The first step in developing a strategy is deciding upon your vision, mission and values. This will set the overall direction of the company and the framework under which you operate.
Vision – an aspirational goal(s) which describes what your company wants to be at some future date. Not only should the vision be aspirational, but it should be inspirational so staff are committed to achieving it
Mission – is what you do. A mission can be input focussed (ie your company’s role or functions) or outcomes focussed (ie benefits delivered to clients)
Values – what your company stands for. This is very often expressed as a list of description words (ie integrity, leading, customer focussed, etc).
Developing a vision, mission and values should be a team approach so that a wide range of views are heard and the best ideas are generated. Once confirmed they should be communicated to all staff and key stakeholders. The vision, mission and values are often found on a company’s website.
The best vision, mission and values statements are:
- simple and short
- easy to understand and remember
- not phony or too dramatic
- move with the times
- forward looking and customer focussed.