employees/members/participants/stakeholders/etc what success looks like to the people in charge; to set expectations for those directly involved with the pursuit of that success; and to create accountability in achieving that success.

Do you think we just go out and sign the first five guys who want to play basketball at Richmond every year, or do we analyze what positions we need and how each one will help us reach our stated goal of winning conference championships?
 
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Eight Legger said:
Do you think we just go out and sign the first five guys who want to play basketball at Richmond every year, or do we analyze what positions we need and how each one will help us reach our stated goal of winning conference championships?
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ok, we'll just agree to disagree. I don't think any coach needs a defined mission statement to help him realize we want to win chanpionships, or to him him analyze positions of need.
 
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