Does your Mission Statement help you stand out from the crowd?
A well-crafted mission statement is a critical starting point in every business’ infrastructure. It gives vision and articulates what your business aims and objectives are. Entrepreneur.com suggests a mission statement defines what an organisation is, why it exists, and its reason for being.
At a minimum, your mission statement should define who your primary customers are, identify the products and services you produce, and describe the geographical location in which you operate.
If your mission statement sounds a bit like this: “We aim to exceed the expectations of our customers, inspire and reward our employees, and provide financial results to our investors”, the generic nature of the wording could actually be alienating potential customers and other stakeholders of your company. Although it does fit the bill of being brief in form and comprehensive in scope the wording provides no clear idea to the direction of the company.
Here are two examples which hit the mark in regards to the four key components of a Mission Statement:
'eBay Inc. pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity. eBay brings together millions of people every day on a local, national and international basis through an array of websites that focus on commerce, payments and communications.'
'Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Our groundbreaking work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has seen survival rates double in the last 40 years.'
It is inevitable that your company aims and goals will evolve, if and when this does start to occur you should revisit your Mission Statement as you don’t want to miss out on the inherent power of a good mission statement.
Go and check the ‘About Us’ on your website now and see if your Mission Statement is cutting the mustard…
A mission statement is just one step towards building a great company culture. Managing your employees performance is another key step, so why not take a look at how breatheHR handles performance management and download our free e-book about building high performance teams.