Mission Statements: A Helpful Introduction

Mission Statements

A vision sets out what an organisation or individual would like to achieve. However, a mission sets out what that organisation or individual will do to contribute towards making that vision a reality.

Mission statements are created after visions in the strategy design process. They often define what an organisation does, how they do it and who they do it for. Only once they have been created is it possible for an organisation to start to set objectives.

Corporate objectives are really just ways to measure how an organisation is doing in its effort to deliver its mission, thus to achieve its vision.

It’s worth noting that mission statements are sometimes referred to as purpose statements.

Who Has Mission Statements

Many different types of groups benefit from having them including:

• Companies, partnerships and for profit groups should have them
• Divisions and sub-teams within organisations often benefit from having their own vision and mission statements
• Charitable and third sector organisations should have them
• Social groups and other organisations often benefit from them as they can help bring people together and set direction
• Some individuals choose to have personal vision statements as part of their development process

What Makes a Good Mission Statement

There is a wide variety of mission statements in the world, and they can vary a lot in quality. Some help stakeholders clearly understand what an organisation does, some don’t. To be good, a mission statement should be:

Clear– Good ones are short and to the point so they are easy to communicate and understand.

Substantive – An organisation’s mission should be substantive. It should actually say something real that the organisation can do and measure as, opposed to just containing generalizations.

Achievable – The mission an organisation sets itself should be achievable given the skills, experience, scale and capital that the organisation has. There’s no point creating a totally unrealistic mission.

Memorable – There’s no point having a fantastic mission that no one in the organisation can actually remember. The best ones are catchy and easy to remember and communicate.

Focused – What most organisations do is quite targeted and specific, and this should be reflected in their mission statements. If mission statements are broad and unfocused, they are less helpful as strategic tools.

Motivational – Not all aspects of business and not all business are intrinsically motivating. However, an organisation’s mission should be as motivating as possible. Ideally, people who hear or read the mission should want to help achieve it.

Lasting – It’s best if organisations don’t change them on a frequent basis. If possible, they should be long lasting statements that organisations can build around over multiple years.

Unique – Most industries and are populated my many competing organisations. Despite this, it’s still helpful for an organisation’s mission statement to be and feel unique.

Example Statements

As with vision statements, you can find many examples of corporate missions on the internet and in corporate literature. A few examples from the point in time that we captured them include:

• Kahn Academy – To provide free world-class education to anyone anywhere.
• The BBC – To enrich people’s lives with programs and services that inform, educate and entertain.
• Google – To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Learning More

Mission statements form part of an organisations strategy. We cover more aspects of strategy in posts on the VMOSA framework and Strategy Management framework. In our view, the best vision and mission statements are co-created with employees.

We’re also believers that organisations should be a force for good, so encourage them to be responsible businesses.

We don’t really have much to say about missions. They might sound a bit like management speak, but they are useful. It takes time to create them. They are often refined over the life of a business and in response to changes in the marketplace.

It’s worth validating them often and it’s important to get them right before you progress to later stages of strategy development, which often build on them.