THIS IS US

My favorite Mission Statement has long been that of the iconic paper company, Dunder Mifflin, that fictitiously exists to entertain us by satirizing “the office” that so many of us commute to every day:

Dunder Mifflin Incorporated provides its customers quality office and information technology products, furniture, printing values and the expertise required for making informed buying decisions. We provide our products and services with a dedication to the highest degree of integrity and quality of customer satisfaction, developing long-term professional relationships with employees that develop pride, creating a stable working environment and company spirit.

It is helplessly generic, as bland and unmemorable as the office wall it adorns. It could easily be the mission statement of just about any other company. It’s forgettable as soon as its read, trying to say everything yet saying nothing at all. And it can serve as a sign post that a company has taken a wrong turn if its own mission comes close to it.

Having long mocked that Mission Statement, it meant that our own Mission, Vision and Values has had a tall order to fill. They must be true to us, endure the seasons, and set the direction of our work. They must be custom-fit to us, such that they cannot be collectively worn by another company but can only be worn by us. And they must be brief, cutting straight to the point with no extra weight or empty words.

Our Mission and Vision statements were agreed on years ago, but our Values took longer to articulate. Wanting to avoid the generic air of a Dunder Mifflin-esque statement while remaining realistic and aspirational in as few words as possible was a challenge. And so I brain-stormed. And sketched. And waited. Inspiration, where are you!? This proved easier said than done.

Then one day it nonchalantly came into focus, appearing in my mind as something that had been there all along but never given sufficient attention…

We will treat you the way we want to be treated.

Can it be that simple? Actually, yes. It’s brief enough to remember but sweeping in its implications. It governs how we will engage with one another, our clients, their shareholders, our competitors and all our stakeholders. It is a compass to navigate difficult waters. It is empowering and dignifying, aspirational yet accessible.

Of course, these words I have penned are not my own but are credited to an itinerant rabbi teaching first century Jews. It’s familiar to all of us. But we should look to history to appreciate the radical impact of this value. Before Jesus taught the Golden Rule, Confucius taught what is now known as the Silver Rule: Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done unto you.

At first glance, the two Rules sound fundamentally equivalent and both are good to practice. But as author Dr. Vince Vitale has pointed out, the difference between the Silver Rule and the Golden Rule is the difference between “Don’t punch your enemy in the face,” and “Go and build your enemy a hospital.”

For a competitive business as ours, the former is a lot easier to embrace than the latter. I’d much rather agree not to harm my competition than to go out of my way to help them. But the Silver Rule is something even a Dunder Mifflin employee can nod to. It can be chalked up to Common Courtesy, and nothing common can be exceptional. The Silver Rule merely keeps us civil. The Golden Rule pushes us forward, resulting in enemies being built hospitals and competitors being embraced as friends.

Silver and Gold are worlds apart. As for ClearTrust, we’re going for the Gold.

THIS IS US

Our Mission: We create peace of mind for issuers by successfully integrating compliance support with proactive shareholder services.

Our Vision: To set the standard as the transfer agent that is an indispensable ally to growing companies.

Our Values: We will treat you the way we want to be treated.