How to Write a Mission Statement
By Ronald C. Manalastas A mission statement describes in brief what the business of a company is and the fundamental reason why that company, whether profit or non-profit, exists. Mission statement is a helpful guide in setting long-term objectives, formulating strategies, implementing key actions to support the strategies, installing internal controls, getting performance feedbacks, and executing corrective actions to ensure that the company is always on track. If the vision statement is the strategic intent that tells what a company wants to become, the mission statement is the strategic charter that elucidates how that vision can be achieved. Mission statement is an essential supplement that raises the vitality, upgrades the capacity, and extends the life of the company in order that it can reach its desired future. The following are tips as to how a mission statement can be written in a manner that serves its purpose:
1. View the writing landscape.
What is your role: simply a writer, or someone who has to lead and facilitate a group to complete the mission statement? In either role, be circumspect not to miss the essentials of the job. A mission statement is not just an ordinary writing assignment where you can rely on your individual writing skills. The process of developing a mission statement originates from the conduct of a participative exercise that solicits, integrates, and documents the views, values, beliefs, insights, desires, priorities, and expectations of people within and outside the organization. A mission statement embodies the central sentiment of the people who share a common value, dream, and hope for the organization. The discipline of writing a mission statement is hard and harsh, but it is the discipline. There is no other way, no other option. It is on you to excel and be recognized in the exercise.
2. Facilitate and cultivate sense of ownership.
If the company you are writing for has not done any initiative on the participative origination of the mission statement, then you become both a facilitator and a writer. As such, learn how to facilitate group interaction. You have to possess the skills of being able to: 1) filter the most compelling inputs of participants 2) let employees feel a deep sense of belonging to the company, and 3) create among participants strong sense of ownership over the result of the exercise.
Internally, the process is total collaboration: communicating with all employees, getting the totality of their inputs, crystallizing the core of their messages and interests, and discovering dominant themes or the central focus of the organization. Externally, it needs meeting and talking with customers, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders that are parties in interest for the sustained growth of the organization. If your company has sufficiently done the homework, the task becomes less difficult because you become dedicated to writing, either within an internal writing group designated to handle the task, or by yourself.
3. Understand and appreciate the vision statement.
Now that you are ready to write, refer to the vision statement so that you can move on. Be enlightened and empowered by fundamental intent of the vision statement. Never miss the point that a mission statement is dependent on the vision statement. Without a vision statement, the mission statement will be a mere whimsical narration of what the company is and a loose roadmap as to how it will proceed toward a sketchy and unrecognizable future. It is like driving a car without any predetermined direction. And as a famous quotation succinctly states: "If you don't know where you're going, any path will get you there."
4. Write in the context of the company's business.
Once you are mentally and emotionally charged by the vision statement, go on a writing mode immediately. Be guided by the thought that you have to be holistic in your writing horizon. While the customers and the satisfaction of their needs are paramount, always realize that the mission statement has to be crafted with due recognition of the internal and external factors affecting the business of the company. To reflect the context of business in your mission statement, it is best to consider the adoption of the 10-point standard that abandons the traditional view that a mission statement is all about the trinity of product, customer, and market values. Instead, the 10-point standard prescribes the inclusion of elements germane to the nature and scope of present company operations and the potential attractiveness of future markets and activities. These elements represent the high values of: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Product / service and its benefit Customers and their needs Markets, their niches, and location The enabling technology supporting the business Concern for survival, growth, and profit Business philosophy Self-concept as a differentiator Public image for which the company is to be known and remembered
9. Concern for employees (alignment with the families) 10. Concern for nation-building (corporate citizenship) It is the integration of all these elements into one solid and concise strategic charter that makes the crafting of your mission statement as one of the most difficult exercises that you can ever handle as a business writer.
5. Exercise perfection in the choice of words that matter.
The choice of words is very important. The mission statement must be carefully worded to bullet its purpose. Contextually and structurally, it must be broad, realistic, concise, motivational, understandable, memorable, and flexible for periodic changes whenever necessary. It behooves you, or any writer, to exercise extraordinary vigilance, whether alone or in a team, in identifying the right words and phrases. Brevity dictates your perfection of word usage.
6. While brevity is a key factor, remain situational in length.
Do not get confused with many conflicting prescriptions on what should be the ideal length of your mission statement. Upper limits are varied, with a broad range of maximum wordage from a 10-word maximum to 25-word, 50-word, 100-word, 150word, 200-word, and up to a 300-word ceiling. The actual length of your statement depends entirely on the circumstances characterizing your company. If the idea is for the mission statement to be easily recalled and memorized, then you might be in for a 10 to 25 words maximum. But if the interest is to reflect the context of the business so that employees and stakeholders can be fully empowered without the necessity of memorizing the charter, then you might be at liberty to stretch it up to 150 or 200 words maximum. Whether it is a 10-word or 200-word maximum, the clincher is that it must be properly worded, in alignment with the vision statement, and has the capacity to excite and move people towards the organizational purpose.
7. Test and re-test the draft. Communicate. Be around for everybody.
After completing the draft of the mission statement, never vacillate to test it, again in a participative exercise. Meet and talk with the stakeholders. Get their views and pulse their sentiments. In case of any shortfall in output or content, go back to the crafting board. Be more creative. Rethink, rewrite, and retest with people until a most compelling strategic statement is evolved. Satisfy and delight all parties in interest, internally across the organizational ladder and externally embracing customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. The testing and retesting exercise might be laborious and repetitive, but it pays off because you are chasing perfection in the evolution of an important document that
gives your company that needed strategic substance.
8. Communicate the final mission statement with the high intensity and frequency it deserves.
While no longer a part of writing, communicating your company's mission statement internally and externally in every conceivable piece of printed material (e.g. annual report, brochures, and business proposals) and framing and mounting the statement in visible locations within the premises are age-old practices that still continue to reap benefits in reinforcing shared value and stakeholder commitment. In essence, writing a mission statement has always been a tough job for any writer who values its significance. Once you are immersed into it, always have the discipline to excel because what you are doing will make a big difference in the life and success of the organization you are writing for.