What Is a Company Mission Statement and Why Is It Important? How to write a mission statement?

Ever encounter a brand and wonder what exactly they do? What is their fundamental purpose?

That is the ‘mission statement’ of that company.

Technically – A mission statement is an epigrammatic description of a company’s objective. It is the answer to a common question, “Why my company exists?”

For better understanding, let’s consider the NIKE mission statement:

“Our mission drives us to do everything possible to expand human potential. We do that by creating groundbreaking sport innovations, by making our products more sustainably, by building a creative and diverse global team and by making a positive impact in communities where we live and work.”

In this statement, you can see Nike’s purpose and values. It specifies the target audience that is the sports activators, the type of products they manufacture, and what they seek to achieve in the future.

Business Mission Statement Key Elements

There are basically four key elements:

Value: Value of business to both employees and customers

Inspiration: The reason for which people should work for your company or buy your products or hire you for certain services

Specificity: Tie back to the business

Plausibility: Keep Sound and reasonable    

Don’t Waste time with a Bad Mission Statement

Don’t go for a mission statement only for the sake of the business plan. If you are not going to focus on key factors, the mission statement is just a meaningless hype that could not even define your brand uniquely.

Some people write it because some checklist or experts said they have to. And, to simplify their task, they just seek for prebuilt company mission statement examples, which aren’t a bad thing to get an idea from, but using the entire content as it is can make anyone a liable of copyright penalty. Besides, some companies have a clear vision about their mission but use vague high-sounding phrases to say nothing.

If you have a mission statement, ask yourself honestly, “whether my competitors will use the exact same? Is it distinguishing me from others?” Another way to discover whether or not your mission statement is justifying your business is by having a blind screening test with your employees. Just ask them to read your statement along with four others and identify which one is yours out of them. If they successfully identify your statement, you have done it right, but if not, be ready to work more on it.

Benefits of Mission Statement

Determine the Company’s direction

Smart business owners use the mission statement to jog the memory of its employees that why the company exists because that’s what makes a company successful. A mission statement could be your ‘north star’ that keeps everyone clear about the direction of an organization.

Template for Decision-making

A clear vision establishes imperative boundaries that enable any business owner to entrust both authority and responsibility. The mission is to a brand what a compass is to a wanderer, a rudder to a ship, a map to a traveler, and a template to a machinist. It’s a framework to overview the entire organization and think it as a whole. It also provides banister and boundaries in order to stay on the right path to the preferred future.

Welcome Changes

Many organizations devastate when any new business or technological trend arrives in the marketplace. Some people just feel insecure about things getting out of control when it comes to adapting changes. Though, if the mission is clear, every team member will recognize the value of changes and the perks it will bring to the organization. A mission statement creates a culture that welcomes changes with open hands.

Shape strategies

Every business owner needs a powerful strategy. But strategies are imperative to create in a vacuum. Instead of looking for what your competitors are doing or what’s new in the market and trying to copy it, create an efficient strategy is crucial to accomplish your business objective.

Shaping the Mission Statement

So how to write a mission statement? By following a hassle-free procedure:

• Begin with Market-Definition Story

No, don’t write the whole story.

Picture a person making realistic decisions to buy what you are or want to sell. Now evaluate why would that person want it, how the retailer is found, what buying from a retailer will do to that person.

To concrete the story – Keep the wording in mind: “the more solid, the better.”

This technique simplifies the thought that what your business isn’t and what it needs to be. This is not a part of the mission statement though, but having this factor clear in your mind while writing one will simplify your task.

• Classify what your business does for Customers

Add something to your statement which is you are good at. Let your market-defining story help you to suss out whatever makes your business special.

Never undervalue your business. Offering trustworthy products, services, or applications narrow down to your expertise in the neighborhood with distinctive policies is doing everything well.

This is an important part of your mission statement. So write down your specialties to lure your audience.

• Classify what your business does for Employees

Good businesses are beneficial for their employees too or they don’t run longer. Keeping your employees happy and satisfied with the job is better for the bottom line than turnover. No matter how much salary you give to your employees, company culture matters. So our recommendation is that you write employee perks now and forever after making it true.

• Don’t forget to Discuss, cut, digest, polish, review, revise

A good mission statement provides multi-functionality, define a goal, and live for a long time.

After completing your mission statement, go through it once again. Cut out the points that seem unimportant to you. If you can’t figure it out, take help from your friend or employees for the same.

Famous Samples of Mission Statement

Amazon Mission statement: “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Apple Mission Statement: “Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and ​the internet offerings.”

Tesla Mission Statement: “Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

Walmart: “Walmart helps people around the world save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores, online and through their mobile devices.”   

Tips for Effective Mission Statement 

• Make it short and concise
• Don’t start to write an essay about your objectives
• Think about long-term goals
• Don’t limit your products and try to make it global
• Figure out what your employees think about your services or products        
• Be open to changes

In a Nutshell

A mission statement is an announcement of what makes the business important. By design, it directs employee actions and draws in customers by generating direction explaining what an industry aim to accomplish.

Whenever you think, “what is a company mission statement?”  Or” how to write a mission statement,” follow this guide to create a meaningful, straight forwards, and a precise mission statement.