Mission Statment

Component of mission statment
Function
The mission statement needs to include some description of the function of the business. For example, "to promote industrial excellence," tells customers and employees nothing. A more effective description would be "To provide management consulting services."
Target Consumers
An effective mission statement sets out, in broad terms, the target market. A manufacturer that makes nuts and bolts might set its target market as retail hardware stores, machine manufacturers, or both.
Target Region
The business must determine what region it serves best and relay that information by way of the mission statement. A garage, for example, might limit its target region to the community while a magazine company might target an entire country.
Values
Mission statements typically include a statement of company values. Values such as customer service, efficiency and eco-consciousness often appear on lists of company values. At their best, company values should express principles the company explicitly tries to affirm in day-to-day operations.
Technology
For businesses that rely heavily on technology, the mission statement should include a description of the essential technology the company does or plans to employ. If nothing else, this directs purchasing agents toward the appropriate vendors for goods and services.
Employees
Every company has a policy regarding its relationship with employees. A mission statement provides an opportunity to describe that policy in brief so employees know the essentials of where they stand.
Strategic Positioning
Effective mission statements also include a brief description of the business's strategic position within the market. For example, the company might excel at serving residential clients and seek to maximize that strategic advantage.
Financial Objectives
For for-profit ventures, businesses require clear financial objectives. A start-up company might set one of its financial objectives as making an initial public offering of common stock within two years. This lets the employees and potential investors know the company intends to go public, with all of the legal and record keeping ramifications that entails.
Image
Like people, companies develop public images. Careful companies craft the public image they want to establish and lay out the major features of it in the mission statement. This helps managers direct employees that stray from the sanctioned public image.
COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE MISSION STATEMENT 1. Customers: Who are the enterprise's customers?
2. Products or services: What are the firm's major products or services?
3. Markets: Where does the firm compete?
4. Technology: What is the firm's basic technology?
5. Concern for survival, growth, and profitability: What is the firm's commitment towards economic objectives?
6. Philosophy: What are the basic beliefs, core values, aspirations and philosophical priorities of the firm?
7. Self-concept: What are the firm's major strengths and competitive advantages?
8. Concern for public image: What is the firm's public image?
9. Concern for employees: What is the firm's attitude/orientation towards employees? COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE MISSION STATEMENT
Customer – Mission Statements should answer the question ” Who are your customers?”
Products and Services – What are your major products/services?
Markets – Define the markets in which you are competing.
Technology - Define the technology which you use in running your business
Concern of survival, growth and profitability – How are you committed to growth and financial soundness?
Philosophy – What are your basic, belief, values, aspiration and ethical priorities.
Self concept – What is your distinctive competence or major competitive advantage.
Concern of public image – How are you responsive to social, community and environmental concerns?
Concern of employees – Are employees valuable assets of the firm?
COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE MISSION STATEMENT
No one can deny the importance of a mission statement in motivating a business. Mission statement not only helps the business to remain on its track but also helps determining the very purpose of its existence. Finding a perfect mission statement is never possible. Mission statements are made, followed and updated continuously. Updates are made due to many reasons like change in business, change in business philosophy or any other major change that would result in substantial deviation for the organization from the earlier path it laid down in its mission statement. There are nine elements which involve in making a mission statement. Each good mission statement incorporates all of these elements in it. These elements are.
1. Customers
2. Products or Services
3. Markets
4. Technology
5. Concern for survival, growth and profitability
6. Philosophy
7. Self concept
8. Concern for public image
9. Concern for employees
Here is a glimpse of what each of these elements states about in a mission statement
1. Customers
In this element the organization mentions who are its customers or potential customers. What will it do to serve them and how will its customers find this organization different from the other organizations providing similar products or services in the market.
2. Products or Services
In mission statement a business has to mention the producer or service or both they are providing. By defining products or services the company distinguishes its offered products or services from competitive products or services of similar nature provided by other competitors in the market.
3. Markets
By defining markets, the company is declaring which types of customers it will target. Or who will be the intended audience for which it will produce products or services. For example, a luxury car maker like Rolls Royce has a potential market of only the richest of the rich in the world.
4. Technology
By defining technology, the company tells its current technology use in making of its products. It also tells about the unique ways in which its products or services are technologically more advanced then their alternates.
5. Concern for survival, growth and profitability
In this element of the mission statement business defines the means it seeks to survive in the longer run. It not merely lists them out but also defines the logic behind them and how will the company strive to achieve them.
6. Philosophy
Philosophy of a company is a much wider term to cover. By defining philosophy, the company defines its way of working, its culture, its beliefs and how it sees work to be carried out. It is also an analytical way of defining the norms on which it runs.
7. Self concept
By defining the self concept, the business is telling its heart out to the world. In this the company shows the outside world, its core strengths and the place it sees itself in the future.
8. Concern for public image
The buzz word is usually corporate social responsibility mixed with concern for public image. First of all these two terms are totally different and they can by no means be intermingled with each other. Corporate social responsibility points the ways in which the business wants to contribute towards the betterment of the society. Concern for public image is a much wider term and can include not only the corporate social responsibility but the overall impact of the actions taken by the company on its image. This may include from minor issues like installing manufacturing recycling plants by a company for pollution reduction to improve its packaging to enhance a better brand image for one of its top line brands.
9. Concern for employees
Earlier day corporations didn't care much about their employees. Thankfully the trend has started shifting from no focus to a lot of concentration on working environment. In a mission statement a company also defines the ways in which it is beneficial for potential and currently working employees to work at a certain organization. This also includes the ways in which the company will treat its employees and how will it look towards this relation in a longer period of time.
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