While working on this year's roadmap, we also took the opportunity to refresh our mission statement (describing our vision, our priorities, and our ethics and values):
https://www.omnigroup.com/mission
Our vision is to build software to help people accomplish more every day. We believe that being productive isn't just about getting more work done; it's about doing better quality work in less time, freeing up time and mental energy to spend on other things in our lives.
One of our inspirational touchpoints is a quote from a 1990 interview with Steve Jobs filmed shortly after he launched NeXT.
Steve's notion of a bicycle for our minds—a tool which we can leverage to dramatically increase our mental effectiveness—inspires us to build the apps we build here at Omni. For computers to assist us in our pursuits, they need software applications. As developers of productivity apps, it’s our role to design and build apps that empower our customers.
Priority 1: Create great software
At @OmniGroup our goal is to make the absolutely best software that we can make. Rather than seeking growth and profits at all costs, we've carefully and intentionally built a sustainable, self-funded and bootstrapped business. This gives us the freedom to focus on the platforms that make developers and users the most productive: Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. It also gives us the time we need to make our software the best it can be on those platforms.
Priority 2: Make a living
Omni is a business, and for a business to be sustainable it must make money. Businesses that lose money can't create great software for very long. To keep this up for the long term, we need to earn enough money to be able to make a living and support our families. Most companies put "Make money" at the top of their priority list. We’re honest enough to include money in our priorities, but we’re committed enough to our vision to put it after "Create great software."
Priority 3: Live balanced lives
When we have good balance in our lives, our work produces better results. We work hard, have fun, and enjoy our work of building, documenting, selling, and supporting great applications. We think it's important to find and maintain a joyful balance between our work and the rest of our lives, spending time with our families and community.
We value people more than profits, and measure our success in these terms. Businesses lose their way whenever they value profits more than people—whether those people are employees, customers, or bystanders.
We believe that improving the world we live in is the highest priority in life, and that our company is an extension of ourselves and not a separate, amoral entity. We believe we can contribute to and improve the world around us every day through the work that we do.
Core Value: Be respectful
One of the strongest foundations for any relationship is respect. We may not always see eye to eye with everyone we encounter, but, as John Gottman found (https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-four-horsemen-contempt/), a lack of respect is poisonous to any relationship—leading to conflict rather than reconciliation. By treating everyone and everything around us with respect, we strengthen every interaction and every relationship.
Core Value: Be humble
Decades of experience may have taught us some of the questions we need to consider in our work—but it's important to remember that we still don't know all the questions, much less all the answers. There are always new things to learn, and if we listen to our customers, community, and each other with humility we'll learn much more quickly than if we bring our own hubris to each problem.
Ken Case
Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann
Wei