40 ◾ Improving Business Process Performance
Google and Wal-Mart have become huge successes in vastly differ-
ent ways. But the yin and yang have this in common:
◾ Each company has a simple mission. Wal-Mart’s is “always low
prices.” Google’s is “to organize the world’s information and make
it universally accessible and useful.” ese companies know who
they are.
◾ e brand and the mission statement of each are aligned. Picture
Google and Wal-Mart in your head. ere’s no confusion about
what these companies do.
◾ Each company’s offerings are dirt simple to use. Shopping at Wal-
Mart does not take a heroic intellectual effort. But neither does
using Google, even though the search engine behind the curtain
is the product of a prodigious intellec