Mission statement

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A mission statement is a short statement

of why an organization exists, what its
overall goal is, identifying the goal of its
operations: what kind of product or service
it provides, its primary customers or
market, and its geographical region of
operation.[1][2] It may include a short
statement of such fundamental matters as
the organization's values or philosophies, a
business's main competitive advantages,
or a desired future state—the "vision".[1][3]

A mission is not simply a description of an

organization by an external party, but an
expression, made by its leaders, of their
desires and intent for the organization.
The purpose of a mission statement is to
communicate the organisation's purpose
and direction to its employees, customers,
vendors, and other stakeholders. A
mission statement also creates a sense of
identity for its employees. Organizations
normally do not change their mission
statements over time, since they define
their continuous, ongoing purpose and
focus.[4]

According to Chris Bart, professor of

strategy and governance at McMaster
University,[5] a commercial mission
statement consists of three essential
components:[6]

1. Key market: the target audience

2. Contribution: the product or service
3. Distinction: what makes the product
unique or why the audience should
buy it over another

Bart estimates that in practice, only about

ten percent of mission statements say
something meaningful.[5] For this reason,
they are widely regarded with contempt.[6]

Purpose
The sole purpose of a mission statement
is to serve as a company's goal/agenda, it
outlines clearly what the goal is. Some
generic examples of mission statements
would be, "To provide the best service
possible within the banking sector for our
customers." or "To provide the best
experience for all of our customers." The
reason why businesses make use of
mission statements is to make it clear
what they look to achieve as an
organization, not only to themselves and
their employees but to the customers and
other people who are a part of the
business, such as shareholders. As a
company evolves, so will their mission
statement. This is to make sure that the
company remains on track and to ensure
that the mission statement does not lose
its touch and become boring or stale.

It is important that a mission statement is

not confused with a vision statement. As
discussed earlier, the main purpose of a
mission statement is to get across the
ambitions of an organisation in a short
and simple fashion; it is not necessary to
go into detail for the mission statement
which is evident in examples given. The
reason why it is important that a mission
statement and vision statement are not
confused is because they both serve
different purposes. Vision statements tend
to be more related to strategic planning
and lean more towards discussing where a
company aims to be in the future.

Advantages
Provides direction: Mission statements
are a way to direct a business into the right
path. They play a part in helping the
business make better decisions which can
be beneficial to them. Without the mission
statement providing direction, businesses
may struggle when it comes to making
decisions and planning for the future. This
is why providing direction could be
considered one of the most advantageous
points of a mission statement.

Clear purpose: Having a clear purpose can

remove any potential ambiguities that may
surround the existence of a business.
People who are interested in the
progression of the business, such as
stakeholders, will want to know that the
business is making the right choices and
progressing more towards achieving their
goals, which will help to remove any doubt
the stakeholders may have in the
business.

A mission statement can act as a

motivational tool within an organisation,
and it can allow employees to all work
towards one common goal that benefits
both the organisation and themselves.
This can help with factors such as
employee satisfaction and productivity. It
is important that employees feel a sense
of purpose. Giving them this sense of
purpose will allow them to focus more on
their daily tasks and help them realise the
goals of the organisation and their
role.[7][8]

Disadvantages
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Although it is mostly beneficial for a

business to craft a good mission
statement, there are some situations
where a mission statement can be
considered pointless or not useful to a
business.

Unrealistic: In most cases, mission

statements turn out to be unrealistic and
far too optimistic. An unrealistic mission
statement can also affect the
performance and morale of the employees
within the workplace. This is because an
unrealistic mission statement would
reduce the likelihood of employees being
able to meet this standard which could
demotivate employees in the long term.
Unrealistic mission statements also serve
no purpose and can be considered a waste
of management's time. Another issue
which could arise from an unrealistic
mission statement is that poor decisions
could be made in an attempt to achieve
this goal which has the potential to harm
the business and be seen as a waste of
both time and resources.
Waste of time and resources: Mission
statements require planning. This takes
time and effort for those who are
responsible for creating the mission
statement. If the mission statement is not
achieved, then the process of creating the
mission statement could be seen as a
waste of time for all of the people
involved. A lot of thought and time can be
spent in designing a good mission
statement, and to have all of that time
wasted is not what businesses can afford.
The wasted time could have been spent on
much more important tasks within the
organisation such as decision-making for
the business.
Design
According to an independent contributor
to Forbes, the following questions must be
answered in the mission statement:[9]

“What do we do?” — The mission

statement should clearly outline the
main purpose of the organisation, and
what they do.
“How do we do it?” — It should also
mention how one plans on achieving the
mission statement.
“Whom do we do it for?” — The audience
of the mission statement should be
 clearly stated within the mission
statement.
“What value are we bringing?” — The
benefits and values of the mission
statement should be clearly outlined.

