A vision statement expresses what a firm's founders want the business to accomplish. It gives a broad account of the organization's purpose and guiding values. A vision is often concise and does not need to identify a specific product or service.
Because a vision focuses on the firm's broad purpose, it does not describe the strategy the firm will use. For example, a statement about helping people achieve their potential expresses an aspiration, but by itself it does not specify what the company sells or which customers it serves.
All flashcards
What is a vision statement?
A broad expression of what a business exists to accomplish and what its founders want it to achieve. It need not name a product or service.
What is a mission statement?
A statement that takes the purpose expressed by the vision and broadly describes how the firm will pursue it, often by identifying its offerings or target markets.
How do vision and mission differ?
Vision focuses on the firm's broad purpose and aspiration; mission gives a more specific, though still broad, indication of how the firm will pursue that purpose.
Why are vision and mission not complete strategies?
They establish purpose and broad direction, but they do not set out all the specific choices and actions required to compete.
Why are vision and mission useful at the beginning of strategic planning?
A firm needs to know what it wants to accomplish and the broad way it intends to pursue that aim before it can develop a purposeful strategy.
Quiz questions
What most clearly distinguishes a mission statement from a vision statement?Answer: It broadly indicates how the firm will pursue its purpose.
Which information might a firm's mission statement identify?Answer: The products or services it plans to offer, or the markets it plans to serve.
Why are vision and mission statements not complete strategies?Answer: They give purpose and broad direction, not every specific choice and action needed to compete.
When deciding whether a statement is vision-like or mission-like, what should a reader examine?Answer: Whether it expresses an aspiration alone or also indicates how the firm will pursue it.
How do vision and mission statements contribute to strategic planning?Answer: Together, they clarify the firm's purpose and broad direction for developing strategy.
Based on Principles of Management by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, Eva Hartmann, K. Praveen Parboteeah, Jon L. Pierce, Monique Reece, Amit Shah, Siri Terjesen, Joseph Weiss, Margaret A. White, Donald G. Gardner, Jason Lambert et al. (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.