Core Purpose
The core purpose is the reason that the firm exists. This core purpose is expressed in a carefully formulated mission statement. Like the core values, the core purpose is relatively unchanging and for many firms endures for decades or even centuries. This purpose sets the firm apart from other firms in its industry and sets the direction in which the firm will proceed.
The core purpose is an idealistic reason for being. While firms exist to earn a profit, the profit motive should not be highlighted in the mission statement since it provides little direction to the firm's employees. What is more important is how the firm will earn its profit since the "how" is what defines the firm.
Initial attempts at stating a core purpose often result in too specific of a statement that focuses on a product or service. To isolate the core purpose, it is useful to ask "why" in response to first-pass, product-oriented mission statements. For example, if a market research firm initially states that its purpose is to provide market research data to its customers, asking "why" leads to the fact that the data is to help customers better understand their markets. Continuing to ask "why" may lead to the revelation that the firm’s core purpose is to assist its clients in reaching their objectives by helping them to better understand their markets.
The core purpose and values of the firm are not selected - they are discovered. The stated ideology should not be a goal or aspiration but rather, it should portray the firm as it really is. Any attempt to state a value that is not already held by the firm's employees is likely to not be taken seriously.
Visionary Goals
The visionary goals are the lofty objectives that the firm's management decides to pursue. This vision describes some milestone that the firm will reach in the future and may require a decade or more to achieve. In contrast to the core ideology that the firm discovers, visionary goals are selected.
These visionary goals are longer term and more challenging than strategic or tactical goals. There may be only a 50% chance of realizing the vision, but the firm must believe that it can do so. Collins and Porras describe these lofty objectives as "Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals." These goals should be challenging enough so that people nearly gasp when they learn of them and realize the effort that will be required to reach them.
Most visionary goals fall into one of the following categories:
• Target - quantitative or qualitative goals such as a sales target or Ford's goal to "democratize the automobile".
• Common enemy - centered on overtaking a specific firm such as the 1950's goal of Philip-Morris to displace RJR.
• Role model - to become like another firm in a different industry or market. For example, a cycling accessories firm might strive to become "the Nike of the cycling industry."
• Internal transformation - especially appropriate for very large corporations. For example, GE set the goal of becoming number one or number two in every market it serves.
The most successful company missions are measurable, definable, and actionable project statements with emotional appeal that everyone knows and can act upon. For example, a mission to "be the best health-care provider in the world" for a multi-national HMO organization sounds good. But a simple mission statement from Honda — "beat GM!" — is better because it's a project statement that can be measured every day by every employee. Mission statements can also affect company strategies and tactics. If Honda Motors were to change its mission to "Beat Toyota," different strategies would be called for, along with different geographic tactics in sales, advertising, and distribution of cars.
How important is it to define your company's mission?
Consider a famous U.S. refrigerator manufacturer whose sales were growing only at the rate of new home-building during the 1950s. They undertook a years-long project to define whether they were in the business of building refrigerators to preserve food or in the business of food preservation. They decided they were in the business of food preservation, which got them eventually into new product and business areas such as artificial atmospheres (e.g. nitrogen for fresh fruit preservation, freeze-drying technologies) and increased their sales from hundreds of millions of dollars to several billion dollars by the 1980s.
Creating a workable company mission.
A
"call-to-action" mission statement provides key attributes
that are often missing in other company mission statements:
• it elicits an emotional, motivational response in company employees
• it is easily understood and can be transferred into individual action every day
• it is a measurable, tangible goal
• it is firmly rooted in the competitive environment in which the company operates
A company's mission statement is also influenced by:
• company history and traditions
• management preferences
• distinctive competencies of the company
• company resources
• competitive strengths and weaknesses
Mission statements can be difficult to write. Companies spend months and years attempting to clearly define the best mission statement for current circumstances. Companies that have a clear "vision," and management that can articulate it and communicate it to all employees, have the basis for a call-to-action mission statement.
A good mission statement provides vision and direction for the company for at least 10 to 20 years and should not have to be revised every few years with changes in the company's environment. But the company mission statement must be revised if it is no longer appropriate or has lost significance or relevance.
Enlarge the sentences below using ideas from the text or your own.
Core ideals provide guidance in strategic decision-making.
The mission statement communicates the firm’s core ideology and visionary goals.
Core values are viewed as an asset.
The profit motive should not be highlighted in the mission statement.
Asking “why” may lead to the revelation of the firm’s purpose.
Paraphrase the statements using your own words.
The visionary goals are the lofty objectives that the firm’s management decides to pursue.
The visionary goals should be challenging.
The most successful company missions are measurable, definable, and actionable project statements with emotional appeal that everyone knows and can act upon.
A mission statement is firmly rooted in the competitive environment.
Company missions can be measured every day by everyone.
Research high-profile, successful organizations and consider how well their mission statement matches the public perception of them and reflects their business philosophy.
