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Mission of famous companies. Examples of mission statements for domestic enterprises

Developing a company mission is a fashionable trend that many follow simply because “competitors have created it, but why are we worse?” In reality, this is the ideological foundation for any business. If a business is created for the sole purpose of making money, then the chance of such a business to survive for a long time tends to zero.

And if an entrepreneur came up with a company to (God forgive me!) make the world a better place, then defining the company’s mission will not be so difficult. Before we talk about why a company needs a mission, let's define the terminology.

A company's mission is not the same as its vision, strategy, goals and values.

These concepts are often confused, but in fact they mean completely different things.
The mission of your company should answer the question of why the company was created, what is its ideological meaning, the philosophical message of its existence.
For example, Alfa Bank formulates its mission as follows:

Company mission and values

The mission is the basic, fundamental point in the existence of the company. Values are consistent with the mission and communicate what is important to the company, and in two directions at once: in relation to employees and in relation to customers. Here is what the Leroy Merlin company writes about itself on this matter:

Company mission and vision

Vision stems from the mission and values of a business and answers the question of what the company will be like in the future. This can be seen in the example of Samsung's mission and vision combined into one picture:

Company mission and strategy

A company's strategy tells what will be done or is being done to achieve the company's mission. For example, for Coca-Cola it looks like this:

Mission and purpose of the company

The goal is what the company strives for. A goal can also be called a business idea, as, for example, at IKEA:

The mission and values almost always remain the same, but the vision, strategy and purpose may be slightly adjusted or even changed significantly over time.

So why do you need a company mission?

The absence of a mission calls into question the long-term existence of a business, just as the lack of soil under one’s feet calls into question the ability to walk. But there are other points:

A clearly defined mission will allow you to hire people with similar life principles, creating a more cohesive team.
If you correctly draw up the mission of the organization, then it will be easier to build and implement a PR strategy. A company with deep values always commands respect in society.

When the question “why?” solved, you can move on to the next stage and try to understand how to create a working mission in the company. Let's arm ourselves with specifics.

1. Do not entrust the creation of a mission to subordinates. The head of the company should write the essence. It is not prohibited to ask for help in finding better wording, but the idea should be written to the creator of the case.

2. It is worth writing the company’s mission without mentioning the desire to make a profit. It is clear that any business is created for money, but here it is better to talk about something more important.

3. The mission must be unique. If it can be used for another company by simply changing the name, work on how to articulate the company's mission next.

4. What is written should be easy to understand. Try to keep your sentences short and simple.

5. It is important not only how to write the company’s mission, but also how to formalize it. Make sure that everything is beautiful from a design point of view.

Writing a company mission requires a clear understanding of why the company is doing its business. When this does not happen, the result is “porridge”:

All these big words about “the best in the world” look very pretentious, but do not really communicate anything. If you write the mission of the organization like this, it only confuses and makes you wonder: is the company really so chaotic in its vision of its purpose? Why then write about it at all?
Here's an example of how to write an organization's mission and rise to the occasion. Coca-Cola writes:

As you can see, there is no universal script for correctly writing the mission of an organization. The key to success is understanding the basic principles on which everything else rests. Knowing them, you can easily figure out how to correctly formulate the company’s mission and use this “more than text” for the benefit of your organization.

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Carry out your mission with pride!

But do you know where your company is going? What do you want to achieve? To make every action and decision you make more successful and meaningful, you must constantly keep a clear picture of your main guidelines in your head. “What do I want my business to be?” is the first question an entrepreneur should ask himself when creating the mission of his company. Without a clear vision of your goal, you will never achieve this goal.

Why is a mission needed?

Perhaps every person who decides to start their own business thinks about why some manage to achieve great success and always stay afloat, while others do not. Why are some capable of leading thousands of people, while others, having amazing management skills, are left with nothing? The fact is that successful entrepreneurs clearly know what they want and how to achieve it using all their capabilities. To bring your success closer, you need to formulate the real mission of the company and never deviate from it.

What is the company's mission?

If we consider the company's mission in the broadest sense, then it can be defined as the raison d'être of the business. The mission contains the fundamental purpose of the organization and plays the most significant role in strategic management. When formulating a mission, you first of all describe the company’s values, with the help of which you can achieve your main goal. You can often find the concept “company policy” in business articles. In essence, this is the mission.

