Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a premiere school of science and technology. Everyone knows that. The mission of MIT, according to its website, is “to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.” No one in their right mind would dispute that. On the day MIT was founded April 10, 1861, just two days later Confederate batteries would open fire on Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor of South Carolina and the Civil War would begin. There is a bitter irony in this. Whereas MIT was founded to advance science and technology to better the lives of humanity, the Civil War would be the first “modern war” that would implement the science and technology of the day to develop weapons of war to kill and destroy lives.
Now before I get carried away with the ironies of American history, I want to share with you some of the technological advances made at MIT for 2016. For one according to the MIT Technology Review, genetically engineered immune cells is changing the way we address cancer and that in part is due to MIT. In March 2016, it was reported that biological engineers at MIT had developed a programming language that designs complex, DNA-encoded circuits, which give new abilities to living cells. In simple, a program is written for a specific cell function and then a DNA sequence is generated to achieve it. This is rocket science in theory, and life-saving in reality. Another technological advancement at MIT is precise gene editing in plants. Here again, genes are altered to create characteristics that help plants resist disease and become drought resistant. Of course these breakthroughs are several years away from being mass marketed worldwide; nevertheless, MIT is “cranking out” the discoveries. Over 100 hundred years after its founding and true to its mission, MIT is still advancing science and technology for the good of humanity. No small feat, I might add.
Now you might be thinking: How does this relate to PHONEDOCTORS®–talking about the mission of a school dedicated to the advancement of science and technology, and we are a retail business. Well, it all has to do with declaring a mission statement and then sticking to it whether in a time of war or in a time of peace. It’s really not hard for a business to think up a memorable mission statement and display it as a banner on their website. Anyone can do that and in today’s world of business, everyone has jumped on that wagon. I read mission statements daily, but I often wonder how many of those statements are actually true from the customers’ point of view. I wonder if the company really lives or dies by its statement of mission, its philosophy of existence.
At PHONEDOCTORS® our mission that declares, “to love our customers in such a way that it transforms their day and the people they touch thereafter” can only be judged as true by the people we serve. And if the customer is affirming the statement as true, then it behooves us to become and remain an institution that propagates the advancement of goodwill and integrity whether it’s good times or bad for the duration of our existence. And, hopefully, years from now people will associate the advancement of that goodwill with the name: PHONEDOCTORS® just as the advancement of science and technology in the modern era is associated with a school as prestigious as MIT.
#NEWLIFE #tDashner