American Express
Honda
Nescafé
Ford Motor Company
General Electric Company
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Levi Strauss and Co
Nike
Microsoft Corporation
Nokia
Lancôme
Here are ten questions you should answer before formulating your mission statement:
1. What problem(s) do you solve? What need(s) do you fulfill? 2. What do you sell? How do you make your money? What is your revenue model? 3. How are you unique from everyone else out there? What is your unique selling proposition? 4. Who will you sell to? What is your target market? 5. What are your economic/financial goals? 6. What are your social/community goals? 7. What type of company do you want to create? Are you a lifestyle or high potential company? 8. Where is the company going? What products/services/industries do you plan to venture into? 9. What is your five-year strategy? Do you want to sell internationally, build an online store, franchise your business, build certain partnerships, develop additional products? 10. Do you ever plan on selling the company or going public? What is your exit strategy?
Explain in your own words what core purpose, core values and visionary goals are.
Study Kettleby Food's mission statement, evaluate it and express your point of view
To provide our customers with a range of finest quality ready meals, through commitment to innovation, service and value, in a mutually profitable relationship.
We will achieve this within a business culture of dignity and respect for our employees, facilities and long term partnerships with our suppliers.
The development of our staff will be critical to our success. Every opportunity will be taken to create an understanding of food and to maximise each individual's potential within the business.
NB! However, the existence of a mission statement does not necessarily lead to a healthy and successful business. Businesses that have mission statements will say something along the lines of a commitment to its people, its customers and to seeking to improve quality or its commitment to the environment and so on. You will be unlikely to see a mission statement that says:
'We want to make as much money as possible and are going to screw our workers and our suppliers into the ground, and charge our customers, who we think are mainly low life chavs as much as we can get away with, so that we make as much profit as we can. Oh and by the way, we don't give two figs for the environment, as far as we are concerned any problems with acid rain or global warming will be happening long after we are dead and buried.'
Translate from Russian into English:
Бизнес-философия – это система идей о значении и роли бизнеса, попытка дать ответы на вопросы: что такое бизнес и для чего он нужен.
Некоторые считают, что бизнес – это получение прибыли для акционеров компании.
Конечно, бизнес – это всегда риск, но и наилучший способ реализации своих способностей и возможностей.
Государство должно регулировать бизнес, поскольку он может нанести вред окружающей среде.
Деловые «идеалы», формирующие бизнес-видение, отражаются в миссии компании.
Бизнес-идеология базируется на основных ценностях и цели компании и остается относительно неизменной, хотя ее формулировка может со временем меняться.
Превосходное обслуживание, передовая технология, творчество, честность, социальная ответственность могут быть выбраны в качестве основных ценностей фирмы.
Основная цель – это идеалистическая причина существования бизнеса.
Именно основная цель дифференцирует компании, работающие в одной сфере, и определяет индивидуальное направление развития компании.
Идеология должна отражать, что на самом деле представляет собой компания.
Концептуальные цели более долгосрочны, чем стратегические или тактические цели, к тому же, они сильнее побуждают к действиям.
GRAMMAR
1. Complete the responses to the following statements explaining what must have been/should have been/might have been/needn't have been/would have been/could have been done in the following situations, using the verb in brackets. The first one has been done for you.
1. We haven't received an acknowledgement for our order yet.
I apologise. The order ………………………. (acknowledge) by 30 June.
I apologise. The order should have been acknowledged by 30 June.
2. We haven't received an invoice yet.
I'm sorry. You …………………… (invoice) at the end of the month.
3. We couldn't lease the company cars last year.
But the regulations have changed and …………………(lease) this year.
4. I have checked this bill and we have definitely paid too much.
Yes, there's been a mistake and you ………………….(over-charge).
5. We thought we had to pay in advance.
Not at all, the bill ……………………….(pay) in advance.
6. We paid the invoice by credit card.
You should have seen in our payment conditions that it …………………(pay) by cheque.
7. I can't find any record of your order.
So do you think the order ……………….. (cancel)?
8. I don't understand why we have received this delivery.
It's very simple. An order ………………….. (place) by someone in your organisation.
9. We didn't receive the discount you offered.
To receive the discount, the goods ………………….. (re-order) within 30 days.
2. Add articles, where necessary, in the following business quotes.
1. International business may conduct its operations with scraps of paper, but ink it uses is human blood. (Eric Ambler, b. 1909, British novelist).
2. Executives are like joggers. If you stop jogger, he goes on running on spot. If you drag executive away from his business, he goes on running on spot, pawing ground, talking business. (Jean Baudrillard, b. 1929, French semiologist).
3. Corporation. Ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. (Ambrose Bierce, 1842-1914, US author).
4. It is interest of commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere. (Edmund Burke, 1729-97, Irish philosopher and statesman).
5. Client is to me mere unit, factor in problem. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930, English author).
6. It is very vulgar to talk about one's business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and then merely at dinner parties. (Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Anglo-Irish playwright and author).
7. What's good for country is good for General Motors, and vice versa. (Charles Wilson, 1890-1961, US industrialist, Secretary of Defense).
3. Each of the following sentences contains a mistake. Identify the mistakes and correct them.
1. I always read the Financial Times while am having my breakfast.
2. I especially study it for find the details of the share prices.
3. I like to find out how are doing my shares.
4. Recently I decided to sell some shares because of they were performing badly.
5. When I had known that they would recover, I wouldn't have sold them.
6. I used the money to invest in a Rotarongan company who promised a good return.
7. Although that the company literature said it was a safe investment, it went bankrupt.
8. After to lose my money there, I chose a more established company.
9. How they say, a fool and his money are soon parted.
10. To resume, it was a bitter experience which taught me an unforgettable lesson.