Earlier this morning, the witty, charming, useful NakedNY Twitter (seriously, if you’re not following us, what are you waiting for?) linked to a Business Week article that summarizes a talk recently given by Apple’s Jonathan Ive, the guy who gets a lot of the credit for designing small hits like the iMac, iPod, and iPhone.

The article quotes Ive as saying:

“Apple’s goal isn’t to make money. Our goal is to design and develop and bring to market good products. We trust as a consequence of that, people will like them, and as another consequence we’ll make some money. But we’re really clear about what our goals are.”

This revenue-as-consequence approach is right for some companies and not for others, so I’ll leave that alone. More important, rather, is the fact that he can succinctly explain Apple’s focus. A small thing it would seem, but employees at most companies cannot do this.

So all companies need is a focus then, right? Ive goes on to make sure we don’t get too excited just yet:

“We don’t have identity manuals reminding us of points of philosophy for why our company exists. I’m sure those things are very well meaning, but if you have to institutionalize stuff, you end up chasing your tail.”

Here’s where I take a little exception, based both on my own experience and transparently selfish interest. Granted, there’s no substitute for having a visionary and uncompromising leader who gets everybody in line from Day 1. But for the 99% of companies who don’t have a crystal clear, universally understood focus today, all hope isn’t lost. So what does it take? Here’s three things:

1) Use a truth that is informally existing : Typically, you want to use something that most employees kind of already know, but haven’t clearly articulated yet.

2) Make sure it’s conversational: It’s stunning how many brand missions, visions (and the like) sound like they come from a (bad) marketing textbook. If your consumer doesn’t understand your goal, then it probably won’t stick.

3) Make sure it applies to everyone, and is actionable: If your overarching goal only applies to a particular department (e.g., designers), then it’ll likely break down at other points (e.g., distribution). The entire company should have a shared purpose that actually affects what people do at their job each day.