Vision, mission, and goal statements
A vision statement is an outline of what a company hopes to ultimately achieve throughout its existence. It gives stakeholders a clear visual image of what the company aspires to become. A vision statement has to be inspiring, clear, echoes the company’s values, and also describes their reason for existence. For example, Disney’s Vision statement is: To make people happy (Lumen Learning, 2013). Disney’s vision statement is clear and inspiring. It shows that the company values happiness and aims to create products that bring happiness to its stakeholders.
A mission statement is a detailed description of how a company will accomplish its vision. It provides an outline of the field a company will operate in and how it will differentiate itself from the competition. For a mission statement to be functional, it should be specific and actionable. For example, Amazon.com’s Mission statement is: We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience(Lumen Learning, 2013). This mission statement breaks down how Amazon purposes to achieve its vision of being customer-centric. The company seeks to differentiate itself from its customers by providing quality products at an affordable price and within their reach.
Establishing a new plan means coming up with goals that a company needs to achieve and the actions that are required to achieve the goal. A plan focuses on what a company wants without considering its limitations. It, therefore, acts as a roadmap. Developing a strategy means coming up with a comprehensive plan of how the company will achieve its goals. It’s an evaluation of factors that may affect the business and choosing the best course of action.
Goals are statements that reveal what a company wants to accomplish while objectives are the steps that will be used to realize the set goal. Objectives have to be specific and measurable. Goals and Objectives are utilized as a measure of control by managers to align the company’s performance. For example, Amazon.com can set a goal of achieving an 80% global market share. Thus some of the objectives that would be affiliated to that goal would be having three new products in each market quarter and increasing their new business sales by ten percent each quarter.