How to prepare mission statements for corporate excellence:

Developing a clear mission for growth

Dr K Kuhathasan, CEO: Cenlead

A clear, formally written, and publicized statement of an organization’s mission is the cornerstone of any planning system that will effectively guide the organization through uncertain times. A good mission statement specifies key organizational values and helps the organization’s special niche in the economy or culture.

An organizational mission statement should answer the following questions:

* What is our business?
* What business are we in?
* What are we trying to achieve?
* How the organization intends to achieve the desired result?

In other words, try to answer the following:

* What function does the organization perform?
* To whom does the organization perform this function?
* How does the organization go about filling the function?
* Why does this organization exist?

A mission simply by its very existence provides a foundation on which the organization can build its future.

Every organization whether it is a company in business to make a profit or a charitable organization with non profit status needs a mission statement.

A mission statement is an enduring statement of purpose for an organization that identifies the scope of its operations in product and market terms and reflects its values and priorities.

It will help a company to make a consistent decision or motivate to build an organizational unity to integrate the short term objectives with longer term goals and enhance communication.

A mission statement should indicate the following

* Indicates how resources will be allocated
* Sets the tone of the organization
* Rallies people to a common purpose
* Helps establish the desired culture within which the organization will operate
* Lets the world know where you are headed.
* Provides motivation.
* Gives direction.
* Establishes a philosophy.
* Reconciles the differences of stakeholders. Stakeholders are those who have a stake in what happens in the organization.
* Evokes feelings of success.
* Generally, indicates that the organization needs support.

What should a mission statement cover?

Here are the basics for writing a mission statement. You might find other elements that you want to include:

* The type of products or services that you plan to offer. In your personal planning, it is what you have to offer.

* Your intended customers and markets. In personal planning, it is to whom you will offer what you have.

* The values of the organization or yourself.

* The direction to be taken.

* Technologies and capabilities.

* The general mention of goals.

* The philosophy of the organization.

* The company’s view of itself and, in personal planning, your view of yourself.

* How the organization will relate to its employees and how you will relate to those who employ you.

* The public image.

Determining core values

Peter M Senge, in his acclaimed book, the fifth discipline, said that core values answer the question “How do we want to act, consistent with our mission, along the path towards achieving our vision?”

Core values deal with such things as how the organization will act in relation to integrity, openness and loyalty.

Creating the mission statement

An organization’s mission should, therefore, define its fundamental purpose. It describes, in the most primary terms, the company’s basic philosophy. It should answer the questions, “What are our values?” and “What do we stand for?” The values embodied in a mission will be the synthesis of the values of a number of important stakeholders: managers, owners, employees, customers, government and interest groups.

A mission statement is a formal written declaration of the organization’s mission that contains all, or at least most of the following: the firm’s philosophy, its primary products and markets, the intended geographic scope, and the nature of the relationships between the firm, its stakeholders, and society.

In terms of planning, an important issue is the degree to which the firm has both defined and communicated its mission to its employees and other stakeholders. Many firms’ mission statements are engraved, framed, hung in a prominent place in the lobby, and never looked at again.

However, a clear understanding of the mission reduces the ambiguity that employees may have about where the organization is trying to go and how they can help it get there.

Avoid ambiguity

To ensure understanding by all those who must make the mission a day-by-day reality; define all potentially ambiguous terms. For example, if you have described your organization as being ‘the biggest and best’ you may consider it wise to define ‘biggest’ and ‘best’ e.g.

Biggest in:

Sales volume?
Revenue?
Profits?
Range of products/services offered?
Numbers employed?
Best in:
Customer service?
Customer satisfaction?
Product quality?
Profitability?
Cost control?
Prospecting new business?
Training and development?
Research and development?
Employee satisfaction?
Mission and management

Mission must be communicated to and internalized by managers and employees. This is accomplished through the explicit statements of top management as well as through the value culture system of the organization.

