Vision
and Mission Statements are a waste of time! Or are they ….
Recently, vision and mission statements have become so watered down in
the corporate world that they are basically meaningless. If your company’s
mission statement is anything like “we will constantly exceed our customer’s
expectations”, having your business development team arrive at a sales call
with a marching band will probably “exceed customer expectations”, but not
necessarily increase sales, or assist your business achieve its goals. Because
of this, vision and mission have been largely painted with negative
connotations. When used properly though, vision and mission statements can be
very powerful tools, especially for developing firms. Just as a sports coach
has a vision for putting a dream team together and plans for winning games,
vision and mission provide direction for a business, without which it is
difficult to develop a workable plan. A workable plan allows the business to engage
in activities that lead the organization forward and avoid allocating resources
to activities that do not.
Vision Statements
Vision statements and mission statements are different. A vision statement
spells out goals at a high level and should line up with the owner's goals for
the business. The vision should state what the owner ultimately wants the
business to be, in terms of growth, values, staff, contributions to society,
and so on; therefore, self-reflection by the owner is a vital activity if a meaningful
vision is to be crafted. Once the owner(s) have defined the vision, you can
begin to develop strategies for moving the organization towards that vision,
and part of this process would include the development of the company mission
statement(s).
Mission Statements
The mission statement should be a concise statement
of business strategy, developed from the customer's perspective and it should fit with
the vision for the business. The mission should answer three seemingly simple questions:
1.
What do we
do?
2.
How do we do
it?
3.
For whom do
we do it?
1.What do we do?
This question should not be answered in terms of
what is physically delivered to customers, but by the real and/or psychological
needs that are fulfilled when customers buy your products or services.
Customers make purchase decisions for many reasons, including economical, logistical,
and emotional factors. An excellent illustration of this is a business that
imports hand-made jewellery from East Africa. When asked what her business
does, the owner replied, "We import and market East African jewellery."
But when asked why customers buy her jewellery, she explained that,
"They're buying the story behind where the jewellery came from." This
is an important distinction and answering this question from the need-fulfilled
perspective will help you answer the other two questions effectively.
2. How do we do it? This
question captures the more technical elements of the business. Your answer
should encompass the physical product or service and how it is sold and
delivered to customers, and it should fit with the need that the customer fulfils
with its purchase. In the example above, the business owner had originally defined
her business as selling East African jewellery and was attempting to sell it on
shelves of boutique retail stores with little success. After modifying the
answer to the first question, she realized that she needed to deliver the story
to her customers along with the product. She began organizing wine parties that
included a slide show of East Africa, stories of personal experiences there,
and pictures and descriptions of the villagers who make the jewellery. This
method of delivery has been very successful for her business.
3. For whom do we do it? The
answer to this question is also vital, as it will help you focus your marketing
efforts. Though many small business owners would like to believe otherwise, not
everyone is a potential customer, as customers will almost always have both
demographic and geographic limitations. When starting out, it is generally a
good idea to define the demographic characteristics (age, income, etc.) of
customers who are likely to buy and then define a geographic area in which your
business can gain a presence. As you grow, you can add new customer groups and
expand your geographic focus.
An additional consideration with mission statements is that most
businesses will have multiple customer groups that purchase for different
reasons. In these cases, one mission statement can be written to answer each of
the three questions for each customer group or multiple mission statements can
be developed.
As a final thought, remember that your vision and mission statements are
meant to help guide the business, not to lock you into a particular direction.
As your company grows and as the competitive environment changes, your mission
may require change to include additional or different needs fulfilled, delivery
systems, or customer groups. With this in mind, your vision and mission should
be revisited periodically to determine whether changes are needed.
Version 8 would love to
help you develop a clear vision and mission statement for your business or
team. Leave us a comment below, or head on over to www.version8.com.au and fill in the
Contact Form, and we will get back to you ASAP.
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