The Mission Statement

A mission statement defines the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement guides the organization's actions, spells out overall goals, and guides decision making. The mission statement is generated to retain consistency in overall strategy and to communicate core organizational goals to all stakeholders. The business's owners and upper managers develop the mission statement and uphold it as a standard across the organization. It provides a strategic framework by which the organization is expected to abide.

Mission statement

An example of a mission statement, which includes the organization's aims and stakeholders and how it provides value to these stakeholders.

In a best-case scenario, an organization conducts internal and external assessments relative to the mission statement. The internal assessment should focus on how members inside the organization interpret the mission statement. The external assessment, which includes the business's stakeholders, is valuable since it offers a different perspective. Discrepancies between these two assessments can provide insight into the effectiveness of the organization's mission statement.

Contents

Effective mission statements start by articulating the organization's purpose. Mission statements often include the following information:

• Aim(s) of the organization
• The organization's primary stakeholders, including clients/customers, shareholders, congregation, etc.
• How the organization provides value to these stakeholders, that is, by offering specific types of products or services
• A declaration of an organization's core purpose

According to business professor Christopher Bart, the commercial mission statement consists of three essential components:

1. Key market – Who is your target client/customer? ( generalize if necessary)
2. Contribution – What product or service do you provide to that client?
3. Distinction – What makes your product or service so unique that the client would choose you?

Assimilation

To be truly effective, an organizational mission statement must be assimilated into the organization's culture (as the theory states). Leaders have the responsibility of communicating the vision regularly, creating narratives that illustrate the vision, acting as role-models by embodying the vision, creating short-term objectives compatible with the vision, and encouraging employees to craft their own personal vision that is compatible with the organization's overall vision.