Summary
Highlights
Issues arise when a company lacks clear vision, mission, and values. This module will discuss these concepts, their interrelations, and practical examples to foster better understanding.
A company's vision provides a concrete way for stakeholders, especially employees, to understand the meaning and purpose of the business. It describes desired long-term results, like Microsoft's early vision of 'a computer on every desk and in every home.' A vision statement reveals what an organization hopes to achieve in the long term, aligning everyone and giving purpose to their work. Vision statements should be brief and concise, not paragraphs.
Examples of well-written vision statements include Amazon's ambition to be 'earth's most customer-centric company' and LinkedIn's goal to 'create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.'
While vision is about forecasting the company's future, mission is about the work required to achieve that future. The vision statement describes where you want to take your company, while the mission statement outlines what needs to be done to make that vision a reality. Like vision statements, mission statements should be short and to the point.
Amazon's mission is to 'continually raise the bar of the customer experience by using the internet and technology to help consumers find, discover, and buy anything and empower businesses and content creators to maximize their success.' LinkedIn's mission is to 'connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful.' Comparing LinkedIn's vision (creating opportunities) and mission (connecting professionals), it's clear the mission is the action plan to achieve the vision.
After discussing vision and mission, the final element to understand is values.