strategic management mission statement

In order to achieve success, a majority of companies defines and follows a strategy. In order to do so, firms have at their disposal of lot of management tools. In this analysis, we will concentrate on one in particular, the mission statement. Kotler and Armstrong suggest that “A clear mission statement acts as an ‘invisible hand’ that guides people in the organization” (2010). Each company have to wonder about questions as Who we are?, Why we are here? What is our job? The answers to these questions can appear obvious but they allow evaluating the firms’ actual position and giving a clear and coherent direction. After the determination of the missions, objectives and vision, the company will be able to concentrate on the types of strategy to adopt and on the operational priorities. However, the organisations must be vigilant not to establish their mission statements to do like the others or to establish it quickly. They must also dissociate it from the other close concepts.
Indeed, the statement “In writing mission statements, you are creating a brief description of what you want to focus on and what you want to accomplish…” asks to clarify the concept. In a premier step and using the previous wording, it will be interesting to understand and define this concept, then compare it with different points of view. In a second part, we will ask ourselves how establish a good mission statement, and why it is a compulsory step in a strategic management process.

Today, it is very easy to find a mission statement on companies’ websites or brochures. For this reason, we must determine the relevance and the usefulness of this tool. However, in a first step and by reading the statement given, we should define the mission statement and differentiate it to objective, visions and values. Indeed, the statement can be confused because it is possible to interpret it as a definition of an objective.
We can read a lot of works in which the concept of the mission is not