When designing a mission statement, it

should be very clear to the audience what
the purpose of it is. It is ideal for a
business to be able to communicate their
mission, goals and objectives to the reader
without including any unnecessary
information through the mission
statement.[10]
US Federal Emergency Management Agency's Mission

Statement Poster

Richard Branson has commented on ways

of crafting a good mission statement; he
explains the importance of having a
mission statement that is clear and
straight to the point and does not contain
unnecessary baffling. He went on to
analyse a mission statement, using
Yahoo's mission statement at the time
(2013) as an example. In his evaluation of
the mission statement, he seemed to
suggest that while the statement sounded
interesting, most people would not be able
to understand the message it is putting
across. In other words the message of the
mission statement potentially meant
nothing to the audience.[11]
“ This further backs up the idea that a
good mission statement is one that
is clear and answers the right
questions in a simple manner, and
does not over complicate things. An
example of a good mission
statement would be Google's, which
is "to organise the world's
information and make it universally
accessible and useful."[12] ”
See also
Strategic planning
Strategy Markup Language
Vision statement
References
1. "Mission Statement" . Small Business
Encyclopedia. Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
2017. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
2. Gibson, C. Kendrick; Newton, David J.;
Cochran, Daniel S. (1992). "An
empirical investigation of the nature of
hospital mission statements". In
Brown, Montague (ed.). Health Care
Management: Strategy, Structure, and
Process . Health Care Management
Review Series. Gaithersburg, MD:
Aspen Publishers. pp. 47–58.
ISBN 978-0-8342-0299-3.
OCLC 25281735 . Retrieved
2017-04-13 – via Google Books. "A
frequently quoted definition of a
mission statement is that it ‘is a
broadly defined but enduring
statement of purpose that
 distinguishes the organization from
others of its type and identifies the
scope of its operations in product
(service) and market terms.’"
3. Hill, Charles; Jones, Gareth (2008).
"Strategic Leadership: Managing the
Strategy-Making Process for
Competitive Advantage". Strategic
Management: An Integrated
Approach (8th ed.). Mason, OH:
South-Western Educational Publishing.
p. 11 . ISBN 978-0-618-89469-7.
OCLC 238715134 – via Google
Books.
4. "What is a mission statement?
definition and meaning" .
BusinessDictionary. WebFinance Inc.
Retrieved 27 October 2015.
5. Holland, Kelley (23 September 2007).
"In Mission Statements, Bizspeak and
Bromides" . Job Market: Under New
Management. New York Times (New
York ed.). p. 317.
6. Bart, Christopher K. (November–
December 1997). "Sex, Lies, and
Mission Statements". Business
Horizons. 40 (6): 9–18.
doi:10.1016/S0007-6813(97)90062-8 .
SSRN 716542 .
7. "Benefits of Vision and Mission
Statements" . Clearlogic Consulting
Professionals. 2013. Retrieved
2015-11-01.
8. Vozar, Roger (1 June 2013). "How
organizations benefit from having a
clearly defined mission" . Smart
Business Magazine. Smart Business
Network Inc. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
9. Hull, Patrick (10 January 2013).
"Answer 4 Questions to Get a Great
Mission Statement" . Forbes. Forbes
Media, LLC. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
10. "How to Write Your Mission
Statement" . Entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur Media, Inc. 30 October
2003. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
11. Branson, Richard (22 July 2013).
"Richard Branson on Crafting Your
Mission Statement" . Entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur Media, Inc. Archived
from the original on 23 October 2015.
Retrieved 2015-11-02.
 12. Thompson, Andrew (20 August 2015).
"Google's Vision Statement & Mission
Statement" . Panmore Institute.
Archived from the original on 13
November 2015. Retrieved
2015-11-02.

External links
"Mission Statement Guidelines" . NORC
Blueprint: A Guide to Community Action.
United Hospital Fund. 2015.

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Last edited on 28 September 2019, at 12:50

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