Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Steve,

A vision statement is where the company wants to go. It usually relates to a measure and a time frame - like "we want to be a $10 billion breakfast food company by the turn of the next decade." Or it could be less concrete - like, "We want to be the biggest and best TV station in New Jersey."

The mission statement is what you want your service or product to be as seen from the customer's point of view. It's what your customers derive from your product or service. It's not "breakfast food" or "TV Station" - you want to be a "the first source of enjoyable nutrition in the morning," or "The beginning of a satisfying, healthy, and productive day for families." Or for the TV Station, "The prime source of information and entertainment for the community." The mission statement includes the 1) functional and emotional benefits derived that the 2) target customer derives from the product or service.

Many companies do a very bad job of these statements in that they are very long and convoluted. Vision and mission statements should be simple and easy to remember/relate to. They communicate to the customers and employees the culture of the company. If they are long, no one will understand them or remember them.

Yes, there are numerous examples of vision and mission statements on the web. Just about every corporate website has them. Just google "company vision and mission" and a hundred of them will come up.

https://www.telesoft.com/corporate/mission
https://www.swagelok.com/careers/vision_mission_values.htm
https://www.eei.com.ph/vision_mission.php

I hope this helps.

Wayde