Mission is now a very fashionable concept, and many companies associate the level of their prestige with the presence of a beautifully formulated mission. However, if you need a mission only to “boast” about it in business circles, then carefully studying how to formulate it correctly is not necessary. For a truly serious business, the mission should serve as a kind of auxiliary and guiding means of achieving goals and completing tasks.

Mission objectives

First of all, with a clearly defined mission, it will be much easier for company employees to unite to achieve common goals. And the process of attracting the most suitable specialists to the company will be significantly easier. Once, one businessman, answering the question “How were you able to assemble a team of such talented specialists?”, said that after a clear statement of the mission, the issue of personnel selection ceased to be a problem. Specialists began to come to the company on their own, whose values corresponded to the company’s mission.

With the help of a mission, the PR process, both internal and external, is also much easier. Finally, the lack of a mission can lead to a violation of the integrity of the corporate culture in the company.

How to write a company mission

The first thing you need to start with is to put everything aside and find a quiet place where no one will distract you from your thoughts. At this moment, one might say, the fate of your business is being decided, so throw everything unnecessary out of your head and focus solely on the formulation of the company's mission. You don't have to write the mission all at once. Most likely, in the next few days you will return to it, make some adjustments in order to ensure that the final picture looks more complete and corresponds to your real goals.

First, you need to create a framework for writing a mission statement. Take a piece of paper and a pen. Describe several main activities of your company (there is no need to describe in detail), as well as the features of your company and its advantages and advantages among competing companies. And most importantly, write down the main values of your company. Don’t rush, it’s better to think everything through carefully so as not to lose sight of any important detail.

Next, looking at what you wrote, answer the following questions: “What do I want to achieve? Where do I want to go? Why do I want this? What is the basis of my aspirations? Can there be people willing to support me in this?” Most often, company missions are formulated from the perspective of the social significance of its activities for society. However, this method of creating a mission statement is not suitable for all types of businesses. For example, for a company producing alcohol or tobacco products, social significance will be extremely difficult to formulate.

Mistakes in mission statement

The most common mistake when writing a mission statement is to mention the profit aspect. Everyone understands that any business has among its goals, including obtaining maximum profits. Therefore, in order not to distort the understanding of the mission, it is better not to use the desire for material gain in writing the mission.

The mission turns out to be “empty” if it does not contain any specifics and contains only boilerplate expressions. Also, a mission that is far from the real state of affairs in the organization will be wrong, and the goals described in the mission are not the real goals of the company and are written only for the “pretty picture.”

Requirements for writing a mission statement

There is an informal regulation for writing a company mission. The first and most important thing is the easy perception and understanding of the mission by both company employees and other people. If the employees themselves do not correctly understand what the company’s goals are and where it is going, then it is obvious that they will not be able to take full part in achieving the goals.

The mission should always be relevant to the company. It reflects what the company is doing at a given period, and what it will do in the future. If it happens that the company slightly changes the vector of its activities, then the mission must be rewritten to suit the new conditions. Otherwise, it simply loses its meaning and relevance.

The next requirement for writing a mission concerns its scope. There are no generally accepted norms here. The scope of the mission can be either one sentence or several pages. However, you shouldn’t go to such extremes. It is unlikely that it will be possible to fully reflect the mission by writing just one sentence. And a mission that is a couple of pages long will not be perceived well enough by those who read it. Therefore, the ideal volume of the company’s mission is a few sentences, maximum one small paragraph. Once again we would like to draw your attention to the fact that this requirement is unspoken, and only you can decide how to write and what the scope of your mission will be.

There are also some recommendations for designing a mission. Whoever and wherever you show it, it should have the most presentable appearance. A mission for a company is like a business card for a person. If you place it on a website, make sure it has a beautiful and readable font, and don’t place it somewhere in the corner so that it doesn’t look like some small, not particularly important detail. Carry out your mission with pride. If you present your mission in print, it should be high quality print, not a piece of paper with dull text on it. Some companies hang a high-quality mission statement on the walls of their office, placing it in a beautiful frame.

Examples of writing a company mission

To better understand what a mission should look like, we give you several examples of real missions of existing successful companies.

