By painting a picture of the kind of company management is trying to create and the market position the company is striving to stake out, it will be graphic. It’s to be directional, by describing the company’s journey or destination and signaling the kinds of business and strategic changes that will be forthcoming. It should also be specific enough to provide managers with a focus for guiding decision making and allocating resources.

As events unfold and circumstances change, it is important for guidance and flexibility to be maintained. Goals laid out are to be feasible and within the realm of what the company can reasonably expect to achieve in due time. Key stakeholders, especially senior management, managers and front-line staff must find the destination desirable and in their long term interest.

 An effectively worded vision statement should be capable of being enunciated in less than ten minutes and ideally be reduced to a simple, memorable slogan. Slogans can be a quick way to illuminate the company’s direction and purpose. For example, O’Shanter Development Company’s slogan is “Managing to do the right thing.” Henry Ford had a famous vision of “a car in every garage” and Mayo Clinic’s slogan is “The best care to every patient every day.”

Mission statement

An effective mission statement must be incorporated to describe the current business scope and purpose of the enterprise (“who we are, what we do and why we are here”). The mission must direct attention: to the particular market arena in which it operates or the buyer it seeks to satisfy or the customer groups and market segments it is endeavoring to serve, and the types of resources and technologies that it is deploying in trying to please its customers.

Corporate values

Corporate values are to be spelled out. While deciding “who we are and where we are going,” we need to come up with a statement of values to guide the company’s pursuit of its vision. Value statements will generally contain between four to eight values, which are tightly connected to and reinforce a company’s vision, strategy and operating practices. For example: At O’Shanter, we embrace six values: social responsibility, fairness, trust, integrity, loyalty and professionalism. Home Depot embraces eight values: entrepreneurial spirit, excellent customer service, giving back to the community, respect for all people, doing the right thing, taking care of people, building strong relationships and creating share-holder value.

The Vision statement must link the overall goals with the company values. The values enunciated should be comprised of beliefs, business principles and practices that guide the conduct of its business, the pursuit of its strategic vision and the behavior of company personnel (i.e. ethics, integrity, an emphasis on quality and/or social responsibility).

The goals set out should include financial objectives. These should be revised as required based on actual performance, evolving conditions and emerging opportunities. Use these objectives as a benchmark to measure the company’s performance and progress. Performance metrics, scorecards and dashboard reports can be effective measuring tools.

An action plan is also needed. Consider creating a tiered Priority List (A, B and C). The desired outcomes should move the company along the strategic course the senior management team has charted. 

The way the chosen strategy is implemented must be part of the vision statement. At O’Shanter, we used a Gant Chart to create a time-related executive summary of our implementation plan.

Monitoring developments is an integral part of implementation. Organizations need to evaluate performance and continue to make corrective adjustments on a periodic basis. Everyone needs to be aware of this need from the very beginning.

Randy Daiter  is Vice-President and General Manager of O’Shanter Development Company and the author of numerous other industry articles.  For more information please view the website at www.oshanter.com.