Your vision says where the company is heading, your mission says what it does today and for whom, and your values set how it behaves. Keep them short and specific, because if they would fit any other company as they stand, they are too general.
Step by step
- 1
Start with questions, not phrases
What do we do, for whom, what do we do differently, and how do we want the company to look in five years?
- 2
Write the vision
One sentence about the future the company is working toward, ambitious but clear to every employee, naming the market or the impact you want.
- 3
Write the mission
One or two sentences: what you offer, to whom, and the value the customer gets.
- 4
Choose a few values
Three to five values, each with behaviors you can see at work. A value of commitment, for example, means replying to customers within a set time.
- 5
Test them
Could a competitor say them word for word? Do they help you turn down an opportunity that does not suit you? If not, they need to be more specific.
- 6
Make them part of the work
Link the values to hiring and performance appraisal, and the vision to the annual plan and goals, or they stay a frame on the wall.
Big words such as leadership, excellence and quality, with no definition of what they mean in daily work, become words nobody remembers and that change no decision.
- difference between vision and mission
- vision and mission examples for a small business