This section is divided into 3 in all:
Section I deals with theory part about Vision, Mission , Strategies, Objectives, Goals and Tactics. Section II deals with theory part about the Analysis of above and the section III gives an application of the analysis given the 98 years of Walt Disney company, USA
1.
Understanding the Vision, Mission, Goals,
Objectives, Tactics of a Firm
i.
THE VISION
STATEMENT
During the strategic planning process, it’s important to put this
vision into concrete terms. Not only does a vision statement clarify your
thoughts, but it helps employees and stakeholders understand what the business
has set out to accomplish. No matter what the business, a good mission and
vision statement can inspire and motivate employees to make that vision a
reality.
A well conceived vision consists of
core ideology and envisioned future. The core ideology rests on the core values
and the core purpose. Core values are the essential and enduring tenets while
the core purpose is the reason of organization’s existence.
A Vision Statement describes the desired future position of the company. A vision statement focuses on tomorrow and what an organization
wants to ultimately become. Vision statement provides
direction and inspiration for organizational goal setting. Vision is where you
see your self at the end of the horizon OR milestone therein. It is a single
statement dream OR aspiration. Typically a vision has the flavors of Being Most
admired, Among the top league, Being known for innovation, being largest and
greatest and so on.., typically most profitable, Cheapest etc. don’t figure in
vision statement. Unlike goals, vision is not SMART.
It does not have mathematics OR timelines attached to it. Vision
is a symbol, and a cause to which we want to bond the stakeholders, (mostly
employees and sometime share-holders). Vision
is a dream/aspiration, fine-tuned to reality:
The Entire process starting from Vision down to the business
objectives, is highly iterative. The vision and mission statement should be
made first without being colored by constraints, capabilities and
environment.
– vision of armed forces, that’s Safe and Secure country from
external threats.
This vision is a non-negotiable and it drives the
organization to find ways and means to achieve their vision, by overcoming constraints
on capabilities and resources. Vision should be a stake in the ground, a
position, a dream, which should be prudent, but should be non-negotiable
barring few rare circumstances.
As they say, the people work best, when they are working for
a cause, than for a goal. Vision provides them that cause.
Vision is long-term statement and typically generic &
grand. Therefore a vision statement does not change unless the company is
getting into a totally different kind of business.
Vision should never carry the how part .
– For example To be the most admired brand in Aviation Industry
is a fine vision statement, which can be spoiled by extending it to To be the
most admired brand in the Aviation Industry by providing world-class in-flight
services. The reason for not including how is that how may keep on changing
with time.
The meaning of a vision statement will be much clearer with the following examples:
1. MCDONALD’S:
“To be the best quick service restaurant experience.
Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness and
value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.”
2.
MICROSOFT:
“To create a local opportunity, growth and impact in
every community and country around the world.”
In the 1980s, the same Microsoft vision was : "A personal
computer in every home running Microsoft software."
3.
AMAZON:
“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric
company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy
online.”
As such, a vision statement should be viewed as a living document that will be revisited and revised. Most importantly, it must speak directly to your employees.
Challenges related to Vision Statement:
Putting-up
a vision is not a challenge. The problem is to make employees engaged with it.
Many a time, terms like vision, mission and strategy become more a subject of
scorn than being looked up-to.
This
is primarily because leaders may not be able to make a connect between the
vision/mission and people’s every day work. Too often, employees see a gap
between the vision, mission and their goals & priorities. Even if there is
a valid/tactical reason for this mis-match, it is not explained.
Horizon of Vision:
Vision should be the horizon of 5-10 years. If it is less
than that, it becomes tactical. If it is of a horizon of 20+ years (say), it
becomes difficult for the strategy to relate tothe vision.
Features of a good vision statement:
– Easy to read and understand.
– Compact and Crisp to leave something to people’s imagination.
– Gives the destination and not the road-map.
– Is meaningful and not too open ended and far-fetched.
– Excite people and make them get goose-bumps.
– Provides a motivating force, even in hard times.
– Is perceived as achievable and at the same time is
challenging and compelling, stretching us beyond what is comfortable.
