Determine Your Corporate Mission
Once you have decided upon your values, vision, and purpose for your business, the next step is for you to determine your mission.
Mission is an essential part of all business strategy.
Alexander’s mission was clear. It was to bring Greek culture and civilization to all of the known world. To achieve this mission, he knew he would have to overcome tremendous resistance to succeed.
For you to achieve business success, you will have to overcome tremendous competitive resistance as well. To achieve the market success you desire, clarity is essential. You must be clear about your values, your vision, your mission, and your purpose.
A mission statement is always qualitative, not quantitative. A mission statement is not to “Earn a lot of money” or “Increase profitability.” A mission statement is directed outward, toward what you want to do to help and improve the lives of your customers.
GE’s mission statement is: “General Electric is a unique, high-spirited, entrepreneurial enterprise known for its unmatched level of excellence, highly profitable with worldwide leadership in each of its product lines.”
With this mission statement as a driving force behind the activities of the company, General Electric has gone on to become one of the most successful businesses in history. Under Jack Welch, and today under Jeffrey Immelt, GE has become a world leader in innovative products and services, business growth, and profitability, and has the respect and esteem of almost everyone who knows the company.
Your Umbrella Statement
A mission statement is often referred to as your “umbrella statement.” It is the organizing principle under which everything in the company is done. The mission statement tells people what the company does, and also what the company does not do.
A good mission statement contains both a method and a measure. Just as a mission is something that can be accomplished, you must have clear measures and standards that you can use to determine how close you are to achieving your mission.
A simple format for a mission statement could be: “Our mission is to (describe how you intend to improve the life or work of your customers). We achieve this mission by (the methods you will use), and we measure how successful we are by (insert the exact numbers that you will achieve if you are successful in completing your mission).”
Example:
Our mission is to be the best provider of our product or service to our market, enabling our customers to enjoy enormous improvements in their work and personal lives. Our method is to continually increase product quality and to aggressively market to newer and better customers. We measure our success by growing 20 percent or more each year in sales and profitability.
Make It Clear
A good mission statement should be clear, specific, measurable, and capable of being both understood and embraced by everyone responsible for achieving the mission. By this measure, most mission statements are vague and unclear. They do not give guidance and direction to people in the company, and no one has any idea when or whether the mission has been achieved or how close you are to accomplishing it.
In times of turbulence and rapid change, it is often a good idea to revisit your mission statement. It may be partially or totally obsolete. Your products, services, markets, customers, and technology may have changed dramatically. Your mission statement must keep up with the times.
Sometimes, revisiting and rewording a mission statement can change the direction of your business. It can lead to new decisions, new strategies, and new actions. Your values of integrity, quality, and customer service excellence, combined with your vision of being the best in your industry, can remain the same. But your mission may have to change or be updated in the face of new realities.
The Right Combination
Establishing a mission statement is like getting the right combination to a lock. Once you have the right combination and you turn to the right numbers in the right sequence, the lock will open. The actual strategy will begin to formulate itself as the step-by-step process by which you accomplish the mission.