Todays, business people are throwing their attention to terms such as mission, innovation and culture because they believe that they are the keys to the organizational effectiveness. To a larger extent, they have done well in getting most of these terms out into zeitgeist. Regarding mission statements, business gurus struggle to develop perfect words which can inspire within our organizations. This paper focuses on how to get good mission and vision statements for the business.
Five Criteria Comprising Good (Quality) Mission Statements
Whether one is starting a business or is contemplating on refocusing on plans, a mission statement is instrumental because it guides the process (Blair-Loy et al., 2011). It tells customers, employees, as well as venders how one intends to realize their firm's vision. It offers a valuable measuring tool, particularly for new ventures and also a means of approaching daily business activities. A mission statement should, therefore achieve the following:
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Be informative
A mission statement should seek to convey the overall goal or objective of the organization, thus offering valuable insights into the idea that aims at guiding every single project as well as decision (Williams, 2008). A good mission statement should be focused on communicating the importance of what the company is doing without being overly specific. It is important to note that a mission statement should at all-time seek to strike a balance of clarifying the purpose of the business, particularly in its field and offering inspiration.
Be simple
With respect to the mission statement, it is worth pointing out that too much detail has a way of diluting the intended meaning. It is important that as one develops a mission statement, they should endeavor to capture the overall essence of the organization using fewer words. A more detailed mission statement is likely to make it vague. While writing a mission statement, it is paramount to employ the use of clear, brief and straightforward language (Blair-Loy et al., 2011). However, distilling values, goals and character of a given company into a few sentences, for instance, one or two is a challenging process and in most cases, requires a substantial amount of time and discussion.
Be memorable
A mission statement can assist particularly in guiding several actions of workers and those tasked with making decisions but not if it is hard to remember. In a bid to help make the organization's mission statement memorable, it is advisable to employ descriptive words that seek to inspire action. For instance, a green engineering company might consider restricting it to one sentence with a mission statement which says, "To offer sustainable, innovative engineering solutions." Workers from this organization can make use of it to guide them especially in terms of developing creative, environmentally friendly engineering. In contrast, customers will be able to comprehend the moral underpinnings and the essential services of the firm.
Be achievable
Even though one can be tempted to write a grand mission statement, it is usually a good idea to create a mission statement that is easy to achieve. To this end, a powerful mission statement should strive to offer employees something tangible to work on and subsequently, a larger goal to work toward. A good mission statement should be the one that seeks to ensure a reasonable balance between what one does and what one can potentially do.
Employee Buy-In
Fundamentally, for the entire organization to embrace a mission statement, one needs to get employee-buy in at all levels of an operation mainly. In ensuring that all employees are well behind the statement, it is crucial to ask for a companywide review, from the lowest level to the management. One needs to ask for feedback and considers it appropriate. In doing that, one can consider inviting workers to significantly contribute in adding their insights hence creating a sense of ownership that will strive to enhance the final mission statement.
Five Criteria that Comprise Good (Quality) Vision Statements
A vision statement refers to an organizational document that seeks to state the current and the future objective. It is intended to guide the organization in making valuable decisions that are in line with its philosophy as well as its set objectives. It can also be used as a roadmap to see where the organization wishes to be with a certain period of time.
A vission statement should consist of eight words or less.
Notably, the brain does not hold more than eight words. It is for this reason that a significant number of employees are not in a position to remember their organization's vision statements. Thus while writing a good quality vision statement, one is always advised to limit the words to eight or less.
A vision statement should be visible.
It is worth remembering that when a vision statement is seen, it simply makes the invisible visible. A visible vision statement provides a distinct and tangible image, particularly in one's mind (Darbi, 2012). In other words, a good vision statement acts as a mental picture that we can see mentally, particularly of something that we would cherish to realize one day. Essentially, when employees and leaders see the same inspiring image they are able to work even harder. They offer their talents with an aim of helping the organization realize its objectives and when that is done, then chances of succeeding are higher.
A vision statement should be felt.
Notably, when one can feel a vision statement, then it is a good one. A good vision statement tends to provoke emotions and ultimately triggers excitements (Tracy, 2015). It generates excitement, especially when other staff around you continuously mention it and with a lot of passion.
A vision statement should be understandable.
Every company staff should be in a position to understand its commercial importance or relevance, mainly. A vision statement is essentially the first step when it comes to the creation of a business strategy (Darbi, 2012). Once the business has the vision, then the strategies will follow. Similarly, the metrics necessary for measuring progress towards the realization of that vision will come after the vision statement.
A vision statement should have something for everyone.
