Vision and Mission Statements

 Define a vision and mission for your organisation. Note that established businesses often already have vision and mission statements, in which case you must operate within the context of these statements. It is never a good idea for an organisation to allow individual branches, plants, regions or offices to have their own visions and mission statements. A vision and mission define the identity of an organisation, and multiple visions and mission statements in the same organisation create strategic drift (that is, lack of common vision). 

Once the vision and mission statements have been defined, the organisation must investigate its environment to set objectives. Without objectives, organisations basically fly blind. All organisations and business have objectives, even if owners sometimes tend to frown down on the concept, they still have an idea on this head about where they are going, how much profit they want to make, and what they will do to achieve this. Why not go, sit down and write down these ideas in your head? The main advantage will be that you formalise it, and will be better able to revisit and control the process of going there. 

One of the first things a prospective businessperson is asking him-or herself is “what does the law say,” or “what are the requirements of the municipality in which I am staying if I want to open a specific business, or apply for a liquor licence, etc?” Again, you may not like the “academic Nonsense” like a SWOT analysis, but these scientific solutions provide the tools for you to make sure that you are well informed about what you can do and can achieve, considering all the relevant factors.

A vision statement is a concise, inspiring sentence or short paragraph that describes your organization's ultimate long-term goal and desired future state. It acts as a "North Star" to guide your strategy, unify your team, and define exactly what you want to become in 5 to 10 years. 

Follow these four core steps to write an effective vision statement:

1. Brainstorm Foundational Questions

Gather your key stakeholders and brainstorm the fundamental “whys” behind your organization. 

• What is our ultimate long-term destination?

• If we achieved 100% of our goals, how would the world or our community be different?

• What core values are non-negotiable for us? 

2. Identify the Unique Value

Combine your answers to identify what sets you apart from competitors. Your vision shouldn't be a generic statement that applies to any business; it needs to capture the specific impact and outcomes you bring to your customers or the market. 

3. Draft the Statement

Start drafting using the present tense, active verbs, and clear, jargon-free language. Try using starter phrases like "We envision" or "To be..." as a jumping-off point, then narrow it down to one or two sentences. 

4. Refine and Test

Ensure your draft meets the following criteria before finalizing:

• Concise: Ideally under 30 words.

• Ambitious but realistic: It should inspire people, but still remain grounded in your resources and capabilities.

• Memorable: It must be simple and easy for every team member to recall and recite.

Operationalisation of Organisational Vision

An organisation’s vision represents its long-term performance ambitions. However, a vision statement is an idealistic statement of intend, and cannot be implemented (or achieved) if it is not refined into outcomes (deliverable results) and then into outputs (tangible goods and services).

In order to do this, the vision must be broken down into broad goals, and the core organisational activities that must be perform to achieve these goals must be determined.

Remember, there is a hierarchy of activities and results in the strategies of all organisations. The vision and mission statements represent the long-term, idealistic expressions of the organisation’s purpose and its ultimate aims.

The vision represents an outcome, and is translated into a mission statement, which represents the long-term outputs of the organisation. In this sense, the mission “operationalise” the vision statement.

The vision is translated into broad, long-term goals, and the mission into strategies (which are implemented to achieve the goals).

Goals are then translated into SMART, measurable and specific objectives, which are more detailed and of shorter terms than goals. Organisations perform activities to achieve the objectives (as part of the process of implementing strategies).

Objectives are formulated on the strategic level of the organisation, and must therefore be aligned with strategic activities. The term “strategic” means it steer the entire organisation. The strategies used to achieve these objectives are managed by the top managers in the organisation.

In order to be able to implement the organisation’s strategies, strategic objectives are translated into more detailed tactical objectives, which are normally also more limit6ed in scope and time frames). It now became the responsibility of tactical managers to achieve these tactical objectives. They “perform” therefore perform tactics to implement strategies.

In larger organisations, we will still not be on the level where the actual work is done (strategic and tactical levels on the organisation are mostly decision-making and oversight positions, and not “doing” posts). The actual “doing” of the work take place on the operational level (where first-line supervisors and the workers performing the tasks to implement tactics are performed). Operational objectives are therefore formulated for operational sections and division; where the operations are performed required to achieve it).

Collectively I refer to everything that must be achieved in the organisation (vision, goals, strategic objectives, tactical objectives and operational objectives) as objectives. Everything done to achieve the outcomes are referred to as Activities (including strategies, tactics, operations and tasks).

Activities normally produce outputs, and objectives outcomes. The focus of responsibilities of operational personal is on producing outputs, while that of higher levels on the organisational hierarchy are on outcomes. However, this must also be seen in context: Even the highest level on the organisational hierarchy is still performing some activities, and therefore produce outputs.

No activity can be performed without resources. These resources are labour, material, capital (money) and information.

Human resources is therefore one of the mix of production factors required to perform activities, which will then produce goods and services. Well-managed organisations will be pro-active and determine its current and future resource needs in order to optimise its ability to achieve its goals; now and in future.

In order to create logic, synergy and coordination, organisations “cluster” its resources together into vertical hierarchies (positions on different levels of the organisation) and horizontal division, sections and functions. In the process, specialisation is created, and its became easier (and even simply possible) for the organisation to focus and determine exactly what human resources it will need to perform activities and implement its strategies.

Money (capital) is allocated to the different activities through the funding of divisions, section and other units (for which the budgeting process is utilized). Material resources required to perform the activities are also obtained through the process whereby money is allocated on the budget, followed by the purchasing of the material items.

In conclusion: An organisational strives towards its vision through an integrated process, composing of various sub-processes, whereby outcomes are set to direct performance, which are then achieved through performing activities that are performed on different levels on the organisational hierarchy.

Image source: 123RF

Text: Extensive use made of Google AI