Survival of a business in the market is one of the most important things owners of businesses aspire. However, it is notable that the achievement of this comes about due to the presence of a mission statement. A mission statement is a representation of the mission of the organization, and what it seeks to achieve in the long run.
Not only does the mission statement offer the organization with a guide of how to run the daily activities of the organization, it also gives a sense of direction to the organization. It can be termed as what the founders of an organization wish to attain, as well as a means to get to the future.
As earlier noted, the mission statement is a vision of what a business desires to achieve. To attain this vision, the mission statement has a very important part to play in ensuring that an organization establishes a strategy to get to their goals (Vallabhaneni, 2009).
The meaning of this is that the strategy management process is dependent on the mission statement. Having a certain vision enables an organization with a strategy to achieve the vision in question.
To start with, a mission statement defines the people that an organization seeks to serve. In short, it identifies the people that they expect to be their customers. Taking an example of a retail business organization, for an organization to establish the best strategy to approach them and promote their sales, they require knowing the people they anticipate to sell their products to.
It is after knowledge of this information that they get to learn several aspects about them, for example their culture, so that they devise the most suitable strategy to use. The importance of knowing different people’s characteristics helps out an organization to concentrate on only the workable strategies to those people (Moeller, 2009).
The mission statement is also instrumental to strategic management process in offering information about the anticipate number of consumers. It would be important for the organization to know the number of people it anticipates to offer the goods or services that it has established to.
Still on the example of a retail business, an organization will get to know the number of people they anticipate to sell their products to. Through this knowledge, a clear cut strategy to promote their products or to avail the products to their consumers will be easily devised. Wal-Mart is one if the retail organization that optimally benefits from their mission statement.
The scope of the services in provision by the organization is part of the contents of a mission statement. The managers in an organization get to know the general range of products the organization intends to provide to the customers.
Such information is important since it may highlight the gaps that may be inexistence in offering the services. In turn, the organization is able to cover them and can even get information about other places that they may need to expand on.
The information about the areas that the organization may expand on helps in selection of strategies that would work if the organization feels that the areas provide a good market to the organization. Another element that a mission statement needs to have is what the organization in question affects them, or better still, what it can do for them (Larsen, 2002).
Through the products the organization provides, it is important for the organization to know the benefits their products have on the consumers. Such knowledge is also important in strategy management as it helps them to get the right mix of strategies that would make the organization be the best in the product they are offering.
In order to take advantage of the mission statement, a clear-cut method needs to be incorporated in managing the strategic process. For one, any strategy should be devised in such a way that it focuses on the mission the organization seeks to undertake.
The objectives of an organization should also be put in consideration at all times so that it would be easier to determine whether the goals have been reached at or not. It is also easier to make corrections that may need to be made when the organization is in observance of the objectives laid down (Verardo, 1997).
The situation of the business should also be analyzed so that the strengths of the organization can be known and optimized. The weaknesses of the organization should also be analyzed in this stage so as to make sure that adequate ways are used to minimize the effects that they may have that may undermine the mission statement.
The best strategies should also be formulated to ensure that the mission can be spearheaded towards its success. It is also notable that alternative strategies should also be devised at this time to provide a wider scope of the workable strategies (Wallace, 2004).
The strategies should also be swung into action and at the same time, they should be controlled if outcomes are not desirable to the mission that is already laid down by the organization. Since the mission statement keeps on changing, the strategy planning process should be inclined in a way to observe this.
References List
Larsen, N. (2002) Implementing Strategic Learning. Minnesota, American Society for Training and Development.
Moeller, R. R. (2009) Brink’s Modern Internal Auditing: A Common Body of Knowledge. New Jersey, John Wiley and Sons.
Vallabhaneni, D. (2009) What’s Your MBA IQ?: A Manager’s Career Development Tool. New Jersey, John Wiley and Sons.
Verardo, D. (1997) Managing the Strategic Planning Process. Califonia, American Society for Training and Development.
Wallace, L. ( 2004) Libraries, mission & marketing: writing mission statements that work. New York, ALA Editions.