Mission provides criteria for strategy selection by executives. Many potential acquisitions or diversification moves have been ruled out because the new business was not within the framework established by the mission.

Mission defines the boundaries or domain within which the organization will operate. Those boundaries may be defined as industries or types of activities.

When a mission is recognized and accepted by managers and employees, it becomes a common framework for making decisions and setting priorities.

It is something that everyone in the organization is aware of and employees can relate their activities to other activities through the mission.

Mission does not prevent change, it simply provides direction to seek new opportunities.

Many years ago, IBM enlarged its scope from producing business machines to serving information processing needs.

This opened a wide range of options, but is still restrictive enough to keep IBM in fields in which it has developed or could readily develop expertise.

A good mission statement is broad enough to allow exploration of new opportunities but specific enough to prevent the organization from going too far.

Finally, mission conveys to employees the philosophy of the company and gives their jobs meaning beyond the immediate physical or mental activity in which they are engaged. The perceived meaningfulness of the job can in turn affect the level of employee commitment to the organization.

Changing the mission

Mission is so fundamental to most organizations that it is viewed as fixed and is seldom reconsidered in any systematic fashion. Mission should not be viewed as unchangeable. In certain circumstances the mission itself must be reevaluated if the organization is to survive.

Mission formulation will be successful only when:

* The communication strategy is designed and agreed by all as part of the planning process.

* Briefings of all those affected should take place at the earliest possible opportunity before tumour has had time to surface, e.g. It is always helpful if planning workshops are held during weekends with the briefing sessions completed early on Monday morning. (This has the added psychological advantage of introducing something new at the start of a week)

* Either a single briefing to all concerned, or simultaneous briefings should be held to avoid any watering down or distortion of the message as a result of peers reporting back after each session.

* Where a number of briefings are unavoidable, it has been found useful to script these to ensure consistency.

Examples of mission statements

Organization A

* “To fulfill this vision, we remain dedicated to achieving three key objectives:

* To be recognized by the media and the public as one of the world’s greatest companies in performance and management effectiveness.

* To be acknowledged as a world leader in all our business – by providing products and services that meet customer expectations in terms of quality and cost.

* To maximize shareholders’ long-term total return, as measured by share-price appreciation and dividends.

* Set an ambitious goal: to increase return on equity to 20 percent.

Organization B

* We are in the business of problem solving. Our business is to help solve administrative, scientific and human problems.

* To produce a selected range of quality services to organizations and individuals to fulfill their continuing financial needs.

* Translating new technologies into commercial salable products.

* The development and marketing of inedible products for food stores.

* Administering all provisions of law relating to public health laws and regulations, supervising and assisting boards and department of health and doing all other things reasonably necessary to protect and improve the health of the people.

*A willingness to invest in any area of suitable profit and growth potential in which the organization has or an acquire the capabilities.

Organization C

It is the basic purpose of this organization, in all of its decisions and actions, to attain and maintain the following:

* A continuous, high level of profits, which places it in the top bracket of industry in its rate of return on investment.

* Steady growth in profits and also volume, and investment at rates exceeding those of the national economy as a whole.

* Equitable distribution of the fruits of continuously increasing productivity of management, capital and labour among shareholders, employees and the public.

* Design, production and marketing, on a worldwide basis, of products and services that are useful and beneficial to its customers to society and to mankind.

* Continuous responsiveness to the needs of its customers and of the public, creating a current product line that is “first in performance” and a steady flow of product improvements, new products and new services that increase customer satisfaction.

* A vital, dynamic product line, by continuous addition of new products and businesses and prompt termination of old products and businesses when their economic worth, as measured by their profit performance, becomes substandard.

* The highest ethical standard in the conduct of all its affairs.

* An environment in which all employees are enabled, encouraged, and stimulated to perform continuously at their highest potential of output and creativity and to attain the highest possible level of job satisfaction.

Organization D

* Our Mission is to be a dynamic leader in national and international market by providing customer satisfaction through motivated employees dedicated to excellence.