Vision Statement of L&T Power “ most preferred provider
of stae-of-the-art efficient, reliable, environment friendly equipment systems
and services and turnkey solutions for fossil and nuclear power plants thereby
contributing to growth of the nation and shall be an important player in the
international markets …”
Its holding company L&T has the following vision
statement “ professionally managed
multi-national…innovative , entrepreneurial…culture of caring, trust and
continuous learning…”
SIGNIFICANCE OF VISION
• Establishing standard of excellence
• Bridging gap between present and future
• Outlining future
• Helping employees in goal setting
• Helps in strategy framing
• Creating effectiveness
LIMITATIONS OF VISION
• Incomplete
• Not forward looking
• Too broad
• Not distinctive
• Too reliant on superlatives
Primarily
intended for internal employees and shareholders, a vision statement describes
what an organization aspires to be. It helps to think of a vision statement as
part roadmap, part inspiration. By outlining a long-term vision, rather than
just short-term goals, a vision statement helps give the organization shape and
purpose.
ii. THE
MISSION STATEMENT
A mission
statement focuses on today and what an organization does to achieve it. One doesn’t work without the other, because having
purpose and meaning are critical for any business. A Mission Statement defines
the company's business, its objectives and its approach to reach those
objectives.
Elements of Mission and Vision Statements are often combined
to provide a statement of the company's purposes, goals and values. A company
vision statement is one of your most important business documents, along with
your mission statement and core values. Although it’s easy to confuse the
three, each one is unique and serves its own purpose.
Core
values are the organization’s long-term beliefs and principles that guideemployee behavior. A mission statement deals with “why” an organization exists,
while a vision statement outlines “what” that existence will eventually look
like. A mission statement has to do with what the organization is doing in the
present, while a vision statement focuses on the future.
Mission
statement examples include L’Oreal’s “Offering all women and men worldwide the
best of cosmetics innovation in terms of quality, efficacy, and safety.”
Conversely, Disney’s vision for itself is “to be one of the world’s leading
producers and providers of entertainment and information.”
• Mission is the social reasoning of
organization.
• It has external orientation.
• It legitimizes social existence.
• The mission statements may be
precise, realistic, achievable, clarity for action, distinct, dynamic,
motivating etc.
• Mission is the social reasoning
while purpose is the internal reasoning.
• Describes reason for existence of
the organization
• Specifies organizational culture and
values
• Specifies what qualities the
organization will uphold and impart to society or community
CHARACTERISTICS
OF MISSION
• Target consumers
• Target region
• Values
• Technology
• Financial objectives
• Image
COMPONENTS
OF MISSION
• Customers
• Products or services
• Markets
• Technology
• Concern for survival, growth and
profitability
• Philosophy
• Self-concept
• Concern for public image
• Concern for employees
Mission
Statement
• The purpose for which the
organization is.
• Mission is again a single statement,
and carries the statement in verb.
• Mission in one way is the road to
achieve the vision.
• For a luxury products company,
• The Vision could be To be among
most admired luxury brands in the world and
• The Mission could be To add style to
the lives
• A good mission statement will be :
• Clear and Crisp: While there are
different views, Mission should only provide what, and not how and when.
• Prefer the mission of Making
People meet their career to Making people meet their career through
effective career counseling and education.
• A mission statement without how
& when element leaves a creative space with the organization to enable them
take-up wider strategic choices.
• Have to have a very visible
linkage to the business goals and strategy:
• For example you cannot have a mission
(for a home furnishing company) of Bringing Style to People’s lives while
your strategy asks for mass product and selling. Its better that either
you start selling high-end products to high value customers, OR change your
mission statement to Help people build homes.
• Should not be same as the mission of
a competing organization. It should touch upon how its purpose it unique.
The Mission Statement is the foundation to good strategy. It
is a statement of the company’s purpose. It is a logical vantage point from
which to look down the road.
A
mission statement acts as an internal communication tool that conveys an
organization’s policies, procedures, plans, and strategies, thereby guiding the
behaviors and decisions of management and subordinates. Simultaneously, the
mission statement serves as an external communication tool to convey the
organization’s intentions to the general public (Bartkus & Glassman, 2008)
Organizations
develop a mission statement for a number of reasons. According to King and
Cleland (1979), the mission statement provides a standard for allocating
resources, facilitates the transition of objectives into a work structure, and
specifies unanimous organizational purposes that are translated into objectives
for standard performance. Strategic management literature has emphasized the
mission statement because of its ability to direct organizations to effective
organizational performance. Drucker (1974) and Bart and Baetz (1998) proposed
that the development of a mission statement is a big step toward management
effectiveness and that there is a positive relationship between mission
statements and organizational performance
Source: James Rajasekar Sultan Qaboos University,
Oman, “A Comparative Analysis of Mission Statement Content and Readability”
Journal of Management Policy and Practice vol. 14(6) 2013
At the broad vision level, organizations should not
try to measure their progress. A vision statement isn’t a transformation into a
future mission, it is the future fulfillment of the mission.
