3.9. In Conclusion – Mission, Vision, Values

Apart from strategic planning (corporate, business, functional) your company can also formulate its mission and vision, which are also at the peak of the strategic hierarchy.

Formulating your company’s mission statement means articulating your company’s purpose for existing and operating within a given market. (Barney, 2002, Grant 2010) – it is the answer to the question, why does the company exist? The mission can also be expanded to include the company’s core values which it plans on abiding by.  

The company’s vision, on the other hand, involves articulating the company’s long-term plans (going beyond the company’s current strategic horizon) (Grant, 2010).

The company’s mission, values, and possibly vision should only be formulated by small and medium-sized business if they really have strong and distinct values that could benefit from being articulated in this way (Saloner, Shepard, Podolny, 2001).

A well-formulated and solid mission statement can have the following advantages for your company:

• Facing outwards (customers, partners, suppliers, the public etc.) and inwards of the company (management, employees), it can promote positive company perception, company loyalty, perceiving the company as a brand etc.

• It can support your company’s strategic integrity and unity - facing inwards to employees and managers as well as outwards.

An example of a well-formulated mission statement for a small or medium-sized business with clearly expressed strategic values

Expediency, trust, knowledge and efficiency, and their application in external and internal processes are our main goal in order to build stable, long-term relationships with our customers. We create fair, strategic and mutually beneficial relationships with our partners by focusing our efforts on being reliable and accessible, making our customers’ needs our own, and selling high-quality products or services.