It’s time that mission statements and vision statements get their just rewards; although often overlooked, they’re key to the corporate strategy process. They play a critical role – or should play a critical role – as bookends for every strategic and operational plan. In short, think of the mission statement as the starting point and the vision as the destination. Without mission statements and vision statements, plans can and will wander around aimlessly, traveling to a lot of exotic locales, but never actually getting to where they need to be.
How can you reach a destination (a goal) without understanding where you are even going (mission & vision statement)?
The mission statement is a critical component of your corporate strategy process.
The Mission Statement Provides a Beginning
Your mission statement answers the question, “Why do we exist?” It gives the organization purpose and meaning. It speaks to why employees want to work for your company. It begins to answer the question, “what is strategic management and planning?”. If you’re a for-profit organization, the fundamental mission of the business is to create shareholder value. But that won’t attract anyone to come work for you, and it does not give rise to a bigger corporate purpose. It doesn’t inspire any employees nor align with their individual values.
Every organization needs to define its fundamental purpose, philosophy, and values as part of the corporate strategy process. The mission statement answers the basic questions of why your company exists and describes the needs your company was created to fulfill. It is NOT about your products and services or customers. It is about why you provide them.
For instance, the mission of AchieveIt is “equipping business leaders to achieve their most important initiatives.” It is about accelerating the results curve. We come to work every day driven by the idea of transforming businesses. We strive for more results and better results faster, whether for our own company or for the customers we serve.
How we do this is through our software and services, which we continually enhance to drive better results. How we accomplish our mission today may be different from how we accomplish it tomorrow. The mission statement points us in the right direction. Our strategic and operational plans become the road map. Our goals and objectives help us measure success along the way. Without the guidance of our mission statement, programmatic priorities would be difficult to establish and the corporate strategy process would become muddled.
A mission statement, therefore, provides the basis for judging the success of an organization and its goals. It helps the organization verify if it is on the right track and making the right decisions. It provides direction when the organization is tempted by distractions and forced to adapt to new demands. Attention to company mission helps the organization adhere to its primary purpose and serves as a touchstone for decision-making during times of conflict. With a strong mission statement in place, it is very easy to identify your goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.
A mission statement can also be used as a tool for resource allocation for staff, donors, volunteers, and community involvement.
Powerful Mission Statements
Consider these powerful company mission statements:
- Harley-Davidson: We fulfill dreams through the experiences of motorcycling.
- Southwest Airlines: We are dedicated to the highest level of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.
- MD Anderson Cancer Center: To make cancer history.
- Google: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Notice that none of these organizations’ mission statements include anything about what they do as businesses. Instead, they focus on the core of their existence. It is this core that attracts and retains employees, provides market differentiation, and attracts customers. For instance, Harley-Davidson has an insanely loyal customer base that now includes more than 250 clubs that provide thousands of volunteer hours through the Harley-Davidson Foundation. These are people attracted to Harley-Davidson because they share a common belief that absolute freedom is found on a motorcycle on the open road.
Revisit Your Mission During the Corporate Strategy Process
Even if your organization has a succinct, empowering mission statement like Harley-Davidson’s, you should revisit it on a regular basis. When your organization goes through the annual corporate strategy process to develop your strategic plan, your mission statement should be discussed – and even evaluated. It is of the utmost importance to keep your strategic planning framework strong and in place. Why? One of the fundamental purposes of strategic planning is to fulfill the mission; revisiting the mission ensures your strategic plan succeeds in that regard. Beyond strategic planning, you should consider revising your mission statement if you answer “no” to any of the following eight questions:
- Is it short (10 words or less) and sharply focused? Would it fit on a t-shirt? A bumper sticker? A billboard?
- Do employees, management, and board members know the mission statement? Is it clear and easily understood?
- Can you train employees around it? Does everyone in the organization know exactly how to fulfill the mission every day?
- Does it define why you do what you do?
- Does it provide direction for doing the right things?
- Does it inspire your passion and commitment?
- Does it say, in the end, what you want to be remembered for?
- Have you revisited your mission statement in the last three years?
To help you develop a powerful mission statement that answers the question, “Why do we exist?”, we offer a white paper entitled, “Mission Statements: A How-To.”
About AchieveIt
AchieveIt is the platform that large organizations use to get their biggest, most important initiatives out of the boardroom and into reality. Too many great ideas never quite make it across the finish line, because there’s no real way to keep everyone on course and keep everything on track. What does it take to actually guide these initiatives all the way through to completion? You’ve got to:
- Get everything in view – so you can see what’s happening with every initiative, at every level, from the enterprise to the individual, in real time.
- Get everyone engaged – with an easy-to-use platform that connects your organization from the executive leadership to the project teams, keeping everyone accountable and on the same page.
- Get every possible advantage – not only because you have the premier platform in this space, but because you can draw on the experience and best practices of our execution experts.
That’s why everyone from global corporations, to regional healthcare systems, to federal agencies have turned to AchieveIt for their Integrated Plan Management. Let’s actually do this.
