How to Draft a Mission Statement

Writing a Mission Statement is a complex activity involving every level of the organization. Here's how to get started.

Difficulty Level: hard Time Required: 90 minutes

Here's How:

1. List the organization's core competencies; its unique strengths and weaknesses.

2. List the organization's primary customers, internal or external, by type, not by name.

3. Review how each customer relates to each of the organization's strengths. Ask them if possible.

4. Write a one-sentence description of each customer/strength pairing.

5. Combine any that are essentially the same.

6. List the sentences in order of importance to the organization's vision, if one exists.

7. Combine the top three to five sentences into a paragraph.

8. Ask your customers if they would want to do business with an organization with that mission.

9. Ask your employees if they understand and support it and can act on it.

10. Ask your suppliers if it makes sense to them.

11. Incorporate the feedback from customers, employees and suppliers and repeat the process.

12. When you have refined the paragraph into statements that clearly articulates the way the company wants to relate to those it effects, publish it to everyone. Post it on the wall, email it to everyone, etc.

Tips:

1. A good mission statement provides strategic vision and direction for the organization and should not have to be revised every few years. Goals and objectives are the short-term measures used to get there.

2. Revise the organization's mission statement when it is no longer appropriate or relevant.

Sample Mission Statementsfor Inspiration

Seeing some sample mission statements will give you an idea of how others have approached this critical task. However, we feel really strongly that two of the most important things about mission statements are that they be your expression about your family business, and that they reflect input from as many relevant sources as possible.

Powerful sample mission statements

PEPSI - "Beat Coke"

HONDA - "We will crush, squash, and slaughter Yamaha"

NIKE - "Crush Reebok"

Older sample mission statements that are quite grandiose in scale

Wal-Mart (1990) "Become a $125 billion company by the year 2000"

Sony (1950's) "Become the company most known for changing the worldwide poor-quality image of Japanese products"

Boeing (1950) "Become the dominant player in commercial aircraft and bring the world into the jet age"

Ford Motor Company (early 1900's) "Ford will democratize the automobile"

One-line sample mission statements

Wal-Mart "To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people."

Mary Kay Cosmetics "To give unlimited opportunity to women."

3M "To solve unsolved problems innovatively"

But notice how these one-line sample mission statements are supported by value statements that show how the mission will be accomplished and measured.

Merck "To preserve and improve human life."

• Corporate social responsibility
• Unequivocal excellence in all aspects of the company
• Science-based innovation
• Honesty & integrity
• Profit, but profit from work that benefits humanity

Walt Disney "To make people happy."

• No cynicism
• Nurturing and promulgation of "wholesome American values"
• Creativity, dreams and imagination
• Fanatical attention to consistency and detail
• Preservation and control of the Disney "magic"

You can find an excellent collection of sample mission statements in The Mission Statement Book, available from Amazon. It shows sample mission statments from 301 American corporations and will be sure to get your creative juices flowing. The best thing we think you will take away from a reading of this book is that you will realize that there are many different ways to approach your mission statement and you should feel free and encouraged to do it your own way. There are no set formulas or rules. Strive for the guidelines we share with you in Preparing A Mission Statement , but let it be your family business' expression!
The Mission Statement Book : 301 Corporate Mission Statements

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