The Role of Mission, Vision, and Values Introduction Every company should have a vision and a mission statement. Read this section to learn why a strong mission statement and a clear vision are vital to the success of any organization. Mission and vision both relate to an organization’s purpose and are typically communicated in some written form. Mission and vision are statements from the organization that answer questions about who they are, what they value, and where they are going. A 2011 study by the consulting firm Bain and Company reports that 63% of the more than 1,000 firms surveyed globally reported using mission and values statements as a management tool (Rigby & Bilodeau, 2011). Moreover, firms with a clearly communicated, widely understood, and collectively shared mission and vision have been shown to perform better than those without them, with the caveat that they related to effectiveness only when strategy, goals, and objectives were aligned with vision and mission (Bart et al., 2001). A mission statement is a statement of purpose, describing who the company is and what it does. The mission statement communicates the organization’s reason for being, and how it aims to serve its key stakeholders. Customers, employees, and investors are the stakeholders most often emphasized, but other stakeholders like government or communities (i.e., in the form of social or environmental impact) can also be discussed. Mission statements sometimes include a summation of the firm’s values. Values (shared principles, standards, and goals) are the beliefs of an individual, group, or organization, in which they are emotionally invested. In many ways, you can say that the mission statement lays out the organization’s “purpose for being,” and the vision statement then says, “based on that purpose, this is what we want to become.” Vision statements typically take the form of relatively brief, futureoriented statements. Vision statements answer the question “where is this organization going?” A vision statement is a future-oriented declaration of the organization’s purpose and aspirations. The strategy should flow directly from the vision, since the strategy is intended to achieve the vision and thus satisfy the organization’s mission. Typically, vision statements are relatively brief, as in the case of Starbucks’ vision statement, which reads: “Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks, 2014). Or advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, which states its vision as “an agency defined by its devotion to brands” (Ogilvy & Mather, 2008). Similarly, Walmart’s tag-line version of its vision statement is “Save money. Live better” (Walmart, 2008). Figure 3.1 Mission Statements Figure 3.2 Vision Statements Roles Played by Mission and Vision Mission and vision statements play three critical roles: (a) communicate the purpose of the organization to stakeholders, (b) inform strategy development, and (c) develop the measurable goals and objectives by which to gauge the success of the organization’s strategy. Founded by Anita Roddick, the mission of The Body Shop explicitly includes a broad understanding of stakeholders by providing a commitment “to the well-being of our fellow humans and the preservation of the planet.”Image from Homard.net. (2007). Body Shop Shopping. Retrieved from First, mission and vision are vehicles for communicating an organization’s purpose and values to all key stakeholders. Stakeholders are those key parties who have some influence over the organization or stake in its future. Some key stakeholders are employees, customers, investors, suppliers, and institutions such as governments. Typically, mission and vision statements would be widely circulated and discussed often so that their meaning is widely understood, shared, and internalized. The better employees understand an organization’s purpose, through its mission and vision, the better they will be equipped to understand the strategy and its implementation. Second, mission and vision create a target for strategy development. That is, one criterion of a good strategy is how well it helps the firm achieve its mission and vision. The best vision statements create a tension and restlessness with regard to the status quo—that is, they should foster a spirit of continuous innovation and improvement. London Business School professors Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad describe this tense relationship between vision and strategy as stretch and ambition. Indeed, in a study of able competitors, such as CNN, British Airways, and Sony, they found that these firms displaced competitors with stronger reputations and deeper pockets through their ambition to stretch their organizations in more innovative ways (Hamel & Prahalad, 1993). Third, mission and vision provide a high-level guide, and the strategy provides a specific guide to the goals and objectives showing success or failure of the strategy and satisfaction of the larger set of objectives stated in the mission. Such objectives include profitability goals, metrics on customer and employee satisfaction, and social and environmental responsibility measures. Mission and vision both relate to an organization’s purpose and aspirations. Typically, mission and vision are communicated in some form of brief written statements. A mission statement communicates the organization’s reason for being and how it aspires to serve its key stakeholders. The vision statement is a narrower, future-oriented declaration of the organization’s purpose and aspirations. Together, mission and vision guide strategy development, help communicate the organization’s purpose to stakeholders, and inform the goals and objectives set to determine whether the strategy is on track. Note. Adapted from “The Roles of Mission, Vision, and Values,” by M.A. Carpenter, T. Bauer, B. Erdogan, & J. Short, 2013, Principles of Management, Chapter 4, Section 1. Copyright 2013 by Flat World Knowledge, Inc. 
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