Mission
follows the Vision:
In terms of language, we always recommend mission statements
be written in present tense with the use of concrete language. Writing in
present tense allows your mission to be easily deciphered from your vision
statement, which is written in future tense.
• The Entire process starting from
Vision down to the business objectives, is highly iterative.
• This is because the purpose of the
organization could change to achieve their vision.
• For example, to achieve the vision
of an Insurance company To be the most trusted Insurance Company, the mission
could be first making people financially secure as their emphasis is on
Traditional Insurance product.
• At a later stage the company can
make its mission as Making money work for the people when they also include the
non-traditional unit linked investment products.
BENEFITS
OF MISSION
• Inspiring
employees
• Improving
performance
• Defines
basic goal
• Guiding
corporate decision making
• Business
plans n Company direction
DLFhas stated their Vision, Mission and values as follows (Oct 2021)
DLF Vision
To contribute significantly in
building India in a safe, compliant way and become world’s most valuable and
sustainable Real Estate Company.
DLF Mission
To contribute significantly in
building India in a safe, compliant way and become world’s most valuable and
sustainable Real Estate Company. To build world class Real Estate concepts
across all business lines with highest standard of safety, Professionalism,
Ethics, Quality, Customer service, Social responsibility and Compliance.
DLF Values
Sustained efforts to enhance customer value and quality
Ethical and professional service
Compliance and respect for all community, environmental and
legal requirements
TOYOTA
– Vision
• Toyota
aims to achieve long-term, stable growth economy, the local communities it
serves, and its stakeholders.
– Mission
• Toyota
seeks to create a more prosperous society through automotive manufacturing.
IBM
– Vision
• Solutions
for a small planet
– Mission
• At
IBM, we strive to lead in the invention, development and manufacture of the
industrys most advanced information technologies, including computer systems,
software, storage systems and microelectronics. We translate these advanced
technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions,
services and consulting businesses worldwide.
iii.
GOALS
Goals
: It is where the business wants to go in the future, its aim. It is a
statement of purpose, e.g. we want to grow the business into Europe.
Examples
of Strategic Goals
Financial
Goals
• Reynolds
Aluminum: “To be an industry leader in profitability and growth and to achieve
an average return on equity of 20 percent.”
• Boeing:
“Profitability as measured against our ability to achieve and then maintain a
20 percent average annual return on stockholder’s equity.”
• Boeing:
“Growth over the plan period as measured against a goal to achieve: greater
than 5 percent average annual real sales growth from 1988 base.”
• General
Electric: “We will run only businesses that are number one or number two in
their global markets.”
Nonfinancial
• Goals
Boeing: “Integrity, in the broadest sense, must pervade our actions in all
relationships, including those with our customers, suppliers, and each other.
This is a commitment to uncompromising values and conduct. It includes
compliance with all laws and regulations.”
• General
Electric: “We will be a more contemporary, more accessible, more responsive
company, in touch with our customers, firmly in control of our own destiny,
driven by more fulfilled people in control of theirs.”
IV.
OBJECTIVES
Objectives:
Objectives give the business a clearly defined target. Plans can then be made
to achieve these targets. This can motivate the employees. It also enables the
business to measure the progress towards to its stated aims.
Organization’s
articulated aims or responses to address major change or improvement,
competitiveness or social issues, and business advantages It represent a
managerial commitment to achieve specified results in a specified period or
time
It
is the business definition that explains the business of an organization in
terms of customer needs, customer groups and alternative technologies goal
denote a broad category of issues which a firm sets for itself. Objectives are
the ends that state specifically how the goals shall be achieved. Objectives
are being set
– as
yardstick to measure performance
– as
motivating force
– to
pursue its vision and mission
– to
define the relationship with environment
– as a basis for decision making
CHARACTERISTICS
OF OBJECTIVES
Profit,
marketing, productivity, product, society, human resource, finance may be the
bases for setting objectives. Objectives are characterized as follows:
– Hierarchy
– Multiplicity
of Objectives
– Specific
Time Horizon
– Attainable
Objectives
– Understandable
– Concrete
– Setting
within Constraints
CLASSIFICATION
OF OBJECTIVES
- Primary objective
- Secondary objective
- Short-term objective
- Medium-term objective
- Long-term objective
- Financial objective
- Non-financial objective
IMPORTANCE
OF OBJECTIVES
• Direction
• Legitimacy
• Coordination
• Form
standards
• Motivators
SETTING
OF OBJECTIVES
- Classifying objectives
- Reasonableness and consistency
- Areas of objectives
- Realistic and practical
- Balancing of short-range and
long-range objectives
- Change of adjustments
v.
