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Creating Your Company's Written Mission Statement

Guest post by: Barbara Garro

Article Overview: If you have no focus on where you are going, how can you get there or anywhere? A business has a mission. You need to know what that is, know that it can change as the business world changes, and be ever ready to respond.

Creating Your Company's Written Mission Statement

You know your visions and your values in your head and your heart. Why is it so important to write down a company mission statement? There is an almost magic effect that occurs when you pull your thoughts down from your head through your hand and onto paper. It lets you look at your business with new eyes. Written text gives you a means to refine your thoughts in a way prolonged thinking does not. And, you can put your mission statement back into your head cleaned up and polished. Then, like a preacher, you can call on your carefully thought-out purpose and preach your company's mission when borrowing, hiring, marshaling your troops for a new market attack, networking with prospects, or pitching your products and services to the converted and not-yet-converted.

Writing your mission down turns your thoughts into a strategic plan you can follow until inevitable change forces you to redefine it. Where do you see your company in the near and not-so-near future? Well-defined, a mission statement tells what business you are in, why you are in it, the strategy you have adopted, and the values your company believes in.

Here are some questions to ask yourself--

• What are your present and prospective business environments?
• How do your current capabilities measure up?
• Are you satisfied with your current mix of products and/or services?
• How do your products and services compare with your competition?
• How do you believe your current competitors will react to product, service, and pricing changes you make?
• Do you have the people and resources to get to the future your vision sees?
• Do you have a system in place to measure your company's progress?
• Can your company's stated purpose steer everyone's efforts toward the company's short-term and long-term goals?
• Do you have a system in place to trend the future of each of your products and services?

A current written mission statement gives your company a reason to be. You know why you get up and go to work every day and you have an important reason to say yes to opportunities that fit your purpose. Equally important, you have a reason to say no to activities that do not fulfill your purpose. The mission statement lets your employees know why your company is in business and the purpose behind everyone's individual efforts. When you communicate your mission enthusiastically, your employees, suppliers, customers, potential customers, and the community all know that your company stands for something worthy of respect and is being led by an owner with vision.

When you get into a period when lots of things go wrong, your mission statement tells you that what you are about is important and gives you the courage to keep battling. Finally, a written mission statement gives you the raw material to make changes when our business environment moves in new directions or you choose to add or decrease the products and/or services you provide.

Here's Electric Envisions, Inc.'s Mission Statement. Electric Envisions' client-directed mission is to instantly connect with those we serve to help them maintain their motivation to be the happiest they can be through entertaining education that lights their paths with excellence-driven electric envisions to move them forward in the direction of their dreams and visions. Whether we are coaching, teaching, speaking, creating commission artworks, or selling books or paintings, our client's happiness is our global mission.

What is your global mission? What outcome do you want for your clients? How does everyone and everything in your company make that happen?

Want to see some diversified mission statements? Read James E. Liebig's Merchants of Vision, People Bringing New Purpose and Values to Business.

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Article Tags: Business Purpose, Employee Motivation, Mission Statement



Related Forum Posts
Mission Mantra - Why don't we call it a mission mantra? It depends on the business and how much emphasis they put on a Mission Statement or Mantra. Most of the business I've dealt with don't really care to much about a Mission Statement and only believe they need one because everyone else has one.
Franchise Models - There's a really interesting book about franchise models. Written by Michael Gerber, 'The E-Myth' is all about setting up an individual business and creating it in a franchise mold which will enable it's success. Definitely worth a read.
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Vision Values Mission Strategic Thinking Decision Making Communication Team Bonding People Development Coaching / Mentoring / Guiding / Grooming Presentation Thanks Robert
Re: Can you outsource your product launch? - Yes that what I am talking about. Creating a buzz for your online product launch basically. Is this part of what you do?
Do you believe in "Mantra" or "Mission Statem - In the Strategic Management course I'm currently taking, my group and I were supposed to come up with an improved mission statement for the organization we're analyzing or explain why the existing one doesn't need to be revised. However, business expert and author, Guy Kawasaki says "Forget mission statements; they're long, boring, and irrelevant. No one can ever remember them-much less implement them. Instead, take your meaning and make a mantra out of it. This will set your entire team on the right course" ("The Art of the Start" 3). Which do you use for your own businesses: Mantra, Mission Statements or neither? Thanks


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