mission statement Essay Samples

mission statement

... ﷓ the firm's basic products, primary markets, and principal technologies. Often a company's most referenced public statement of selected products and markets is presented in "silver bullet" form in the mission statement. For example: "Dayton-Hudson Corporation is a diversified retailing company whose business is to serve the American consumer through the retailing of fashion﷓oriented quality merchandise." 1 Such a statement serves as an abstract of company direction and is particularly helpful to outsiders who value condensed overviews. Company Goals: Survival, Growth, and Profitability Three economic goals guide the strategic direction of almost every viable business organization. Although it is not always explicitly stated, a company mission reflects the firm's intention to secure its survival through sustained growth and profitability. Unless a firm is able to survive, it will be incapable of satisfying any of its stakeholders' aims. Unfortunately, like growth and profitability, survival is such an assumed goal of the firm that it is often neglected as a principal criterion in strategic decision making. When this happens, the firm may focus on terminal aims at the expense of the long run. Concerns for expediency ﷓- a "quick fix" or a "bargain" -﷓ can displace the need for assessing long﷓term impacts. Too often the result is near﷓term economic failure, owing to a lack of resource synergy and sound business practice. Profitability is the main goal of a business organization. No matter how it is measured or defined, profit over the long term is accepted as the clearest indication of the firm's ability to satisfy the principal claims and desires of employees and stockholders. Clearly, the key phrase here is "over the long term,' since the use of short﷓term profitability measures as a basis for strategic decision making would lead to a focus on terminal aims. For example, a firm might be misguided into overlooking the enduring concerns of customers, suppliers, creditors, ecologists, and regulatory agents. Such a strategy could be profitable in the short run, but over time its financial consequences are likely to be seriously detrimental. The following excerpt from the Hewlett﷓Packard statement of corporate objectives (i.e.. mission) ably expresses the importance of an orientation toward long﷓term profit: Objective: To achieve sufficient profit to finance our company growth and to provide the resources we need to achieve our other corporate objectives. In our economic system, the profit we generate from our operations is the ultimate source of the funds we need to prosper and grow. It is the one absolutely essential measure of our corporate performance over the long term. Only if we continue to meet our profit objective can we achieve our other corporate objectives. A firm's growth is inextricably tied to its survival and profitability. In this context, the meaning of growth must be broadly defined. While market share growth has been shown by the PIMS studies to be strongly correlated with firm profitability, there are other important forms of growth. For example, growth in the number of markets served, in the variety of products offered, and in the technologies used to provide goods or services frequently leads to improvements in the company's competitive ability. Growth means change, and proactive change is a necessity in ...

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