TACTICS
The
dictionary meaning of the word ‘Tactics’ is as follows:
a: the science
and art of disposing and maneuvering forces in combat
b: the art or
skill of employing available means to accomplish an end
Though
derived from army usage, the word refers to the short term selective actions and
steps taken to reach a given objective.
“Strategy without tactics is
the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before
defeat.” - Sun Tzu
Senior leadership is responsible
for setting the strategy for the organisation in line with the values,
objectives, culture and the environment. Strategy
is the overarching plan or set of goals you are hoping to achieve, and changing
them is a slow, arduous, but still possible process. Tactics are the
specific actions or steps you undertake to accomplish that strategy.
Strategy defines your long-term goals, and
how you’re planning on achieving them. The strategy gives you the path you need
toward achieving your company’s mission.
Tactics are concrete, and oriented toward
smaller steps and a shorter time frame along the way. For your organization,
tactics involve the best practices, specific plans, resources, and all other
initiatives you use along the path towards achieving the organizational
mission.
A Strategy is focused on the long-term. Tactics
are usually for coping with the present situation; in contrast to a strategy,
which is for the future.
Being tactical focuses on tasks, concrete
smaller steps, best practices, specific procedures, and resources. Meanwhile, a
strategy is tied to purpose, goals, and vision. Overall, a good rule of thumb for understanding the distinction between
strategy and tactics is, “think strategically, act tactically.”
Relationship
between Tactics & Strategy
1.
A strategy is based on extensive research, planning, and internal
reflection.
Strategy
is a long-term vision, setting it apart from tactics, which are short term
actions. For example, your marketing strategy may be to improve your
influence and performance on social media, so your tactics might be to
determine the best social media channels for your company and the most
effective messages to communicate to your audiences.
Keep
in mind that it is much easier to adjust tactics to course-correct your plan of
action than it is to completely overhaul your strategy. Tactics can and do have
an influence on the success of your strategy, so if adjustments need to be
made, do so with those rather than your strategic plan overall
2.
Strategy and tactics work together to an end.
A
strategy without tactics won’t ever be executed or help you achieve your goals,
just as tactics without a strategy won’t ever propel your business in the
desirable direction. For example, your strategy may be to climb a mountain, and
a key component of that strategy is to decide which side of the mountain you
should climb. The tactics are the gear you’d buy, who you’d bring with you,
your complete trip itinerary, the travel time, what season you’d go in, how
long your trip would be, and so on. Simply put, one cannot exist without the
other.
3.
Strategy and tactics must always align with one another.
You
may find a project or practice (i.e. a tactic) desirable or
interesting, but it is only worth pursuing if it aligns with your long-term strategy.
Your strategy should inform you on which tactics your company will execute or
invest in, keeping your progress on track.
4.
Even the best strategy and tactics won’t cover everything.
However
ambitious your aspirations, resources will always be finite. Choosing the right
strategy and corresponding tactics ensures your efforts are directed toward
achieving your vision, but only in the most efficient manner possible. No
process is immune to hiccups along the way.
Example
If a furniture company has a goal to expand market
share, its strategy could include offering the most competitive prices and
always being in stock of common offerings. Leadership teams will make decisions
that prioritize lower costs.
A tactic for the furniture company would be to analyze
manufacturing processes to minimize waste and inefficiencies, thereby
decreasing cost and, by extension, prices for customers. The company can
clearly measure the success of the tactic by comparing their costs before and
after the analysis.
Those who read this also read:
Strategic Objectives & Analysis - Step 1/4 Str. Mgt. Process/Framework - II
Strategic Objectives & Analysis - Step 1/4 Str. Mgt. Process/Framework - III
