Best Practices - 3 #Startups #SMEs

Every company should have Vision-Mission statements.

Every Startup/SME that have scaled up has clear-cut Vision-Mission statements that provide the employees and the customers with a sense of direction of the progress of the company.

Many companies lack clarity on the difference between Vision and Mission. Sometimes they have a combined Vision-Mission statement or they tend to have a mix of both.

How do you define a Company's Vision ?

This is defined as the primary goal that a company wishes to reach in 3 to 5 years time. For example : "To be a leading Automation Player in International Market."

How do you define a Company's Mission ?

This is defined as the primary way that a Company wishes to serve its Customers/Clientele. For example : "To offer state-of-the-art Automation solutions to our customers."

What are the characteristics of Vision-Mission statements ?

• Vision is intrinsic to a company; Mission is extrinsic to a company.
• Vision as well as Mission each should be just a one-liner which can be understood by any employee/customer.
• It should be simple, clear, brief and crisp to the point but it should be exciting and compelling too for the stakeholder. Some companies have long Vision-Mission statements, wherein anyone reading can find oneself lost by the time one completes reading of the same. Long statements are boring, lack intensity and never clearly understood by anyone.
• Vision-Mission statements should be those which are in line with the company's goals, objectives and strategies. There cannot be any mismatch between them.

Many companies underplay the impact of Vision-Mission statements and draft some fancy Mission-Vision statements that are just complicated and use some Technology jargons and bombastic words to beef up their statements. They do not serve any purpose except for the purpose of showcasing the vocabulary of the highly educated Marketing Team.

What is the impact of Vision-Mission statements?

1. Vision-Mission statements are supposed to entice and energise to action.
2. Vison should be able to excite employees and drive them to work for your company goals. Mission should be able to excite prospective customers and drive them to partner with you.
3. Whilst your employees will have to buy into your Vision, your prospective customers will have to buy into your Mission. In other words, the stakeholders must identify themselves with the Vision-Mission.

What is the process to be followed for Vision-Mission to help scale the company ?

It is important to do a survey and seek opinions from the employees on vision statement. Similarly, one can do a survey and seek opinions from prospective customers on mission statement.

The company management should be constantly, continuously and consistently identifying themselves with the Vision-Mission. They should be eating, sleeping, drinking, breathing and walking "Vision" and "Mission" on a regular basis. This will enable the company to entrench the Vision-Mission into the minds of the stakeholders.

Paint the company red with the Vision-Mission statements - this means that every marketing material should scream the words. Board room, conference room, canteen should have the graffiti of Vison-Mission.

Startup/SME is like a ship, where the CEO functions as the Captain of the ship. The employees are the sailors of the ship and they look forward to the Captain for direction and progress.

A company without a Vision-Mission, is like a ship without a Destination-Purpose.

However small your Startup or SME is, you should have Vision-Mission statements that energise the stakeholders to action.

Vision-Mission should be part of the Startup/SME DNA.