Your company vision and mission put your Big Business Dream into words.
A company vision is typically a succinct written statement that declares the central focus, beliefs, and underpinnings of an organization. It takes some time to get there for many small businesses, but the bottom line is, your business vision should implicitly state what you are in business to do.
Here are some awesome Vision Statements from some of my favorite brands. Some present more succinct Vision Statements, and some are longer, but all seek to communicate succinctly:
Disney Vision: “The Walt Disney Company is the Global Leader in Entertainment.”
Disney Mission: “The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.” (Quoted from Disney.com)
Amazon’s Vision: “Our vision is 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.”
Amazon’s Mission: “It’s our goal to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything at Amazon.com.” (Quoted from Amazon.com)
Ikea’s Vision: To create a better everyday life for the many people.
Ikea’s Mission Statement: We shall offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. (Quoted from Ikea.com)
I’ll go deeper into expressing your business values in a later post, but typically the funnel trickles down:
Your Company Vision is global and a statement of passion, beliefs and purpose. Your Company Mission is a statement of purpose, but more directed around how you will bring your vision to life via your business on a day-in-day-out basis. Your Company Values are the company defined standards of behavior for each employee to buy into and uphold.
Setting your small business Vision, Mission, and Values are an important part of your brand promise and your entire business philosophy. Regardless of the size of your business, its level of sales, or its stage of growth, spending time to create and craft your vision, mission, and values will pay off in the long run. These three trickle down into your philosophy, your policies and procedures, your customer service approaches, and ultimately the way you do business.
Here is one more example of a longer vision and mission statement.
Apple’s Vision: Apple’s current vision statement was introduced by CEO Tim Cook, who stated, “We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self- honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.”
For more of Your Brand Vision + Mission, order your copy of the Spring 2016 issue here.
Cena Block
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