What is your ROM (Return on Mission)?

For too many businesses, mission or purpose is either a passing fad to motivate their sales teams or a jumble of marketing jargon on their web sites.

Companies with real mission commitment know that mission is a strategic imperative, as important as marketing, sales, talent acquisition, and other key performance drivers.

They also know their ROM, or Return on Mission.

What’s yours?

Here’s the way to think about ROM:

TRRRICC   =   ROM       

    IL

That is, your Return on Mission can be measured by: 

Engaged Talent +  Improved Repute + Enhanced Relationships + Revenue + Impact and Improvements in the Community + Loyal Customers 

divided by 

Financial and Human Investment + Creative Leverage.

ROM is what it means to be a mission-driven company. It is not about posing for photo ops with big checks. It’s not about throwing a nonprofit organization a pro bono service in exchange for a shout out. It’s also not about making a few contributions to nonprofits or sending employees out for “team building” by serving as volunteers and hiring a PR firm to call in the camera crews.

Mission is about commitment to your community — however you define that — and making real change, then leveraging that in countless ways. It’s about seeing the value that results from this commitment cascade throughout your organization.

It’s about making your business human. Realizing results. And even leaving your legacy.