The role of Mission Vision and Value 

 

Both Vision and Mission are related to an organization’s purpose and communicated in some written form. They are statements from the organization and that answer questions about who we are, what do we value, and where we’re going. According to the consulting firm Bain and Company reports, that 90% of the 500 firms surveyed issue some form of mission and vision statements. (Bart & Baetz, 1998).

The organization with clearly communicated, widely understood, and collectively shared mission and vision have been shown to perform better than those without them, with the caveat that they related to effectiveness only when strategy and goals and objectives were aligned with them as well (Bart, et. al., 2001).

Mission Statements communicate the organization’s reason for being, and how it aims to serve its key stakeholders. Customers, employees, and investors are the stakeholders most often emphasized, but other stakeholders like government or communities can also be discussed. They are often longer than vision statements.  Mission statements also include a summation of the firm’s values. Values are the beliefs of an individual or group and in this case, the organization, in which they are emotionally invested.

The Starbucks mission statement includes six guiding principles that, communicate the organization’s values:

Statement of Vision, in contrast, is a future-oriented declaration of the organization’s purpose and aspirations. The mission statement lays out the organization’s “purpose for being,” and the vision statement then says, “Based on that purpose, this is what we want to become.” The strategy should flow directly from the vision since the strategy is intended to achieve the vision and thus satisfy the organization’s mission. Normally vision statements are relatively brief, as in the case of Starbuck’s vision statement, which reads: “Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow (Starbucks, 2008).” Or ad firm Ogilvy & Mather, which states their vision as “an agency defined by its devotion to brands (Ogilvy, 2008).”

The vision statement is also captured in a short tag line, such as

• ü  Toyota’s “moving forward” statement that appears in most communications to customers, suppliers, and employees (Toyota, 2008).
• ü  Wal-Mart’s tag-line version of its vision statement is “Save money. Live better (Walmart, 2008).”

Organization Web sites will expose you to the range of forms that mission and vision statements. Mission statements are longer than vision statements, often because they convey the organization's core values.

 

 

Mission statements answer the questions of “Who are we?” and “What does our organization value?” Vision statements take the form of relatively brief, future-oriented statements.

Vision statements answer the question “Where is this organization going?” Increasingly, organizations also add a values statement which either reaffirms or states outright the organization’s values that might not be evident in the mission or vision statements.

 

 Mission and Vision Role Play

 

Both Mission and vision relate to an organization’s purpose and aspirations and are typically communicated in some form of brief written statements. A mission statement communicates the organization’s reason for being and how it aspires to serve its key stakeholders. The vision statement is a narrower, future-oriented declaration of the organization’s purpose and aspirations.  Mission and vision guide strategy development, help communicate the organization’s purpose to stakeholders and inform the goals and objectives set to determine whether the strategy is on track.

 

 References

Bart, C. K., & Baetz, M. C. (1998). The relationship between mission statements and firm performance: An exploratory study. Journal of Management Studies, 35, 823–853.

Bart, C. K., Bontis, N., & Taggar, S. (2001). A model of the impact of mission statements on firm performance. Management Decision, 39(1), 19–35.

Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. K. (1993, March–April). Strategy as stretch and leverage. Harvard Business Review, 75–84.

Ogilvy, Retrieved October 27, 2008, from http://www.ogilvy.com/o_mather.

Starbucks, retrieved October 27, 2008, from http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus

Toyota, retrieved October 27, 2008, from http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/vision/philosophy.

Toyota, retrieved October 27, 2008, from http://www.toyota.com/about/our_values/index.html.

Walmart, retrieved October 27, 2008, from http://www.walmart.com.