There are many interpretations of the concept corporate mission– the meaning of existence, the main goal of activity; some higher purpose; expression of the social significance of the activity; the role the company intends to play in the market; high-quality content of the business, an attempt by a businessman to find the meaning of his professional activity; justification of the organization's non-financial goals.

We dare to add our own definition of mission to this collection.

Mission (organization, project, institution etc.) - an expression of one’s ability and intentions to satisfy or create socially significant and ethically acceptable needs (demands) of humanity, groups of people (territories, states, peoples, communities, enterprises) and individuals.

And if we get rid of unnecessary complexity, let's say it even simpler:

COMPANY MISSION is the social benefit that the company intends to bring (or is already bringing) to others.

CORPORATE MISSION GOALS
The mission shows how the company’s products (goods, services, relationships) form and enhance qualitative changes in the everyday life of the consumer and in the worldview of society.

That is, the mission should be directed outward, toward society, outside the company, and not toward the company and its stakeholders. This is precisely the main criterion when understanding whether the mission is before your eyes or an attempt to justify the purely material interests of the business. A striking negative example of this is the mission of today's Russian banks and insurance companies, most of which have simply forgotten about the interests of the client.

The objectives of the mission of modern Russian business acceptable to society may be:

the formation of a new quality of life that summarizes the consumer properties of the company’s products;
the desire to improve the already formed quality of life and expand its distribution;
creating values of a higher level of significance for society than the resources expended;
qualitative changes in the company itself, as a result of the emergence and mobilization of additional resources and a new attitude towards the world;
increased adaptation of the company to market requirements and its integration into the global community.

Fancy talk about profits and dividends or an overt desire to become a market leader are of questionable public benefit and not modest enough to make it into the mission statement. There are other, more ambitious documents for them.

There are many opinions about what the content of an organization's mission should be.
The so-called four-pronged approach involves taking into account the following aspects in the mission statement:

market (products, strategies, competition, enterprise goals, markets),
social (taking into account the interests of business participants, social groups, mentions of corporate philosophy, culture),
private (business success from the point of view of the personal interests of the owners),
qualitative (the desire of business to change the conditions, quality of life of society, properties of the social environment).

In our opinion, a well-formulated mission of an organization should reflect precisely the qualitative aspect.
Another approach advises taking into account the main strategic goals facing any company in any market, and voicing business priorities regarding each of them:

public (contribution to the local community, solving specific public problems),
consumer (satisfying customer requests, taking into account the needs of suppliers and partners),
administrative-territorial (satisfying the requests of a specific system within the structure of which the company operates),
entrepreneurial (satisfying the needs of participants and co-owners).

From an NLP perspective, an enterprise's mission includes three logical levels: the company's purpose, identification, and company values.

And, for example, on the website of one domestic state university it is stated that “The content of the organization’s mission is:
1) philosophy (basic views, principles and values, system of motives);
2) description of the scope of activity, product of the organization;
3) goals of the organization (current and strategic);
4) characteristics of potential and technologies;
5) description of the internal concept, strengths of the organization, its competitive advantages, development prospects;
6) characteristics of the market where the organization operates;
7) description of the external image (image) of the organization."
So it’s not clear whether to believe this or smile.

It is up to you to decide which method your company will use to formulate its business mission. Let us add: contrary to some authors, we do not believe that the “Company Mission” is a document “the provisions of which must be followed.” You need to know the mission of the company, it is advisable to share it, be guided by it, follow it, but fulfill its provisions..? It is difficult to agree that a mission is “a corporate ideology, the values of which the company’s employees correspond to, and the philosophy of which is reflected in their work” (the quote is real). A mission is just a mission.

A well-formulated mission of the organization does not require additional explanations or additions, and does not contain any nested, expanding interpretations or provisions. It is a full-fledged, independent document, logically included in a set of documents under the general name “Company Ideology”.

MISSION DEVELOPMENT

Of course, it is hardly possible to “develop” a mission. Realize, formulate - yes. We agree that every legal entity has a purpose (mission, meaning of existence), regardless of its awareness. The process of realizing the mission can occur gradually, or maybe explosively - with insight.

In the context of small and medium-sized businesses, the mission of the organization almost always contains the energy and philosophy of the owners and founders. Without their participation, a full-blooded mission rarely appears.

