Strategic Tool Kit Mission Vision Statement

Strategic Toolkit: Mission; Vision Statement

Strategic Toolkit: Mission and Vision Statements

Business "toolkits" ideally contain Mission Statements and Vision Statements, along with other tools. While the Mission Statement is a concise declaration of why a business exists, the Vision Statement is a more elaborate assertion of what the business sees, hears and does to achieve the optimum outcome. The Coca-Cola Company's Statements vs. Wal-Mart's Statements reveal wordy, imprecise uses of these tools vs. pointed but hyper-abbreviated applications of the same tools.

Elements of a Good Mission Statement

A Mission Statement is concise, clear and tells why your business exists. According to Kapenda, "if your mission statement can't fit on the back of your business card, then you need to go back to the drawing board" (Kapenda, 2008).

Elements of a Good Vision Statement

A good Vision Statement is supposed to "inform, inspire and energize" ourselves, our coworkers and other stakeholders through a "vivid mental picture of our goal" to which we can return for clarity whenever we get confused about our goals and objectives (Dwyer, n.d.). Consequently, a good Vision Statement might include the following elements: The first paragraph or sentence is a powerful statement giving the gist of the entire vision statement and intended as a trigger for recollection of the entire statement; the statement itself is written in the present tense and sets forth what "we will feel, hear, think, say and do" as though our vision is already attained; it describes our best possible outcome without resorting to numbers; it uses clear and unmistakable language rather than imprecise "business speak"; it speaks in passionate but hard aspects of "what we see, hear and do" from flaccid "feeling" concepts; it creates a unique picture that people will universally imagine (Dwyer, n.d.)

4. Contrast of Coca-Cola vs. Wal-Mart Mission/Vision Statements

Contrasting Coca-Cola's Mission/Vision Statements with those of Wal-Mart show Coca-Cola's poor examples and Wal-Mart's hyper-abbreviated and apparently incomplete use of the Mission/Vision Statement tools.

Coca-Cola's Mission Statement is:

"Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions. To refresh the world...To inspire moments of optimism and happiness...To create value and make a difference" (The Coca-Cola Company, 2010).

By Kapenda's reasonable standards, Coca-Cola's Mission Statement is far too wordy and long, unless the Coca-Cola business card is the size of a 4x6 photo. Furthermore Dwyer's standards for Vision Statements also apply because many companies' names could be placed within Coca-Cola's Mission Statement, which uses generic "business speak," does not distinguish Coca-Cola and has very little genuine meaning.

Coca-Cola's Vision Statement is: