Every business has a mission statement, vision statement, and values. It may not always be spelled out, but there has to be some mentality guiding what you do, how you do it, and what you hope to achieve. In truth, these three phrases capture what mission, vision, and value mean.
Let’s start with the vision statement. A company like Disney says its vision is “to make people happy”. Microsoft says its vision is to “Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”.
What can you pick out of these?
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The vision statement simply captures the aspirations or ambitions of the company. In other words, the vision tells us what the company wants to achieve or become. All products or services from the company will directly or indirectly be targeted to this end.
Often, the vision statement will be a clear and concise statement, one sentence or two, but never more than a short paragraph. Although the vision statement is not actionable, it will be a guide towards all the actions and decisions the company will take. It is a summary of the value the company wants to create.
Now to the mission statement. This is the one most people commonly mistake for the vision statement. The mission statement states what the company needs to do now to achieve that vision statement in the near future. If done right, the mission statement is more specific and it will define how that brand intends to achieve its vision, and in what exact sector or space the brand will play.
For instance, Patagonia says its mission is to “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”.
Zido Global has a mission statement that reads “… Zido is using simplified technologies to rework the process of cargo transportation and distributions to enhance efficiency and cost management”.
Like you can see, the mission statement is specific, actionable, and can become the basis for all your strategic goals. If people read your company mission statement and still don’t know what your business is about, then it is either you do not know what you want to do, or you have to communicate it properly. You should consider a rewrite.
And now, values.
The values are like the code of ethics, and so it is clearly different from the other two. It defines what the company believes in, how people within the company are expected to behave with each other and with the clients/customers and stakeholders, and what outsiders can expect from their interactions with the company.
The values provide a moral guide to decision-making and a standard for assessing the actions of people within the company. Zido Global has four values for instance – Quality, Transparency, Speed, and Control. This is our promise to clients, and every staff coming in knows that this is what we have to deliver to our customers and stakeholders. it will guide their decision at every point in service delivery.
Note though that the vision and mission statements and values must support each other.
However, entrepreneurs should not expect that once the mission statement, vision statement, and values have been spelled out, the staff will follow it by default. You have to clearly communicate and explain it to every team member that comes on board. Don’t leave them hanging on the wall, and expect your team to figure it out. Sell the idea to them so that they become promoters themselves. Let them buy into it.
The most critical part of it however is enforcing it. It is one thing to say a thing and another to enforce it. If you list ‘mutual respect’ among your company values, and yet your staff see you using abusive words on some team members, then you are not portraying the values yourself. The mission, vision, and values must reflect at every stage, till each new staff imbibes it as second nature, and then it becomes a part of your work culture.
The strength of your mission, vision, and values lie in your ability to follow them even when it would be easier not to. Let every decision made be a reflection of the visions and values of the company.