There are many approaches to developing a mission.

The mission is developed by the owner and top managers whom he trusts. As a result of the discussion, a certain common document is born, reflecting the different interests of the participants. When the “conspirators” reach unanimity on all issues, the mission is presented to the team.

The company's "general" considers many options for mission statements proposed by each employee. Next, the most fruitful thoughts are compiled into a single document and brought to perfection, often with the help of external consultants. The result is a mission born from the very depths of the team.

Exclusively the top managers of the company, together with the owners, using the method of “brainstorming” (or similar) under the command of third-party consultants, “generate from themselves” a mission, which is later brought to the attention of employees.

A working group is formed from executives, specialists, innovative-thinking employees and with the obligatory participation of a coordinator-consultant. During discussions, the group creates a draft document and submits it to the coordinator, who then, during personal discussions with members of the working group, brings the document to a working state and submits it for approval.

The company's mission is formulated personally by the business owner with the unobtrusive participation of an external consultant. The interests of all interested parties are taken into account.

MISSION DESCRIPTION REQUIREMENTS

The question of developing a company Mission is increasingly encountered among Russian enterprises. Owners and managers are beginning to realize that “hard” management tools - KPI and budgeting, working time tracking and reporting control, profiling positions and assessing their presence on a lie detector test and through numerous tests, etc., etc. - do not allow fully create a company of like-minded people with a strong corporate culture. People, if they do not share your values, will always find loopholes to bypass all the fences and bells and whistles of your smart management system.

Only engaged and committed employees are ready to work to the maximum of their capabilities without external additional incentives and restrictions.

The mission and Values of the company are just the tool that allows you to identify “your people” at the start, and to stick to the right course in your work without expensive systems of carrots and sticks.

Below I offer a list of 50 missions of well-known companies, on the basis of which you can formulate your own.

(!!!) Warning: IT IS HARMFUL TO DEVELOP A MISSION WITHOUT COMPANY EMPLOYEES

so, let's go!

Google: “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Facebook: “Empowering people to connect and making the world a more open and connected place.”

Kodak: "We help the world create memories and make money."

Yandex: “Helping people solve problems and achieve their goals in life.”

Disneyland: “We work to ensure that adults and children spend more time together.”

Castorama: “We help buyers make their homes more perfect and comfortable, transform the labor-intensive and costly process of repair and improvement into an interesting hobby that is accessible to everyone.”

The Ritz-Carlton: "Unrelenting care and providing the utmost comfort to every guest."

Mary Kay: “To enrich the lives of women around the world by offering customers quality products, opening new horizons for independent beauty consultants and providing them with unlimited career opportunities, ensuring that the women who encounter Mary Kay can realize their true potential.”

IKEA: “To make a difference in the everyday lives of ordinary people.”

XEROX: "Sharing knowledge through documents."

The Bank of New York: “We strive to be recognized as a global leader and partner of choice in helping our clients succeed in a world of rapidly evolving financial markets.”

Harley-Davidson: "We make people's dreams come true by leveraging our expertise in building the very best motorcycles."

Apple: “Apple makes Macs the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple continues the digital music revolution with its iPod and iTunes. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad."

Zappos: “Provide the best customer service possible.”

Amazon: To be “the most customer-conscious company on Earth.”

Samsung: “We use the company's human and technological resources to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to the improvement of global society.”

Twitter: “Empowering everyone to share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.”

Sberbank: “We give people confidence and reliability, we make their lives better by helping them realize their aspirations and dreams.”

Enter: “We give time for the present. Honestly. With love. As for myself."

Citibank: “Citi works tirelessly to benefit citizens, communities, organizations and nations. Using 200 years of global experience in solving complex problems and realizing existing opportunities, we strive to deliver the best economic results for our clients by offering simple, creative and responsible financial solutions. We unite more than 1,000 cities, 160 countries and millions of people. We are your global bank. We are Citi."

Best Friends Animal Society: “A better world through kindness to animals.”

JTI Tobacco Company: “Our mission is to create a strong global tobacco company that provides maximum benefit to its shareholders, employees, consumers and society as a whole, and strives to achieve a leading position in its industry.”

New York Public Library: "Inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities."

Walmart: "We save people money so they can live better."

