In this post, we will discover what a mission statement is, why it’s important to have one, and how you can write your own in four easy steps.
While businesses need to solve problems and address people’s needs in order to thrive, it can sometimes be difficult for companies to know how to do what they do. Often the answer to how depends on the why — which is why the most successful companies spend a lot of time thinking about their mission statements.
Is your mission to go international?
In our guide “Mission: International Business”, we will show you helpful tips on how to overcome challenges when entering new markets. Download it now for free!
What is a mission statement?
In simplest terms, a mission statement is a crucial part of the business plan which explains what a company does and what it hopes to achieve. In that sense, a mission statement focuses on what a company is doing in the present, as opposed to a vision statement, which is an aspiration view of what the company will achieve in the future.
Done correctly, it can be a great marketing tool that attracts both talent and like-minded customers. On the other hand, an unclear or non-existent mission statement can lead to companies losing valuable time, resources, and customers to the competition.
Writing a mission statement in 4 easy steps
There is no one formula for how to write a mission statement. However, there are four easy steps that any business can use to begin writing a statement that communicates their sense of purpose.
1. Gather information
An established business may have a mission statement they’ve been using for years, whereas a startup may not have one at all. Since companies can get caught up in their own momentum when getting off the ground, it’s not uncommon to have an unfocused vision or lack a mission statement entirely in the beginning. Still, while writing a mission statement can help companies grow, it’s important to gather information before writing one.
Since mission statements have everything to do with describing and defining a company culture, ask yourself questions about your company’s culture first:
- Who are the major decision-makers at the company?
- Do decisions belong mostly to a handful of company leaders, or is power spread among employees?
- How much does the company’s vision depend on the customer experience?
While a good mission statement is forward-looking and somewhat aspirational, it should begin with some basis in the reality of your company and the people who work there in the present. By gathering information internally first, you can capture their reality and extend it into the future.
2. Define your business in terms of core values and goals
Before a company can write a mission statement, the leadership needs a clear understanding of what their business is and what it stands for. Defining this means knowing the company’s core values and goals, in addition to the services and products being offered to customers.
Following this approach focusing on values and goals can mean that large companies that seem similar can (and should) still have very different mission statements. To illustrate, consider Google’s mission statement vs. Apple’s mission statement:
Though these companies may seem similar to consumers, Google’s mission statement has no mention of customers or hardware — only organizing information and making it accessible. Apple, on the other hand, hugely emphasizes their customers and their design and UX experience while leaving the “what” that they will provide customers open-ended.
3. Be specific and concise
Although a good mission statement should be ambitious enough to guide and motivate an entire organization, it should also be short and clear enough to be easy to remember. Also: ambitious does not mean general or vague! The more specific you are when writing a mission statement, the more helpful the end product will be to guide your business decisions and keep your team on track.
To balance these qualities, remember that a mission statement doesn’t have to define a product or service — often, the mission statement defines what effect a business will have on its customers and the world. For an example of this, consider Tesla’s mission statement:
The interesting thing about the above is that it says nothing about making cars or batteries or even solar power! Instead, it shows in very few words that helping the world “transition to sustainable energy” is the primary goal — and having the word “transition” shows that the company will make pragmatic rather than idealistic decisions about how to achieve it.
4. Think long-term and keep gathering feedback
Learning how to write a mission statement begins with collecting information from members of a company about how things are, how they want them to be, and how to combine them into a mission for the future. While that writing process should be slow and deliberate, it doesn’t mean that the process is done when the mission statement is written.
Before you’ve launched your mission statement, get feedback from employees and company leaders just as you did at the beginning — but even more importantly, continue to collect feedback over the years as your company grows and changes. While a company’s mission statement shouldn’t change every quarter, it also shouldn’t remain anchored in the past if the entire world has changed around it and it can no longer motivate an entire organization.
Though it can be easy to get attached to a certain vision or way of doing things, the truth is that a company’s mission statement can and should change somewhat over time as the organization’s values and competitive edge become clearer.
How to write a mission statement: the takeaway
While no two companies are the same, one similarity among all great companies is that they know what they want to do and have an idea of how they’d like to do it. These two ingredients are the essence of a mission statement, and differentiate it somewhat from a vision statement.
While vision statements tend to be aspirational and may not yet be possible or doable, a mission statement is already being done by a company. By stating it as clearly and inspirationally as possible, it helps a team do more of what they already do best — by attracting team members and talent to do it even better and faster.
Is your mission to go international?
In our guide “Mission: International Business”, we will show you helpful tips on how to overcome challenges when entering new markets. Download it now for free!
