The importance of a mission and vision statement.
Your business compass.
Strategic planning is a key function of an organization’s management that helps to set priorities, allocate resources, and ensure that everyone is working towards common goals and objectives. However, for strategic planning to be effective, there are two important tools that are needed – a vision and a mission statements. These serve as a guide for creating objectives and goals in the organization, thus providing a road-map that is to be followed by everyone.
Unfortunately, despite the importance of vision and mission statements, many organizations do not have them. In other cases, the two statements are lumped together as one or used interchangeably despite their distinctive differences. This creates a confusion in the organization that makes it harder to achieve the set objectives and goals.
In this article, we will take a look at both of these statements, the differences between each one of them, and the important roles they play in an organization.
What is a mission statement
A mission statement describes the current state of an organization and its primary goals or objectives. It provides detailed information about what the organization does, how it does it, and who it does it for. Unlike the vision statement, it is short-term in nature. However, it is related to the vision statement in that it outlines the primary goals that will help to achieve the future the organization desires (i.e, the vision).
What is a vision statement
A vision statement is used to describe the future state of the organization, i.e., what the organization hopes to become in the future. It is, therefore, a long-term goal provides direction for the organization. It also communicates the purpose of the organization to the employees and other stakeholders and provides them with the inspiration to achieve that purpose.
Importance of vision and mission statement in an organization
Both the vision and mission statements play an important role in the organization. Below is a look at these roles:
The vision and mission statements define the purpose of the organization and instil a sense of belonging and identity to the employees. This motivates them to work harder in order to achieve success.
The mission statement acts as a “North Star”, where it provides the direction that is to be followed by the organization while the vision statement provides the goal (or the destination) to be reached by following this direction.
The vision and mission statements help to properly align the resources of an organization towards achieving a successful future.
The mission statement provides the organization with a clear and effective guide for making decisions, while the vision statement ensures that all the decision made are properly aligned with what the organization hopes to achieve.
The vision and mission statements provide a focal point that helps to align everyone with the organization, thus ensuring that everyone is working towards a single purpose. This helps to increase efficiency and productivity in the organization.
The vision and mission statements are important tools of strategic planning, and thus they help to shape the strategy that will be used by an organization to achieve the desired future.
Conclusion
The mission and vision statements are very important and they can best be described as a compass and destination of the organization respectively. Therefore, every organization should develop clear vision and mission statements, as not doing so would be like going on a journey without knowing the direction you are to follow or the destination.
