The Mission Statement
The vision statement and mission statement are often confused, and many companies use the terms interchangeably. However, they each have a different purpose. The vision statement describes where the organization wants to be in the future; the mission statement describes what the organization needs to do now to achieve the vision.
The vision and mission statements must support each other, but the mission statement is more specific. It defines how the organization will be different from other organizations in its industry. Here are examples of mission statements from successful businesses:
- Life is Good: To spread the power of optimism
- Patagonia: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis
- Invisible Children: To end violence and exploitation facing our world’s most isolated and vulnerable communities
- Honest Tea: To create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages
- Jet Blue Airways: To inspire humanity–both in the air and on the ground
- Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy[2]
Notice that each of these examples indicates where the organization will compete (what industry it is in) and how it will compete (what it will do to be different from other organizations). The mission statement conveys to stakeholders why the organization exists. It explains how it creates value for the market or the larger community.
Because it is more specific, the mission statement is more actionable than the vision statement. The mission statement leads to strategic goals. Strategic goals are the broad goals the organization will try to achieve. By describing why the organization exists, and where and how it will compete, the mission statement allows leaders to define a coherent set of goals that fit together to support the mission.
they are intended to guide decisions and behaviors to achieve common ends.