The 'raison dêtre' of each company is its mission, it is written down as a mission statement. A mission is a general expression of the overall purpose of the organization. It should answer to the question, 'what business are we in?'. Managers have to set strategies in order to achieve objectives and ensure the welfare of the company. These long term view strategies are actually the main components of the corporate planning. A good and relevant strategy is one of the most important aspects in the development of a company. John Argenti tells us that, from his point of view, mission should be defined once the corporate planning process is established. According him, the mission may have a bad influence on the strategy of the company if it precedes it. Some authors do not agree with him. They claim that company have to have their own mission before making strategic plans for the future. Arguments from each point of view are credible and it is interesting to analyze them and to discuss about the relationship between the mission and the corporate strategy. In this assignment, we will first explain and clarify what a mission is, and the difference between the definition of mission, mission statement, strategy and objective. Then, the main part of the assignment will be a discussion about the place and the role of the mission in the corporate planning process. We will first present the case for John Argenti's point of view . In the final part we will analyze the arguments of its detractors.
[...] Customers, the target market Products / Services, offering and value provided to customers Geographie markets, where the firm seeks customers Technology, the technology used to produce and market products Concern for survival / growth / profits, the firm's concern for financial soundness Philosophy, the firm's values, ethics, belief Public image, contribution the firm makes to communities Employees, the importance of managers and employees Distinctive competence, how the firm is different or better than competitors. It is necessary to understand the basic difference between mission, objective and strategy. [...]
[...] In my opinion this description explains that both mission and objectives should be taken in account for defining the strategy of a company. As said before, it seems logical to first of all think approximately about the mission to have an idea of what is the purpose of the company. This enables managers to elaborate a strategy without the risk to miss a potential strategic opportunity. Then the mission can be fine-tuned taking in account the directions given by the strategy. [...]
[...] Exploring corporate strategy: Text and Cases (7th ed.). Pearson Custom. Matejka, K., Kurke, L., & Gregory, B. (1993). Mission Impossible ? Designing a grat mission statement to ignite your plans. Management Decision pp. 34-37. Mintzberg, H. (1994). The rise and fall of strategic planning. Prentice Hall Europe. Mullane, J. (2002). [...]
[...] Long Range Planning, vol 24 pp. 10-20. David, F., & David, F. (2003). It's time to redraft your mission statement. The journal of business strategy, vol 24 (iss.1), p11. Goodstein, L., Nolan, T., & Pfeiffer, W. (1993). Applied strategic planning. McGraw-Hill. Grant, R. (2002). Contemporary Strategy Analysis, Concepts, techniques, Applications (4th ed.). Blackwell Business. [...]
[...] The vision of the mission emerging from these arguments is that the mission should be the first step of the corporate planning process. It is like a guideline for managers to establish their corporate strategy. To conclude we can say that the establishment of mission and strategy is a kind of cyclical process and that also both elements are strongly linked to each other. This means that at the creation of the company, the mission should be established before the corporate planning process. [...]
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