What should a vision statement contain

So how do you make a useful mission statement? Imagine a real person making the actual decision to buy what you sell. Why do they want it? How did they find your business? What does it do for them? The more concrete the story, the better.

Start your mission statement with the good you do. Use your market-defining story to suss out whatever it is that makes your business special for your target customer. Offering trustworthy auto repair, for example, narrowed down to your specialty in your neighborhood with your unique policies, is doing something good.

So is offering excellent slow food in your neighborhood, with emphasis on organic and local, at a price premium. This is a part of your mission statement, and a pretty crucial part at that—write it down. If your business is good for the world, incorporate that here too. But claims about being good for the world need to be meaningful, and distinguishable from all the other businesses.

That one obviously passes the test of defining the company with flying colors. Nobody could mistake that mission for generic hype.

Ikea, on the other hand, starts its mission statement with something that could be any company anywhere. And note, in this mission statement, how Sweetgreen incorporates a world vision into a product-oriented mission statement:. We source local and organic ingredients from farmers we know and partners we trust, supporting our communities, and creating meaningful relationships with those around us. We exist to create experiences where passion and purpose come together.

Keeping employees is better for the bottom line than turnover. Company culture matters. Rewarding and motivating people matters. A mission statement can define what your business offers its employees. Qualities like fairness, diversity, respect for ideas and creativity, training, tools, empowerment, and the like, actually really matter. However, since every business in existence at least says that it prioritizes those things, strive for a differentiator and a way to make the general goals feel more concrete and specific.

If you have a special view on your relationship with employees, write it into the mission statement. If your business is friendly to families, or to remote virtual workplaces, put that into your mission. And this is rare in mission statements. The vast majority are focused on messaging for customers. My recommendation here is not the norm. We just need to get better at writing mission statements — which is where this article comes in. Firstly, a mission statement should be focused on the here and now, not stating where you want to be in the future save that for your vision statement.

Confusing mission with vision is one of the most common mistakes companies make in their mission statement.

Just look at these examples:. Take these mission statements, for example:. You can then begin to draft your mission statement, based on the answers to those questions. My top tips for writing an amazing mission statement are:. I hope this article has inspired you to rethink your company mission statement. If you would like to know more about mission statements, vision statements and strategy, check out my articles on:.

Across all sectors, organizations are grappling with rapid transformation. On top of that, there are enormous global[ Like every sector, retail is going through a transformation and must respond to the forces of the fourth industrial revolution and major societal shifts[ When I work with companies, one of the things I do is help them establish goals that will give them the best possible chance of success [ Search for:.

Microsoft "Microsoft is a technology company whose mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Vision Statement Ideas to Inspire Now that you've seen some inspiring examples of vision statements from real companies, hopefully you're starting to get ideas for your own vision statement.

Often your vision can be summed up in one or two sentences, as in these examples: To help people stay fit and healthy. To have our product in every home in the United States. To help people enjoy life by offering an affordable solution to health care. To provide delicious, seasonal food and a fun atmosphere that will bring customers back again and again. As we move towards our goal of being a world-class university, we will support research on a global scale.

Locally, our campus will service the research needs of the learning community, granting access to many informational resources. The XYZ Company will inspire its employees to be the best they can be. We will engage in sustainable practices and anticipate the needs of our customers. We will maximize return to the stockholders while still maintaining quality in our products.

Our vision is to bring our students into the 21st century through innovation and modern technology. Learning will be enhanced with computer software and educational games that will allow students to proceed at their own rate according to their ability.

To further help you, we've broken down the vision statements for two potential businesses. Writing a Good Vision Statement Looking at these different vision statement examples should give you a good jumping off point for knowing what a vision statement is and how to write one.

Because it's impossible. Not to be too harsh though - there are strong elements here; 'making brands more inspiring' makes a lot of sense and has some depth. This 'vision' could pretty much apply to any company, anywhere it's an insurance company in this case - but would you have guessed that?

It's sort of like saying 'Our Vision is to succeed as a business'. Not wrong - but certainly not inspiring or unique. We are committed to achieving new standards of excellence by providing superior human capital management services and maximizing the potential of all stakeholders - clients, candidates and employees - through the delivery of the most reliable, responsive It would be quite hard to write a vision statement filled with less tangibility and more subjectivity than this one.

There are simply far too many buzzwords, intangibles, and vagueness here for this to be either memorable or inspiring. We are of course being rather harsh. But hopefully, the above examples illustrate well some of the pitfalls to avoid when creating your own vision.

There are literally hundreds of articles out there that give examples of good and bad vision statements. There's also plenty of articles that give a high-level overview of what to consider when creating your own. However, what we noticed was lacking was a concrete process to go through to help you create one.

As such, we've outlined a process that we have used with clients in Cascade that might work for you too. There are plenty of great vision statements out there that will not conform to the process below.

But if you're struggling or just need a place to start, then hopefully this will help. Start by being exceptionally clear about what it is your organization actually does. Be careful to remain 'output focused' rather than 'input focused'. For example, Microsoft famously had a vision statement to Put a Microsoft powered computer on every desk in the world slightly paraphrased. Strictly speaking what Microsoft 'do' is make computer software, but for the purposes of their Vision, they looked forward to the actual outcome of this process - i.

Whilst this process may seem obvious - you would be surprised by how rarely organizations actually go through this process in a formal, written way. Doing so will take you a long way towards creating your vision statement - BUT it's not enough alone! If it was, all bakeries, for example, would have the same vision statement - which is hardly inspiring! Very few products or services these days are truly new - most are more like reinventions of something that exists already, but with a different approach, focus or spin.

At some point in your organization's lifespan - someone will have believed that the reason that THIS organization would be successful where others have failed, was because of Let's take our bakery example. So far, our vision statement is looking pretty generic, along the lines of customers enjoying our bread. But why will they enjoy our bread MORE than the bread from the place next door?

Is it because we use centuries-old traditions passed through generations of our family? Because we only use premium grade locally sourced ingredients?

Whatever your unique selling point is - let it shine through in your vision statement. A common problem with a vision statement that isn't as good is ironically, that it's too visionary!

With no possible end in sight or a totally unrealistic one - the initial inspiration derived from a solid vision statement can quickly turn to frustration or even cynicism among employees and customers. That said - don't be too specific or apply specific metrics at this stage they will come later in our planning process.