ctfqb Mission vision and values are the strategic guidelines that guide how a company manages its teams and how it will position itself in the market.
These three concepts are usually defined before starting a business since they determine the organization’s purpose.
In this sense, if you are in the initial stage of your venture or would like to document the strategic identity of your company, take advantage of the advice in this guide!
We’ll dive into mission, vision, and values through examples of each and show you how to define them.
What are the mission, vision, and values of a company?
Mission, vision, and values are the strategic guidelines that guide how a company manages its teams and how it will position itself in the market to achieve its objectives.
In this sense, the mission tells the world what the company wants to achieve, what means it is going to use to achieve it, and to whom this effort is directed.
The vision tells how the world will be in the future and the positive changes that will occur if the company fulfills its mission.
And the values are the principles of an organization and give an account of how the company should follow exemplary conduct to fulfill its objectives.
These three concepts constitute the foundations of the organizational culture or the philosophy of a company, which is the thought that explains the reason for being and acting of the company.
Now that you know the generalities of each term let’s see how to define each one in your business.
What is the mission?
The mission defines the purpose of the company’s existence and what differentiates it from others. In other words, it has to do with the value proposition of a business.
The primary role of the mission is to inspire and engage the team, connecting all stakeholders (or interested parties in a company) to guide them towards business success.
A company’s mission serves to give focus to the efforts and initiatives it seeks to achieve and its importance.
Can be divided into three groups of interest:
- Importance to the organization. Suppose your collaborators know the company’s mission in detail. In that case, they will collectively align each effort with what you want to achieve.
- Importance to the customer. Your current and potential customers are going to experience most of the results of the efforts that your company is going to make. In this case, the mission is critical since it will be evident in actions rather than words.
- Importance for the market. The mission communicates to the industry, investors, and possible allies the way and the means you will use to achieve your objectives. Through this information, you will be able to raise funds to develop your company and attract partners aligned with your project.
How to define the mission?
To define a company’s mission, it is essential to have detailed knowledge of your objectives, the means you use to achieve them, and of course, a precise understanding of the importance of the message you want to convey.
The mission is closely related to your company’s identity, which implies that it varies substantially from one organization to another. Therefore, multiple methods exist to get to that powerful phrase you are looking for.
In this opportunity, we recommend the following method to elaborate the mission of your company:
Answer these critical questions about your company
- What do we do? What do we do?
- How do we do it? What do we do differently to achieve it?
- Why do we do what we do? What is our purpose?
- Who do we do it for? What do they mean to us?
- What does your company do for your collaborators? How do you involve them in what you do?
- What does your company do for your customers? What affects their lives when they come into contact with your brand?
- What does your company do for the market segment to which it belongs? How can allies in your detail grow thanks to what you do?
Write a powerful phrase.
The mission must be a short, precise, and decisive sentence, capable of concretely describing what you want to achieve.
Here are some tips to help you write it successfully:
- Betting on honesty is always the best way.
- Your mission determines from daily actions to medium-term goals. Therefore, you must be realistic about your scope.
- Try to be brief and direct.
- Stay away from technicalities or complex language.
- Your mission should be a reflection of your company. If you use another company’s mission as a basis, your audience will notice.
- Avoid making a simple list of the services or products you offer.
- When you finish writing the sentence, ask for feedback in your environment and make the necessary adjustments. It is expected that it does not come out on the first attempts (or the second and third). Don’t lose patience.
Focus on the “why.”
This model explains how the “why” is decisive in optimally conveying your company’s purpose and how it is essential for companies that achieve great things.
Based on the ‘why,’ it is possible to establish a much more powerful bond of empathy with your audience; therefore, the relationship with your brand becomes more muscular.
What is the vision?
The vision is the destination a company wants to reach. In this sense, it establishes the parameters for a company’s decision-making, the necessary investments, and the way to define strategies.
Like the mission, the vision is essential to achieve the objectives of an organization since it determines the best path in the short, medium, and long term to achieve the goals.
Mission Vision and Values
How to define the vision?
To establish the vision of a company, it is essential to consider the following points:
- The projected reach of the brand in the next five years: do you want it to be recognized locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally?
- The essence of the business: do you want to be a leader through which differential? Design? Prices? The innovation?
- The reason why they choose your brand and not another.
Finally, keep in mind that you must define the vision according to the budget you established for your business.
What are values?
Company values are a company’s principles, establishing the ideal attitudes and behaviors expected of an organization’s employees, managers, investors, suppliers, and partners.
In other words, it refers to the behavior that the company must follow to fulfill an objective.
How to define the values?
The first thing to consider is that the values must be closely linked to the company’s goals. They also have to be relevant to the target audience.
In this sense, the values need to meet these two characteristics:
- Be brief and direct, from five to eight words, to facilitate the comprehension process.
- Differentiate your company from the competition.
Once you have the principles defined, use them in all the processes of your company: from hiring collaborators to defining strategies, passing through the creation of the code of ethics of your business.
Examples of a company’s mission, vision, and values
To better understand how companies communicate these pillars of their organizational culture, we share some examples that will serve to clarify doubts and inspire you to write those of your new venture or rework those of your company.
- Mission: “Empower people to follow their dreams and live an entrepreneurial life by helping them to be able to sell online and boost their businesses.”
- Vision: “Help people through e-commerce to have successful businesses and boost the region’s economy.”
- Values: “We put the customer at the center of our decisions; we fully commit ourselves; we say what we think; we execute with excellence; we think big; we learn and build trust; We work as a team.”
The relationship between mission vision and values-making in a company
Now that you know the role of a company’s mission and its relationship with the vision, you must understand how the entire organizational communication gear works.
- Values are the principles that guide you to achieve your purpose. They determine the way of being and acting of your organization.
- The vision is the long-term destination you plan to reach with your company.
- The mission defines the purpose of a company, the means it will use to achieve it, and for whom that effort is directed. It closely relates to why you do what you do and what you offer as a brand.
Finally, the balance between the three allows correct decision-making, which consists of choosing the best possible alternative starting from the base left by the three previous points.
Conclusions
The mission ensures that the company focuses on its purpose and what it wants to achieve, as well as the elements it needs to reach and the people who benefit from it.
Along with the vision and values, a company’s mission is a vital part of the organizational culture. It helps the business to optimize its efforts in the short and medium term, in addition to clearly communicating it to its target audience.
Having a clear mission from the beginning will help all the members of your company know why and how they will proceed on a day-to-day basis.
Encourage yourself to create your company’s mission and make your business stand out from t
