Vision Mission, Objectives

VISION, MISSION, OBJECTIVES

The Vision, Mission and Objectives are sets of statements answering the question "Where do we want to be ?"

Vision

A vision is an ideal state or condition which an organization wants to attain. It should not be too idealized, however, as to lose all meaning. A vision is an end scenario that could be achieved after successive stages of intermediate scenarios. A vision is an ideal state of the enterprise's future being - a lucid imagery of the ultimate success of the enterprise. It is a compelling, conceptual picture of the desired future. It is better to describe and picture the vision in vivid terms.

A vision statement should be clear and easily understood, appropriate and ambitious. It should orient the group's energies and serve as a guide to action.
The vision becomes a focal point for everyone in the enterprise. While in most cases, the enterprise vision is set by the owners, great visions are conceived through sharing between the enterprise owners, management and all levels in the organization. By sharing the vision, it establishes commitment to the over-all vision by employees at all levels.

The Process for Creating a Vision

Like much of strategic planning, creating a vision begins with and relies heavily on intuition and dreaming.As part of the process, you may brainstorm with your staff or your board what you would like to accomplish in the future. Talk about and write down the values that you share in pursuing that vision. Different ideas do not have to be a problem. People can spur each other on to more daring and valuable dreams and visions -- dreams of changing the environment that they are willing to work hard for.The vision may evolve through a strategic planning process. Or, it may be formed in one person's head in the shower one morning! a serendipity. The important point is that members of an organization without a vision may toil, but they cannot possibly be creative in finding new and better ways to get closer to a vision without that vision formally in place. Enterprises, with many of their staff and board members actively looking for ways to achieve a vision, have a powerful competitive and strategic advantage over organizations that operate without one.

When developing a vision statement, keep in mind of the following:

Brief and memorable
Inspiring and challenging
Descriptive of the ideal
Appealing to employees, customers and owners
Idealistic
Enduring

In addition, a vision statement should answer the following questions:

What does the enterprise want, what are its aspirations ?
How does the enterprise wish to be known by customers. employees and the community surrounding it.
How will the enterprise enhance or improve the quality of life for those who patronize its products and/or services

Perceptions of Ideal Futures: An Exercise in Forming Vision
This section outlines an exercise you may employ to assist your organization indefining its own vision. By using this exercise to develop your organizational vision, you may be better assured that the vision statement that is developed is a shared vision.

At a retreat or at a board meeting or staff meeting or even when enjoying a company outing at the beach, take an hour to explore your vision. Breaking into small groups helps increase participation and generate creativity. Agree on a rough time frame, say five to ten years. Ask people to think about the following questions:
How do you want your customers, community, province, country to be different ?What role do you want your enterprise to play in these environments ? What will success look like?Then ask each group to come up with a metaphor for your organization, and todraw a picture of success: "Our company is like ... a caterpillar with synchronized pods or feet movement with the head setting the direction and the feet contribute to the successful forward movement to destination". or " a train with comfortably-seated passengers and cargo, speedily and smoothly traveling over rails with its powerful engine pulling the carriages to its destination". The value of metaphors is that people get to stretch their minds and experiment with different ways of thinking about what success means to them. Finally, have all the groups share their pictures of success with each other. One person should facilitate the discussion and help the group discuss what they mean and what they hope for. Look for areas of agreement, as well as different ideas that emerge. The goal is to find language and imagery that your organization's members can relate to as their vision for success.

Some of the examples of vision statements are as follows:

" Schmitz Transportation Corporation is the most dominant and transport service provider company operating in Cavite and Laguna areas providing the safest, most prompt and quality service"
"RSBI is the number one publisher of educational materials in the country in all educational levels, namely the basic education in both private and public schools, the tertiary education; the post collegiate level initially represented by the School of Law"
"NFG is the leading manufacturer and distributor of high quality garments, setting the trend and providing the benchmark of quality garments in the Philippines"


Mission Statement

A mission statement is the general thrust of the organization that is anchored on its vision. It is the primal motivation of the organization, its very reason for existence. It must be broad enough to inspire everybody in the organization but narrow enough to focus its efforts. A mission statement is a brief, comprehensive statement of purpose of an enterprise. The mission statement identifies what, and for whom, the enterprise do.
The mission statement is an invaluable tool in directing, planning and implementing enterprise efforts. The mission describes customers and products or services. The mission is a part of the organization’s identity, is all encompassing and rarely changes, and is the ultimate rationale for the existence of the enterprise.
When writing a mission statement, consideration should be given to these questions:

Who are we?
What do we do?
For whom do we do it?
Why do we do it?

In many cases, mission statements speak about the enterprise's purposes concerning its products, customers or clients, its employees and its owners.

Mission Statement Criteria

A good mission statement will:
Identify the overall purpose for the existence of the enterprise as established in its corporate papers.
Identify the basic needs or distinct problems that the enterprise is designed to address.
Identify clients, customers or users ( both internal and external) of the enterprise.
Help identify client, customer and stakeholder expectations, requirements, services and products provided to meet these requirements, and processes and resources used to satisfy the requirements.
Lead to the development of performance measures that reflect customer and stakeholder requirements.

Defining the Mission

To facilitate the development, review or revision of an enterprise mission, use the following process:1. Identify the original purpose for the enterprise.
Why does the enterprise exist ? What problems were to be addressed by the enterprise ?
What functions, products or services are, or should be, provided?
2. Reflect the customer and stakeholder base in the statement.
Use the customer identification completed during the SWOT.
3. Identify current needs or distinct problems.
How do current expectations differ from the original purpose of the enterprise ? What are the primary needs or problems that have to be addressed?
4. Review and revise existing mission statements and draft new statements as appropriate.
Are enterprise program and subprogram missions clearly understood by employees and customers.?

Examples of Mission Statements:

"To provide the business community the availability of computer software needed using the most advanced and appropriate technology at highly competitive costs."
"To provide the best benefit package to the employees and considering them as part owners of the company."
"To provide the stockholders the highest returns on investments and regularly allow them to receive dividends"
"We profit most by giving the service that is best"

Objectives

The development of objectives completes the "Where do we want to be ?" part of the strategic planning process. Objectives are measurable end results that derive their impetus from the mission statements. In contrast to the vision, mission or goals, objectives are specific, time bound and measurable. Strategic planners have developed an acronym (SMART) for easy description of objectives- thus

Specific : Objectives should reflect specific accomplishments that are desired, not ways to accomplish them. Objectives should generate specific strategies or actions and be detailed enough to be understandable and give clear directions to others.

Measurable: Objectives must be measurable to determine when they have been accomplished. Accountability should be built into the planning process. A method for measuring an objective must be in place before work is actually began.

Aggressive and Attainable: If objectives are to be the standards for achievement, they should be challenging, but should be realistically achievable.

Result-Oriented: Objectives should specify a result. This is where the performance indicators are required. Results could either be quantifiable or descriptive

Time-Bound: Objectives must be attained over a specific period of time. Generally, objectives are more manageable by tying it down to budgets and fiscal calendars.

For many enterprises, the objectives are in the areas of profitability, enterprise growth in terms of number asset size, number of outlets/offices, market share and product diversification. The detailed description of objectives a more defined in this workbook section on "Key Result Areas and Performance Indicators".

Examples:

Objectives that are not "SMART"
To increase sales
To increase company assets
To increase market share

Objectives that are "SMART"
To increase sales by 10% annually in the next 5 years
To add sales outlets by 50 every year until 2008
To capture 80% market share in Metro Manila by the year 2007