A good vision statement should excite all staff in the organization since it seeks to describe a direction and a purpose that will clearly and comprehensively benefit both the business and workers.
Critique
Coca Cola’s Mission Statement
Coca cola’s mission statement is “ to refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit, to inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions, and to create value and make a difference . ” Coca-cola Company strives to leave a legacy everywhere it operates. It seeks to make a difference in both individuals and communities while at the same time, allowing them to enjoy a great taste of its product (Alshameri et al., 2012). The organization has a good mission statement because it is informative. A good mission statement should look at communicating the importance of what the company is doing without being overly specific, and that is what it has done by mentioning that seeks to, "refresh the world in body, mind and spirit" while creating value and making a difference in people's lives. The organization's mission is simple. The mission statement grasps the essence of the organization in limited words. It has used clear, concise and straightforward language. Even though the mission appears lengthy, I think that it is memorable because it employed the use of descriptive words that seek to inspire every employee. The organization's staff can make use of the statement particularly as a guiding principle especially in ensuring that their products inspire high levels of optimism and happiness while at the same time creating value and making a big difference into the lives of people they serve.
Consequently, the organization's mission statement is achievable. It seeks to refresh the world in body, spirit and mind, using its brands and actions while inspiring moments of happiness and optimism is highly achievable. The mission offers employees something tangible to work on and also, an objective worth working toward. Additionally, Coca-Cola employees can quickly buy-in because it creates a sense of ownership. The organization's mission of creating value while making a difference makes every staff feel that their lives and that of the entire community will improve. Therefore everyone is behind the mission statement .
Coca-Cola’s Vision Statement
Coca cola's vision statement says, " Inspiring each other to be the best we can be by providing a great place to work ." The intention of the company is reflected in the mission statement. It endeavors to reveal what the organization intends to do, which is to be the agent development and change within its industry and beyond, making it a perfect vision statement. To a more considerable extent, the vision is brief, and this goes a long way in helping everyone, including the staff, to remember what it is. Ordinarily, it becomes more of a challenge, particularly for the company’s staff to remember the vision statement if it is complex and lengthy. Still, the organization has tried to limit the words to make it easy to remember. Also, a vision statement is visible. Everyone can see the organization's vision statement, and this makes it act as a mental picture to all the staff and helps them to work toward realizing it. Similarly, it is good because it has something for everyone. Its greatness is in the sense that it seeks to inspire everyone and encourages them to be the best they can be by providing an excellent place to work while also ensuring that everyone stands to benefit.
Additionally, Coca cola's vision statement is understandable. From the statement, it is easy to say that all the company staff can understand the commercial importance or relevance. Coca-Cola Company understands that the vision statement is the initial step of creating its strategy and has made it easier for everyone to understand. Going by its framing, which is inspiring every single staff of the organization to be the best they possibly can and provide a great place to work, it is easy to say that everyone feels the statement. This vision provokes emotions of every employee, and everyone feels excited about the organization.
Coca-Cola’s Value Statement
The organization’s core values include collaboration, accountability, leadership, diversity, integrity, passion and quality. Ideally, the organization focuses on fostering and stimulating remarkable relations, particularly within its facilities in a manner that the staff can brainstorm, share ideas and also generate quality out of them (Sampson, 2016). Since the corporation is created, and there is a sense of independence, both investors and employees feel as essential components of the corporation which in turn thrust them into owning responsibilities and subsequently become dependable and accountable for the entire growth of the organization.
References
Alshameri, F., Greene, G. R., & Srivastava, M. (2012). Categorizing top fortune company mission and vision statements via text mining. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (IJMIS) , 16 (3), 227-238. doi:10.19030/IJMIS.V16I3.7075
Blair-Loy, M., Wharton, A. S., & Goodstein, J. (2011). Exploring the relationship between mission statements and work-life practices in organizations. Organization Studies , 32 (3), 427-450. doi: 10.1177/0170840610397480
Darbi, W. P. K. (2012). Of mission and vision statements and their potential impact on employee behaviour and attitudes: The case of a public but profit-oriented tertiary institution. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3 (14), 95-109.
Sampson, S. (2016). The “right way”: moral capitalism and the emergence of the corporate ethics and compliance officer. Journal of Business Anthropology, 3 , 65-86
Tracy, B. (2015). Business Strategy (The Brian Tracy Success Library) . Amacom.
Williams, L. S. (2008). The mission statement: A corporate reporting tool with a past, present, and future . Journal of Business Communications, 45 (2), 94-119. Retrieved from EBSCO
