Strategic Business Planning: Preliminary Vision Mission Statements

Description

Description: This course has been designed to introduce a variety of aspects of international business. Globalization and growing international trade amongst many different countries have brought new challenges and opportunities for many new economies and established economies.

This course features dynamic and engaging video with audio narration, infographics and short quizzes to test your knowledge. 

Background: Mission and vision statements form part of the organisations strategic business plan. It is important for any organization to develop a vision, mission and values as it determines the strategic direction and the organisational strategic processes and enhances the chances of success. Vision and mission statements describe and communicate the organisation’s purpose and intention to internal and external stakeholders. Entrepreneur’s need to recognise that by identifying and understanding the interaction between values, mission and vision an organisation can successfully identify, design and implement a successful strategic business plan that enhances the chances of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.

Vision & Mission Statements
Hanson et al. defines a vision as a summary of an organisation’s ultimate goals; essentially, what it would like to achieve and what it would like to be known for the future. It is important to remember that vision statements reflect an organisations values and inspirations and are intended to capture the heart and mind of each employee. A strategic vision is a roadmap of a company’s future, it provides specifics about ‘where we are going’ in terms of technology and customer focus, the geographic and product markets to be pursued, the capabilities it plans to develop, and the kind of company the management is trying to create. A mission is the organisations business s cope which defines the organisation’s fundamental purpose, it basically why it exists – “who we are and what we do”. It tends to be more specific, indicating the industry that the business intends to create, revolutionise, or compete in, and who it will serve. A mission also assists the organisation move towards its vision, goals and objectives.

Taken together, the vision and mission help organisations to formulate their business strategies. It is important to note that an organisations vision tends to be fixed, while its mission can change given uncertain economic, regulatory, environmental and market conditions. Values can be defined as the beliefs that are shared among the stakeholders of an organisation. Values drive an organisation’s culture and priorities.

Organisations summarise goals and objectives into a mission or vision statements:
• Mission Statement: outlines the purpose of the organisation. It concentrates on the present by describing why it is important to achieve the vision. It defines the customer and critical processes. It informs you of the desired level of performance.
• Vision statement: outlines what the organisation wants to be. It describes the future identity. It is a source of inspiration. It provides clear decision-making criteria.
For example, here are some examples from top companies:
• Apple: to support the company’s success in the computer technology, consumer electronics, and online digital services industries.
• Tesla: to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy
• American Express: our mission is helping others accomplish theirs
• Uber: we ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion
• Google: to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful
• McDonald’s: to be our customers’ favourite place and way to eat and drink