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?

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.

We have shared some documents in the Tekedia Startup Masterclass program. Among others, they include the following:

• – Sample Business Concept Note/Investment Brief
• – Sample Founders’ Agreement
• – Sample Equity Transfer Agreement.

Please we’ve shared purely for academic purposes all the documents to help learners get to speed. As always, we expect you to review with your lawyer anything you are sending out.

“A Founders’ Agreement is a contract that a company’s founders enter into that governs their business relationships. The Agreement lays out the rights, responsibilities, liabilities, and obligations of each founder. ” We recommend that for any new company. The oral “trust” or “we agreed verbally” is not enough!

More Founders and young CEOs are choosing Tekedia Startup Masterclass as they build, picking critical tools and knowledge systems to turn ideas into great businesses. Join them here 

The amazing #India, we welcome you to Tekedia Mini-MBA. Extremely very excited for the responses which we are getting from schools, companies and learners. The team led by Asif Chowgule is available to answer all questions. I also want to thank specifically the recruitment agencies in India which are providing new vistas to prepare workforce of the future.

In India, to register for the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA or any Tekedia Institute program, please reach out to Asif. Just today alone, 50 joined – it looks really amazing.

Tekedia Institute prepares innovators, change makers,  professionals and students on the mechanics of market systems. Learners from 39 countries attend our programs.

Our Location: AICLEARN, Amir Building, Noorbaug, near JJ Hospital, Mumbai 400009. Phone: +91 9820 6666 12. Email: learn@aiclearn.com

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is already causing disruption in the game market, with Sony Group Corp. suffering the first impact. The company’s shares fell 13% in Tokyo on Wednesday, their biggest drop since October 2008, following Microsoft’s announcement of the acquisition, Bloomberg reports.

Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard on Tuesday, in a $68.7 billion all-cash transaction. The deal sent vibration through the game industry as it paves way for Microsoft to lead the market.

Bloomberg reports below that the acquisition will put Sony in a difficult position, as it means the company will no longer lead the game market.

The blockbuster acquisition escalates Microsoft’s spending spree to secure intellectual property assets for its Xbox Game Pass service, wiping $20 billion off Sony’s valuation in a day. The push to attract paying subscribers with an overwhelming portfolio of games challenges Sony’s traditional console business model that relies on high-profile exclusive titles and hardware sales. Games and network services account for about 30% of Sony revenue.

Microsoft announced Tuesday that it has more than 25 million Game Pass subscribers and “will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass,” spanning both existing and new titles, according to Xbox chief Phil Spencer. Call of Duty, Diablo and World of Warcraft are among several highly successful franchises developed under the Activision Blizzard umbrella.

“Sony will have a monumental challenge on its hands to stand on its own in this war of attrition,” said Amir Anvarzadeh of Asymmetric Advisors. “With Call of Duty now most likely to be added exclusively to the Game Pass roster, the headwinds for Sony are only going to get tougher.”

Elsewhere across the games industry, publishers rallied in the wake of Microsoft’s announcement, with Capcom Co. and Square Enix Holdings Co. up by more than 3.7% in Tokyo. Analysts, including Jefferies’ Atul Goyal, saw the move as raising valuations for game companies with strong content and IP portfolios.

Sony has maintained a consistent lead in sales and exclusive games over Microsoft’s competing offerings across several PlayStation and Xbox generations. Now that its Redmond, Washington-based rival has signaled its determination to spend freely to close that gap, Sony will be under pressure to respond.

“Sony will struggle to match Microsoft in terms of money it can spend to buy popular game IP,” Morningstar Research analyst Kazunori Ito said. “Falling shares illustrate investors are worried that Sony may not be able to keep winning if indeed the industry shifts away from the hardware-based model.”

Never abandon the field because harvest is near!

There is time for everything because seasons come and seasons go. Time for planting, time for harvesting. To harvest, you certainly need to plant.

But that is not all: sometimes we plant, but yet abandon the field, before the harvest.

The past taught  the trade, and the future provides ways to profit from it. Do not give up in the middle. I used to beg for places to speak; today, my problem is how to respectfully decline invitations to speak!

Master the seasons, and understand there is harvest, after planting, if you do not abandon the field by nurturing it.