McDonald's: “To be our customers' favorite place to eat and drink. And the formula for achieving this goal is one old McDonald’s formula: KKCH and D, which means Quality, Service Culture, Cleanliness and Availability.”

BMW: “The BMW Group is the world's leading supplier of premium products and premium services for individual mobility.”

Valio: “To feel good.”

Lukoil: “We were created to use the energy of natural resources for the benefit of people.”

Polaroid: “Advancing the instant photography and digital market to meet people's growing need to capture the faces of friends and family, places dear to their hearts, and life's funny moments.”

Daria: “To free up consumers’ time for a full life by producing high-quality, easy-to-cook products.”

Levi-Strauss: “We will bring to market the most beautiful and popular casual clothing in the world. We will dress the whole world."

Toyota: “To give our customers the pleasure of high-quality Toyota vehicles. We are responsible for every car we sell. We create an atmosphere in which Toyota professionals use their many years of experience, as well as knowledge of advanced Toyota technologies, to meet the interests of our discerning customers. The Company’s mission is to maximize customer satisfaction by providing reliable and safe TOYOTA products and providing a network of high-quality service and qualified maintenance.”

Gazprom: OJSC Gazprom Gazenergoset, as a specialized operator of OJSC Gazprom, sees its mission as ensuring effective uninterrupted supplies to consumers of products from gas and oil refining enterprises of the Gazprom group, while maintaining a high level of safety and consistently developing activities related to the sale and use of these products.

Sportsmaster: “We make sports accessible! To develop a successful and efficient business, offering Clients an optimal range of quality goods for sports and active recreation with an optimal level of service. To promote the health of the population in the countries where we operate, promoting the values of a healthy lifestyle, sports and active recreation, improving the quality of life of our clients.”

ChTPZ-KTS: “Comprehensive satisfaction of the needs of builders and operators of main and process pipelines in connecting parts, pipeline fittings, process equipment and other components.”

Adidas: “Our mission is to be a leader among the world's sports brands. We achieve leadership through our vision - our passion for sport makes the world a better place. All our work is inspired by the passion for sport that drives us to improve ourselves and the world around us.”

Sony Corporation: “We are a group of young people who are endowed with sufficient energy for endless creative exploration.”

Unilever: “Our mission is to energize life. We meet people's daily food and hygiene needs. Our brands help you feel great, look great and enjoy life more.”

Coca-Cola is based on 3 principles, which are formed as follows: Refresh the world, body, mind and spirit; Promote optimism through our drinks and our deeds; Bring meaning to everything we do. Our vision is based on five words that reflect our values! Each of them is based on a word that, coincidentally, begins with the letter “P.” This is what the five Ps sound like: Personnel, Planet, Products, Partners, Profit!

Megafon: MegaFon will unite Russia by breaking down barriers and developing communications to become everyone's obvious choice. "MegaFon proceeds from a special attitude towards the company's social mission, which is to create conditions for people to communicate, without regard to borders and distances."

Microsoft: “At Microsoft, our mission is to help people and business organizations around the world realize their full potential. Achieving this goal requires talented, energetic, bright and creative people with the following virtues: integrity and honesty, enthusiasm, openness and respect, willingness to solve complex problems, self-criticism and responsibility.”

Youtube video hosting mission: “To provide quick and easy video access and the ability to share videos frequently.”

Lenovo (Lenovo): “For those who do! For those who do! (alternatively, “For those who act!”). Our vision is that Lenovo will create personal devices that inspire more people, inspired by our own culture, and through which we build a business respected around the world. This Vision guides us in achieving our mission to become one of the world's greatest technology companies. We will do this through: Personal Computing, Convergence and Culture."

MTS: “We are working to make MTS the best operator for its customers. We want every person who comes to an MTS salon, calls our call center, or uses the company’s services to enjoy being an MTS client. Thanks to reliable communications, MTS provides customers with the opportunity to build and improve their lives and constantly develop. All MTS resources are aimed at ensuring that, thanks to the company’s services, the lives of MTS clients become richer, more interesting and filled with new opportunities.”

