Corporate vision, mission, goals and strategies

Business Guide : Winning Business Organization / Corporate vision, mission, goals and strategies

Introduction to corporate vision, mission, goals and strategies

One of the most important responsibilities of management is to lead the organization to develop a hierarchy of strategic intent – a strategy pyramid – that incorporates a consistent and mutually supportive set of vision, mission, goals, and objectives.

For the vast majority of companies, having well-defined visions and mission statements changes nothing however. The exercise of crafting them is a complete waste of time and talent if visions and mission statements are used for nothing but being published in the annual report and displayed in a reception area. One of the chief reasons for the failure of missions and visions to achieve the desired objective is the naiveté of most company managers and executives. Nothing happens by magic. To be able to energize employees to work towards corporate objectives, visions and missions should be more than a sign on the wall. Executives and managers should live them, be seen living them, and constantly communicate them to their employees.

Corporate vision

Vision is a short, succinct, and inspiring statement of what the organization intends to become and to achieve at some point in the future, often stated in competitive terms.

The purpose of articulating a coherent vision of a desirable future in which your organization could thrive is to focus your organization and your partners on those things you could now to bring that future state about. Thus your vision performs both a directional and a motivational function. As a leader developing a vision, you must seek out the ideas and ideals that will inspire your organization and motivate its members to work toward greatness.

Vision refers to the category of intentions that are broad, all-intrusive and forward-thinking. It is the image that a business must have of its goals before it sets out to reach them. It describes aspirations for the future, without specifying the means that will be used to achieve those desired ends.

The corporate success depends on the vision articulated by the chief executive or the top management. For a vision to have any impact of the employees of an organization it has to be conveyed in a dramatic and enduring way. The most effective visions are those that inspire, usually asking employees for the best, the most or the greatest. Make sure you keep stretch in your vision, communicate it constantly, and keep linking the events of today to your vision, underscoring the relationship between the two.

Numbers have little to do with creating a vision of fulfilling a mission; they don't instill corporate values into the minds and hearts of the employees, and they don't provide much help in living up to those values or carrying out the vision. In short, it's not management philosophy, it's just a lot of cheerleading. And cheerleading doesn't turn a company around.

Warren Bennis, a noted writer on leadership, says: "To choose a direction, an executive must have developed a mental image of the possible and desirable future state of the organization. This image, which we call a vision, may be as vague as a dream or as precise as a goal or a mission statement."

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Case in point: General Electric

At General Electric (GE) the vision is 'We bring good things to life'.

Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO of GE, believed that the only way to lead is to talk about company's values, not numbers. He said, "Numbers aren't the vision; numbers are products. We always say that if you had three measurements to live by, they'd be employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and cash flow. If you've got cash in the till at the end, the rest is all going to work, because if you've got high customer satisfaction, you're going to get a share. If you've got high employee satisfaction, you're going to get productivity. And if you've got cash, you know it's all working."

In one of his first speeches as CEO, Welch explained that he was not going to lay out an "all-inclusive" grand strategy or step-by-step agenda for the company. Instead, he was going to articulate a vision and a few clear goals for the company. He has always felt that best leaders are visionaries. They do not get caught up in the minutiae or obsess over every detail, but instead inspire others to execute on that vision.

To Welch, there are several reasons why it is better to lay out a general vision and not an exact blueprint.

It is the leader's responsibility to come up with the vision. Once the vision was communicated, it is up to the team to turn this vision into a reality.

A leader who spends too much time on the details is likely overmanaging. It is much better to give a general direction and empower the team to figure out the exact route.

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Showcase: Ford Motor Company

The Ford Motor Company vision is 'to become the world's leading consumer company for automotive products and services'.

Showcase: Microsoft

Microsoft's vision is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.

