When it comes to the company mission statement we must ask us this question: How can we say in a few words something that important? There are many elements to consider when defining what a business is about. Let’s mention some of these elements.
- The product or service: How can we explain what the company is selling or pretend to sell when the product is not mentioned? The product and service must be defined in function of what it is, and what it does.
- The market - Your target audience:This is explained keeping in mind two aspects: Who the customer is and why they are buying the product or service.
- Investor preferences: Investors may define the economical aspirations or personal interests both related to the company.
- Company preferences: In this point, we must express those values, beliefs or aspirations that will guide our company activity.
- Social contributions the company will seek for: A business should not only concern to satisfy their investor and client needs. It also must concern on making contributions to society.
With these five elements, we can integrate and conclude the final sentence that will represent the reason of being of the company.
On the table below, I show you two examples for each one of the elements shown above, and how we use them to define the company mission statement. To make easy the scenario, the first example refers to a product and the second to a service.
Good or Service |
Television |
Gym |
Purpose |
It provides a visual medium of information and entertainment. |
It helps to keep the health and personal image. |
Market- The target audience |
Men and women between 25 and 70 year old whose income is greater than the minimum wage, and they are looking on a TV information media. |
People between 18 and 30 year old, middle class who is looking to have an attractive image or keeping healthy through exercise. |
Investor preferences |
Becoming leaders in the field by generating enough utilities that allow the healthy development of the company. |
Providing the most modern and complete service to achieve customer preference. |
Company preferences |
The quality of the products will be the reason of our effort, offering a fair service to customers, suppliers and employees.
|
Provide the service with higher professionalism by taking special care on equipment maintenance. |
Contributions to society |
Showing responsibility towards the community. That is why we will generate employment sources, provide support to charity, and our productive processes will not generate toxic waste that may harm the environment. |
Promoting health and exercise in young people, and avoiding water waste through the use of specialized recycle equipment in our facilities. |
Company Mission statement |
Becoming leaders in the field by providing quality televisions to all people between 25 and 70 years old looking for information media. The quality of our products will be the reason of our efforts, offering a fair service either to our customers, suppliers and employees. Moreover, showing responsibility towards the community in which we live by offering employment sources, charity support and productive processes that will not harm the environment. |
Contribute to health care and personal image of people between 18 and 32 years old through a modern service carried out with highest professionalism. We will keep special care to equipment maintenance in which they will find specialized recycling units to avoid water waste. The efforts are oriented to promote health and exercise among young people. |
Now, we can answer our first question. The mission statement is a unique concept to each company. It represents not just the reason of being, but its philosophy, legitimacy and identity. It is the mission statement who distinguishes a business from all others of the same class, and manifest its motivation and own aspirations. Therefore, two companies may share the same objective, but they won’t have the same mission.
As we have shown in the table above, writing the mission statement is not easy. It is complex because we must clearly define the goods or services we are pretending to offer, the markets that we pretend to target, our investor preferences, the company preferences and the social contributions that we pretend to make. Even if it is complex to define the company mission statement, it is also a required activity as we can make sure all elements are together. Summarizing, businesses are influenced by a set of elements that make complex its performance; but having a well defined mission statement will help us not to get lost on the road.
Posted on: Business basics