RZD (Russian Railways) is to meet market demand for transportation, increase operational efficiency, quality of services and deep integration into the Euro-Asian transport system. Russian Railways brand mission: We are the most important part of the global system of movement of people, goods and technologies. We work for clients, contribute to the unification of peoples, and integrate Russia into a single economic space. Our solutions are based on a unique infrastructure, the skill of a team of high-level professionals and innovative technologies.

Aeroflot: “We work so that our clients can quickly and comfortably travel vast distances, which means they can be mobile, meet more often, work successfully and see the world in all its diversity. Vision: Our goal is to remain the undisputed leader in domestic and international air transportation in Russia and to be among the best airlines in the world, combining dynamic development and high reliability with quality service.”

Nike: “Bringing inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world” (“If you have a body, then you are an athlete,” so said the legendary track coach at the University of Oregon, and one of the founders of Nike, Bill Bowerman) "

Yota: “To be a leading developer and provider of innovative mobile services that will change, at least one iota, people’s perceptions and experiences in the field of communication, entertainment and information consumption.”

Messenger: “We work with people and for people. We create an exciting world of mobile communications and new offers that are understandable and accessible to everyone. We provide simplicity, convenience and attractive choice.”

Canon is committed to helping people realize the full potential of images (Power of Image). The European brand slogan "You Can" was launched in 2002 and aims to inspire customers to realize the potential of images.

Mission development algorithm

The Mission is developed according to the following algorithm:

Formulating the meaning of the organization’s existence (for what?);

Formulating “messages” to each group of stakeholders (clients, staff, owners, partners);

Understanding the above and combining it in one or three succinct sentences, taking into account the meanings of all phrases as much as possible.

Staff Engagement

It is important not just to formulate a beautiful Mission and Values, but to do it in the management team, and then discuss it together with all employees (some companies immediately involve the entire staff in developing the Mission).

To do this you can use the following order:

Send 50 Famous Company Missions to your team for preview.

Gather for 3-4 hours and answer the questions: “what is the meaning of the company’s existence?”, “to satisfy what needs of society (target groups) was it created?”, “what do we want to convey to our clients, partners, employees, owners?” , “how do we differ from similar companies and competitors?”

Draw up the results of your brainstorming on separate A1 sheets and hang them in the meeting room. Let the team members look at the materials and think (each separately) in which phrase can combine all the accumulated meanings.

Then meet for another 3-4 hours and have everyone present their version.

Discuss (without criticism or evaluation) the options and vote for the most suitable ones for your company (2-3 options).

Complete the selected options and present them to the team.

Ask employees to give feedback on your work - “to what extent does this or that option accurately reflect the essence of your company?”, “which option more accurately reflects the messages to clients, staff, partners and owners?”, “what important meanings were not reflected in the presented options? etc.

Based on employee feedback, select the final version, design it and hang it in a prominent place in the company (stand, reception, etc.), post it on the company portal, website.

Ask HR to set up selection, motivation, training and development tools in accordance with the developed Mission and Values.

Make decisions based on this Mission and Values and demand the same from your colleagues. Otherwise it's all in vain.

Corporate culture

Keywords:

1 -1

Sometimes you even feel a little sorry for people who explore the Internet in search of clear instructions on how to write a mission statement for a company.

Most articles of this kind are academic works that only confuse the reader.

To understand such materials, you have to try very hard.

Below we will try to explain as clearly as possible why and for what purpose the company needs a mission. Perhaps this instruction will not be so stuffed with special terms, but you will be able to figure it out.

Some basic information

Without beating around the bush, the classic mission answers just one simple question:

Why was the company created?

Unfortunately, a company's mission is often confused with strategy, vision and values. This is fundamentally wrong. Of course, no one forbids modernizing the mission by interweaving part of the vision or strategy into it, but still, in the classical sense, it has clear boundaries that cannot be crossed.

To avoid any confusion, let’s try to explain how a company’s mission differs from vision, strategy, and so on.

Company's mission answers the question “What are we created for?” Mission Statement: We are dedicated to providing the safest medicines for seniors.

Company vision answers the question “Where do we see ourselves in the future?” Unlike a mission, a vision can change over time and does not have a specific deadline. Essentially, this is a dream, the desire of the company to become such and such in N years. An example of a company's vision: “We strive to become the largest supplier of medicines for pensioners in Russia.”

