The effects of mission, vision, values and strategy on company operation

 

How can a company prepare for and react to changes in the market?

Understanding the environment is essential from the external point of view, to better prepare for operational business. However, understanding what it is exactly that the company does, how it’s going to do it, and where do they want to be in the future are questions that can make or break the company.

 

Company strategy planning requires you at some point to answer the question of “what is your mission and vision?” The two serve the purpose of acquiring the result you intend to obtain. So, what’s the difference, and is there a difference? Bringing meaning to these definitions assist companies to build a strategy that will answer the demand of the everchanging market.

 

In this writing, we will go through the basic concepts of mission and vision and bring examples for them. Then we will look at the influence that the market demand has on a company, the effects of the changes in the market that can lead a company to bankruptcy or to a path of success. Understanding these concepts aid us to better prepare for the future and react to changes accordingly. 

 

How do mission and vision affect a company?

The mission is a statement that answers three simple questions:

1. What do you do?

2. For whom do you do it?

 3. What’s the benefit? Answering these questions in a statement you explain the overall purpose of the organization.

 

 A mission statement describes the organization's purpose and its overall intention. Basically, in that statement, we describe the very reason the company exists. The mission statement is to support the vision of the company. It clarifies and communicates the company’s purpose to customers, staff stakeholders, and other vendors. To further assist in building your own mission statement I offer two questions to consider: What is our organization's purpose? and Why does our organization exist?

  

Then the mission already explains everything so, why do we need a vision?

The two definitions clearly walk hand in hand and are ambiguous to understand. Vision gives you an explanation of how the company wants its future to look like. If everything goes as planned, what will the future be like?  vision is an image of the ideal state the organization wants in the future to be in. The picture is to be inspirational and should challenge employees.

Here are some questions to consider when building your own vision and they are:

What problems are we seeking to solve?

Where are we heading?

 If we achieved all strategic goals, what would we look like in 10 years from now?

Hence there is a difference in these two statements, and they are built to support each other

 

 

How does the changing market influence a company’s mission and vision? 

Declaring your mission and vision entail that you have clearly defined your core values. Then the decisions that are made should be in line with these statements. But what if the market changes? When to modify or fix these statements? Every organization has to wrestle with these questions. business environmental changes are constant; hence organizations should constantly change and adapt to new situations. However, these changes do not include undying core values, which should never stop changing our operating practices and cultural norms

 

They are not carved in stone. As your company grows and the field you operating in changes, your mission and vision should change as well. Reviewing the two statements is always a good idea. The philosophy of a company might change completely due to internal changes like the change of the CEO or VP. External factors that might impact to start of a change are for example economic, social or political changes.

 

What strategies can a company use to remain successful?

Well now we have our mission and vision, we´ve clearly identified our values and core abilities. What’s next? The next step is to align a set of actions or tactics with parts of our mission to achieve them, this is called strategy. A strategy is a long-term plan of action that is created to obtain desired future that is envisioned in the company’s mission and vision. One way to start the process is to identify strengths and weaknesses in the context of the environment. SWAT analysis is one tool to be considered where threats and opportunities are taken into consideration. Another tool is PESTEL analysis which assists in identifying the broader environment, taking into consideration social and political factors as well. Using these tools and identifying the environment gives the ability to choose the right strategies of decision.

For a company to stay competitive, it must produce and implement a steadfast strategy. For example, Amazon has been successful for years and its success continues to thrive. Amazon's strategy is tightly tied to its vision. A strategy is good when all the hypotheses that are made during its formation are based on facts that have been validated. These strategies will assist in investment planning, resource optimizations, project prioritizing, and other activities.

After identifying mission and vision, we have the outline of operation for all levels of the company. Creating the strategy, we must remember that different levels of the company operate with different tools, hence there is always a need for multiply strategies. Typically, three levels are identified and they are:

1. Corporate level strategy, where the strategy is long-range and action-orientated, this type is framed by the top management.

 2. Business level strategy, is established by the general managers to convert mission and vision into tangible strategies.

3. Functional level strategies are developed by first-line management, this type includes decisions at the operational level like production, human resource, research and finance

My Conclusion

Companies work in an ever-growing competitive environment. To stay in business, internal factors such as mission, vision, values, core abilities, and strategies must be clarified in a targeted and focused manner. External factors must be clearly described, and all assumptions made have to be based on validated research. Internal and external factors give the basis for future decision making; hence they are to support each other