Every company that achieves colossal success has pre-determined corporate visions and missions. Less commonly, they establish a vision and mission only during their growth and sort of tailor it to what they have become. That is the less popular and correct approach.
We can understand a vision as a goal that a company wants to achieve over a longer time horizon and motivates its employees to reach. It is the point where the company wants to get. By contrast, a mission is something like a calling. It is the reason why the company exists on the market, who it is here for and what it offers. All major corporations, such as McDonald’s, IKEA or NIKE, have their visions and missions written in their slogans. Below, you can view examples of the missions and visions of these companies.
MCDONALD’S
“To be the best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that every customer in every restaurant is greeted with a smile.”
NIKE
“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Setting a Vision, Mission and Goal
The mission captures the essence and purpose of a given company. It stems from the business purpose and is unchangeable. The mission answers the question of what we do, for what purpose and for whom.
How to determine our company mission?
We answer several key questions:
- Why are we here?
- What do we want to do?
- What will we get out of it?
- Which target group will we focus on?
- What will this bring to our customers?
- How will we differ from others?
The answers to these questions are absolutely essential when fulfilling our company vision.
Defining a vision is relatively simple. The vision is the goal we strive to fulfil. It is the image of the future we want to shape. It is important to create a clear goal and find the right path to achieve it. The path to fulfilling our vision is just as important as the goal itself. Our vision is visible to us in clear colours. We can see precisely what we are achieving, where we are, and we have this goal planned in detail. It may involve creating a company chain with thousands of employees or becoming the best in a given field. All of this is possible. However, we must expect a very long and thorny path.
How to determine our company vision?
We thoroughly consider these questions:
- What ultimate impact will my brand have on the community or the world?
- How will my brand affect the lives of my customers and clients?
- How will my vision affect the lives of my employees?
Once you begin carefully writing down the answers to these questions, do not be afraid to dream. High goals will motivate you to work harder than mundane ones. Do not be afraid to reveal the uniqueness of your idea, which will differ from the others. It can help you achieve great success and wealth.
When setting a goal, we follow the SMART method. The goal must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Shared Goal
Without a clearly defined vision and mission, a company could not function in the long term. The vision sets all the partial steps to achieve it. A clearly defined organizational vision gives employees a sense of purpose in their work and builds their trust in the company. It is very important that employees’ life values and individual goals align with the company’s values. Only then can a team of people who work efficiently and with a shared interest be formed.
It is important that the company management, which has set its visions and missions, has created a strategy to achieve them. Every company is unique, and its employees who share the same values are equally unique. Management must lead by example for its employees and act according to these values as well. Only then can quality cooperation and satisfaction on both sides emerge.
Innovation Changes Visions
A constantly changing world dictates the direction of new trends, technologies and the mindset of potential customers. Every company must adapt to these changes. This can affect the achievement of a clearly defined vision, which may change as a result of market shifts. Therefore, if a company’s vision remains unchanged for several years, it may raise doubts among customers about the quality of the company and its management.
Target Group
Once a company has determined which product or service it will focus on, the question arises of how it will present itself on the market and how it will get its products to potential customers. Right at the beginning, we should have a defined target group that our company will focus on. The target group is indeed the foundation for achieving planned goals and the business plan. The target group is a designated group of people that we want to appeal to with our product or service. When selecting these customers, we focus on those whose needs we can satisfy with our products or service.
Selecting a Target Group
We have three options to choose from:
- Single target group – especially at the beginning, when we are introducing a new product (service), trying to cover the entire market can be inefficient. Therefore, we focus our attention on a narrow group of people and will try to adapt to them as much as possible. We will try to describe the needs of the target person in as much detail as possible and create a so-called “persona”, a person for whom the product will be intended. For example, if we deal with the production of child car seats, our target group will be couples aged 18 to 45.
- Multiple target groups – if our company specializes in the production of vitamins and healthy nutrition, the circle of our clients will be broader. We will appeal to athletes, supporters of a healthy lifestyle and people with health issues. Our circle will expand. First, we define individual personas separately and then in various combinations. Communication with individual groups will be individual. However, we can reach a larger number of customers by finding ways to address combinations of these groups.
- The entire market – although satisfying the entire market is not simple, many companies have succeeded. Giants that can saturate almost the entire market and whose name is known worldwide. Companies like Google or Coca-Cola have no problem with a wide circle of customers.
How to Care for the Target Group?
Once we have determined our target group, we must nurture this relationship. Always (and this is very important) we must keep in mind that customer satisfaction comes first. A satisfied customer will return to us, recommend us and help build our good reputation. The customer outlines their needs and dictates the direction we will take to satisfy them. And they will gladly pay us for a quality product or service.
Business Strategy
Today’s market in almost all industries is characterized by high competition, rapid technological development and related globalization. Corporations must constantly respond to these factors by identifying their competitive advantages and using them purposefully. The enterprise strategy is important for its overall management. The business strategy is a guideline for drafting partial strategies such as sales, production, technical development, personnel, etc.
When drafting a business strategy, it is important that it brings together all key enterprise personnel who will work as a team. This team must have as much objective market information available as possible so that its outcome is as efficient as possible for the given enterprise. Several methods are used to process the business strategy. The SWOT method is used to analyse the current state, and the strategic map method is used for competitor analysis. Top management personnel are tasked with creating the company strategy, and they submit it for approval to the company’s governing bodies, namely the owners or the supervisory board.
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