Company strategy answers the question “How are we going to achieve our vision?” Strategy is a more complete decoding of the path to achieving the company's vision. Example strategy: We are going to become the largest supplier of medicines for pensioners in Russia. To do this, we will create our own scientific institute and order quickly payback equipment.”

Company values answer the question “What is important to us?” An example of company values: “We strive to be open and positive, we never try to argue with customers, we value their attention.”

Let us dare to give a little advice: the ideal solution for the company would not be an attempt to cram all the points into a poor mission, but a targeted division into points. That is, first you give the company the desired mission, then the subtitle “Vision”, then “Strategy” and “Values”. And under each of them, accordingly, there is a little meaningful text with specifics. This will make it clearer to both employees and readers.

Now that the short excursion away from the topic is over, we can return to the rules for writing mission statements for companies. As we have already found out, the classic mission answers the question “What are we created for?”

The second question you have to answer is:

Why does a company need a mission statement at all?

Yes, yes, so radical. The fact is that not all organizations need a mission at all. Of course, even the Panties & Socks company, which rents a couple of pavilions on the market, has the right to write a full-fledged version.

Undoubtedly. And yet it will not be of much use, since making a profit cannot be considered a full-fledged basis for writing a company mission.

This is more important only for those companies that have already reached some minimum socially significant level. In other words, for companies from the “medium” level and above. If you really want to, but don’t have much to say yet, you can combine mission and vision (dream).

The option is not ideal, but it is quite suitable for decorating a website and some internal corporate documents. After all, a bad soldier is one who does not dream of becoming a general.

How to write a company mission?

There is not a single clear rule that would say “The mission for a company or organization is written only this way and that way, and anyone who writes otherwise is a loser and a saboteur.” Of course not. Everything is subjective. Below we will give an example that will help you write a completely unique mission. Just remember that:

If your company's mission can be applied to any other organization, it's trash.

A good mission is always unique and specific. It cannot be limited to a bunch of empty phrases, the sole purpose of which is to somehow fill up space. Specifics are important. There is no need for pearls like “We are always the best and for world peace.”

Template for writing a company mission:

Answer 5 questions:

What does the company do?(produces children's bicycles)

Your buyer - who is he?(mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers)

What needs do we cover?(we make inexpensive, but high-quality and safe children's bicycles)

How do we help this world?(we make bicycles that parents are not afraid to give to their children)

Why do we consider ourselves successful?(because 30% of families have our bicycles).

Having these inputs, we can quickly create a very rough example of the text. Let's say this:

We are proud that our products have become synonymous with safety and reliability. We exist so that a young and strong generation who sincerely loves cycling grows up in Russia.

As you noticed, not all points from the template were used. This is quite normal, the idea should not be too cumbersome. It is very important that the company's mission is filled with your true aspirations and spirit, and not a bunch of random words.

Now is the time to talk about mission size. It is recommended to write missions longer than 4-7 sentences. If you look at examples of Western companies, you will see that even world-class giants get by with one or a few proposals. Trying to create a company mission statement on several sheets of paper is tantamount to teaching a first-grader descriptive geometry. Do you want effect? Write succinctly and to the point!

Mission Analysis

Below we have tried to highlight the main criteria for analyzing the company’s mission, which will help us check it for compliance with GOST requirements and common sense.

Availability of specifics. A mission consisting of “friendly teams”, “flexible discounts” and “dynamic companies” has no right to a decent existence. Only specific and unique texts.

Ease of perception. Probably, words like “eschatological” and the like have every right to exist. We don't know. And yet, we do not recommend using them in the company’s mission. The text should be such that even a schoolchild can understand it. The same applies to sentences: there is no need to construct complex forms of 30-50 words.

Realism of the picture. When reading a text, a person must believe what it says. Or at least admit the possibility of implementing what is written. Completely fantastic versions only cause laughter and bewilderment.

Memorability. The mission statement for the company should be written so briefly and clearly that the reader will not forget it after 3 seconds.

Motivation. The mission should not only tell you how wonderful you are, but it should also motivate the staff. Ideally, it is known to every employee in the organization. This is normal and even good. When a person has an understanding of the goal, it is always easier for him.

This concludes the brief story about how to write a mission statement for a company.

Click on spoilers, see examples of missions of famous companies

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Construction companies. Examples