Aligning functions to Mission and Vision statements

#Vision #Mission

We see statements of mission and vision on websites, brochures, business cards of almost all organisations. I tend to wonder sometimes while working in or dealing with some organisations if these statements were actually thought through with mind and heart of the founders or management in to it or were just created by the website designers using some catchy, fancy words and phrases, sometimes so ambiguous or lookalike.

What is mission and vision? Mission is something the founders or the management want the organisations to be when the later mature. There cannot be any time-line or expiry period for mission as the mission may have to be re-looked at due to internal or external changes which the founders might never have thought of. For example, a technological innovation or disruptive idea can change the way the industry the organisation is in behaves or the business model the organisation is built up on till then and hence the mission statement may become stale. Vision is a short term goal that will build the organisations towards the envisaged mission.

The topic here is but different. I am talking about the alignment of various functions in an organisations towards reaching the vision and mission goals. If, only if, the vision and mission would have been thought through well, each function in the organisation should be aligned towards it which means they must have clarity on these statements and the work style, work culture, processes, technology, human resources policies, commercial and financial aspects, the KPIs, KRAs all must be tailored that way.

Each tactical decision must keep the vision in mind and each strategic decision the mission. Each function, its leadership, its team members must be aware as to why they do a certain thing and the what is ultimate objective of doing a certain task in terms of the company mission and vision.

Not having well-conceived vision and mission means a directionless approach. Not aligning functions, leaders, teams, people and even its customers and vendors to these statements will be like trying to reach a destination on a car with non-aligned road wheels but with a steering wheel.