Do Your Employees Know What Your Mission Statement Is?
Every business needs a mission statement, to serve as a blueprint for business planning and decision-making. A mission statement that clearly states the business’ purpose and goals will inspire your people to pull together as a team to accomplish that purpose, and will give management and stakeholders a means of measuring its success.
A well-crafted mission statement clearly defines the purpose for which the company, organization or enterprise was founded, sets out its goals, and sets the path for a course of action to achieve that vision. Your company’s mission statement will answer the question, “Why are we in business?” Before you can write your mission statement, you must answer the following questions:
- Why does the company exist?
- Who do we serve?
- What is our purpose?
- What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
- With our expertise and resources, are we in the right business? If not, what business should we be in?
- What is important to us?
- What do we stand for?
- What are our core values?
When you’ve answered those questions, you’ll be ready to put together your organization’s mission statement. The 3 steps to writing the mission statement are:
- Describe what the company does.
- Describe how it does what it does.
- Describe why the company does what it does.
For instance, if your company manufactures and imports hand-woven baskets, mats and similar products, your mission statement could be:
XYC Company’s mission is to manufacture and import the best quality hand-woven grass products using environmentally safe and sustainable methods, while promoting local business opportunities for the people of [Country].
Once the mission statement has been finalized, make sure that everyone in the organization knows it by heart. It should be the driving force behind everything the company and its employees, management and stakeholders do.
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