Classic / mission statement, Mohamed Ogbi, Proimpact, Proimpact Marketing Consultancy, Tips / April 3, 2015
Tips for improving your Mission Statement
mission statement should tell the people why you or the company exist and what you want other to see or to achieve through you.
I think the mission statement should tell the people why you or the company exist and what you want other to see or to achieve through you by stating your purpose, principals and beliefs.
In my opinion mission statement should include these characteristics:
- Memorable
- Short (easy to remember and to relate to the business)
- Inspiring
- Market focused (who we are and what are our values)
- It is about something to be remembered or noticed for. (Tag line or brand) the brand and the tag line is usually what the customer first see. The brand gives the customer a direct stare at the company and its staff and leaves an impression on clients, employees every time they see it.
- It might be different from business; non-profit or even personal the statement should be brief and clear.
- (Find the one thing that you are passionate about and you are better than others in doing it) have a clear goal to be the best in it.
- Operative ( it needs to be able to drive initiatives, drive allocation of resources for both human and capital resources)
- Define what you do and what you don’t
Some companies or and organizations believe that it is important to give the employees a direction which helps them reach their goals and something to focus and align with. In my research, I describe and criticize three mission statements.
Tüv Rheinland
Consumers:
Business:
- Construction or and real estate consulting and information.
- Security, education and personal management
- Systems and materials testing and inspection
- Occupational safety and health, plants and machinery product testing ( vehicles and traffic)
Private customers:
- Training – Schools – Academic – Education
Mission statement of the company:
- Responsibility : “ We make life safer”
- Mission : “ We make our clients more successful”
- “ Our goal is to be the world’s best independent provider of technical services for testing, inspection, certification, consultation and training
- Employees : “ Our employees are our strength “
Tüv has a good mission statement. It serves the staff and the employees on the same direction. It is about helping the clients and being the best, but still not noticeable or something that you remember the company for as a client. Even the tag line is given an impression that the employees have to be sure and check the smallest details and being precise. On the other hand the company values keep the company on track in gaining the top performance from employees such as:
Our values, our culture.
Our reputation and the confidence clients have in our business are the prerequisites for our success. Competence, reliability, incorruptibility, independence and openness are the values which define our work. Our corporate culture is open and respectful. Every employee shares our corporate values and acts as a member of the global Tüv Rheinland family. We work across organizational and national boundaries, both for the benefit of our clients and sustainable, profitable growth of Tüv Rheinland.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington that develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing. The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is the world’s largest software maker measured by revenues. It is also one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Customers:
Business and private clients
Microsoft mission statement:
Microsoft had changed its mission statement many times before, but the last one they have is
“At Microsoft, our mission and values are to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential
It is a nice phrase but sounds more like a vision statement. It does not seem to be quantifiable which makes it more as a vision. By doing some research on the internet and listening to some Microsoft staff and managers, I do believe that they meant to write it as a vision on purpose, but it is still not clear to me the reason behind it. On the same page, you find that the values are closer in the meaning to the mission statement.
“As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect. We are committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality.”
The tagline of the company is interesting because it makes you think for a moment about what is next,, so you think in the future and how to be the first to get there which makes it inspiring for everyone reads it. I notice also the different logos for the company and for each product they make which gives independence and a motive for each group who works on different product.
Caterpillar
Caterpillar INC is a corporation based in the United States the company known also as “CAT”. The company manufactures designs, sells and markets machinery, engines and sells financial products, insurance to clients from all over the world. Caterpillar is the world’s largest supplier and manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. It was the number one in its industry and the number 44 overall in 2009 according to Fortune 500.
Caterpillar offers its services for both private and business consumers.
Mission statement
The mission statement was direct and easy to find directly from their website:
“Our mission is to enable economic growth through infrastructure and energy development, and to provide solutions that protect people and preserve the planet.”
The mission included growth, development, purpose, solution and social responsibility for the planet and society which makes is very mature, but it took me a while to understand it and it easy to forget because it’s complicated. I don’t think that the employees could remember their company’s mission .the mission should have been short, simple and clear to the ears and eyes to catch it immediately .on the other hand the company has a strategy which motivates the staff and employees to achieve. This plus the job opportunities and business growth by sustainable development give more advantages to the company in keeping on the top of the construction industry which will give more focused on certain goals by certain methods .
Caterpillar strategic plan:
2020 Goals for Operations
- Design all new construction to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or comparable green building criteria
- Eliminate waste by reducing waste generation and reusing or recycling all that remains
- Hold water consumption flat
- Use alternative / renewable sources to meet 20% of our energy needs
- Reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions from existing facilities by 25%
- Increase energy efficiency by 25%
- Reduce recordable workplace injury rates to 0.6 and lost-time case rate due to injury to 0.15
2020 Goals for Products, Services and Solutions
- Increase customer materials efficiency by 20%
- Increase customer energy efficiency by 20%
- Reduce customer greenhouse gas emissions by 20%
- Provide leadership in the safety of people in, on and around our products
Dr. Albert Schweitzer winner of the noble peace price said, “We become what we think about” the strategy and motivation could replace the mission statement for a company or even a government, for example, when President John F. Kennedy’s May 25, 1961 Speech after the Russian succeeded to circle around the moon and to come back to the ground safely which motivated the Americans later to announce that, in the next ten years, they will send a man to the moon and bring him back safely. This was a challenge to scientists in NASA, but they had a plan and time schedule and the motivated staff to get the job done. Finally, they achieved their goal in July 20, 1969, when the first man stepped onto the Moon’s surface.
Also we recognise that caterpillar had separated its goals, goals for operations and the others for products and services which I find it very smart to do because they are not in the same direction this provides an opportunity to employees and research teams inside the company to split and share the work in different directions,
