Mission statements - What are they for and how effective are they?

Citation

(1999), "Mission statements - What are they for and how effective are they?", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 20 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.1999.02220eab.004

Mission statements - What are they for and how effective are they?

Mission statements - What are they for and how effective are they?

Keywords: Corporate communications, Corporate identity, Core beliefs, Effectiveness

An analysis by international marketing research company, Total Research, into 55 randomly selected mission statements from major global Blue Chip companies has raised many fundamental questions about their impact, as well as highlighting some common themes and variations in their composition and outlook.

"Many company mission statements appear to have no clear purpose and no clear audience, in which case they could be a waste of time", observed managing director of global business development at Total Research, Farrokh Suntook. "Also a number of them seem to be saying very similar things, thereby losing the impact they would have if they were more distinctive. They raise far more questions than answers."

The term "mission statement" appears to mean different things to different organisations. Terms used to describe "mission statement" included corporate identity, mission, vision, values, goals, objectives, principles of business and directional statement. With this apparent confusion, how effective are they in defining what companies stand for, the goals and aspirations of companies and the direction in which they are moving?

A further question raised is to whom are mission statements directed? A mission statement appears to be targeted at any one or a combination of audiences. These include customers, shareholders, company staff, external opinion leaders, competitors and the general public. This results in a mix of messages which may or may not be relevant to a specific audience.

A common theme of most mission statements is a focus on customer care. More themes emerge as the statements get longer. Therefore, Total Research analysed the key themes by dividing mission statements into three text-length groups - short, medium and long.

Short-length mission statements (maximum 3 lines of text)

The shorter mission statements, by definition, contain the fewest themes (see Table I). Two-thirds of the short statements analysed talk about "customer care/focus". The customer theme is closely followed by "product or service quality/excellence". These two themes are clearly the most popular, with global reach surprisingly seldom mentioned in the mission statements of the international companies researched.

Medium-length mission statements (3 lines up to 1 page of text)

As the length of mission statements increases, so the number of themes increase. The theme of "product or service quality/excellence" is almost universal in this category, with 90 per cent of companies mentioning it in the medium-length company mission statements researched (see Table II).

The top theme found in short mission statements, "customer care/focus", is still prevalent but shares joint second place with "market leader/most competitive". Both themes appear in three-quarters of all medium-length mission statements. "Shareholder value" takes on far greater importance than in shorter statements, now mentioned by nearly half of companies.

Longer mission statements (more than 1 page of text)

Over half of the longer mission statements examined are so comprehensive that they appear to try to encompass all possible themes (see Table III). Interestingly, "staff focus/motivation" assumes far greater importance in the longer mission statements. This theme, together with "customer care/focus" appears in nearly three-quarters of all such statements.

The executive summary of the report called "Mission statements - what are they for and how effective are they?" is available free of charge from Total Research, Watermans Park, High Street, Brentford TW8 0BB, UK. Tel: ++ 44 (0)181-263-5200; Fax: ++ 44 (0)181263-5222.