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Showcase: Infogrammes

Infogrames is a French company producing entertainment software games for CD-ROD, SEGA and Nintendo consoles etc. The company is driven by vision of opportunities, as well as the challenge of turning them into a reality. At Infogrames, there are a few key people who can create visions that employees, business partners and investors understand and find attractive. These shared visions knit many people in the Inforgames network together. They are without doubt a major motivational factor in the organization, pushing the limits of its capabilities, and optimizing performance.

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Brand vision

In the conventional view, a corporate strategy usually consists of developing an all-encompassing vision. The modern view is that brands now drive business strategy. In fact, brand visions are now replacing corporate visions, so powerful is their impact on profits.

Corporate mission statement

A mission statement is an organization's vision translated into written form. It makes concrete the leader's view of the direction and purpose of the organization. For many corporate leaders it is a vital element in any attempt to motivate employees and to give them a sense of priorities.

In developing a mission statement, remember that your organization serves multiple stakeholder groups and identify how it will address the needs of its most important stakeholders. A mission statement should be a short and concise statement of goals and priorities. In turn, goals are specific objectives that relate to specific time periods and are stated in terms of facts. The primary goal of any business is to increase stakeholder value. The most important stakeholders are shareholders who own the business, employees who work for the business, and clients or customers who purchase products and/or services from the business.

Showcase: corporate vision, mission, goals and strategies - Chrysler

Chrysler's goal, as written in their mission statement, is clear – it is focused on consumer satisfaction: "Chrysler's primary goal is to achieve consumer satisfaction. We do it through engineering excellence, innovative products, high quality and superior service. And we do it as a team."

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Developing goals

The major outcome of strategic road-mapping and strategic planning, after gathering all necessary information, is the setting of goals for the organization based on its vision and mission statement. A goal is a long-range aim for a specific period. It must be specific and realistic and address the need for balance among various stakeholder groups. Long-range goals set through strategic planning are translated into activities that will ensure reaching the goal through operational planning.

Setting objectives

Setting objectives involves a continuous process of research and decision-making. Knowledge of yourself and your unit is a vital starting point in setting objectives.

Strategic planning takes place at the highest levels; other managers are involved with operational planning. The first step in operational planning is defining objectives – the result expected by the end of the budget (or other designated) cycle.

The objectives must be:

• be focused on a result, not an activity;
• be consistent;
• be specific;
• be measurable;
• be related to time;
• be attainable.
  

Corporate strategy

Strategy is a very broad term which commonly describes any thinking that looks at the bigger picture. Successful companies are those that focus their efforts strategically. To meet and exceed customer satisfaction, the business team needs to follow an overall organizational strategy. A successful strategy adds value for the targeted customers over the long run by consistently meeting their needs better than the competition does.

Strategy is the way in which a company orients itself towards the market in which it operates and towards the other companies in the marketplace against which it competes. It is a plan an organization formulates to gain a sustainable advantage over the competition. Strategy answers the following questions:

• what are the sources of the company's sustainable competitive advantage?
• how a company will position itself against competition in the market over the long run to secure a sustainable competitive advantage?
• what are the key strategic priorities?
  

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Strategic intent

A strategic intent is a company's vision of what it wants to achieve in the long term. It must convey a significant stretch for your company, a sense of direction, discovery, and opportunity that can be communicated as worthwhile to all employees. It should not focus so much on today's problems, which are normally dealt with by company visions and missions, but rather on tomorrow's opportunities.

To achieve great things, you need ambitious visions. And it does not matter that vision cannot be laid out in details. It is the direction that counts.

Lessons taught by fastest companies

The fastest companies that get with new products or services to market ahead of their competitors abandon often traditional visions and mission statements – they share something bigger and stronger. Each has a cause that they use to launch a crusade5. They also set, live, and enforce guiding principles enabling them to make fast decisions and get fast to market.

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Topics related to "Corporate vision, mission, goals and strategies"

Strategic alignment

In any socio-technical system the people in the system work better when they understand how they fit into the system as a whole. To meet and exceed customer satisfaction, the business team needs to follow an overall organizational strategy.