The two words ‘Vision’ and ‘Mission’ are fairly self-explanatory. A vision or a mission statement is written with the purpose of stating the goals and the path chosen to achieve these goals of either a person, a group of people or even an organisation. These statements, when written by an individual, include an individual’s dreams and the steps taken by him/her to achieve them. Successful leaders and entrepreneurs of a company have chosen these two words to define the company’s direction. All companies create something known as the ‘vision statement’ and a ‘mission statement’ through which they reach out to their employees and the general public and communicate their intentions and future targets. A thin line separates the two statements – while a vision statement talks about the distant future and long term goals, mission statement speaks about the present and the near future. Both are written to inspire the employees and the customers and keep them loyal to the organisation. The article below attempts at streaking out a line of difference between the vision and the mission statement, two interdependent documents of a company.
Differences Between Vision And Mission Statement
-
Vision and mission statements are two entirely different aspects and play two separate roles in the development of a company. A mission statement is the one that projects and talks about the present situation and goals of the organisation while vision statement tries to picturise the organisation’s prospective future.
-
Mission statement of a company lists down the ideals and the goals based on which the company was formed, whereas the vision statement acts as a horoscope and lays down the framework on which the company intends to build its future. In other words, the vision statement lists down the future plans of the company.
-
A mission statement is an internal document with the leadership team of the company and stockholders being its prime audience. It defines the steps to be taken or the measures to be adopted by the company in order to develop. On the other hand, a vision statement is not for the management but for the employees and it projects the expectations that the management has from the employees. It provides guidelines to the employees regarding their expected behaviour and code of conduct and also supplies reasons to the customers for continuing their loyalty towards the company.
-
A mission statement, on one hand, answers the question that deals with ‘HOW’ to achieve success while a vision statement, on the other hand, provides an outline of the company’s future targets. It communicates, to the public, the purpose and the core values of the company, following which it visualizes the future plans of the organisation.
-
The mission statement of an organisation provides reasons for the internal team, i.e. the management, to work towards the betterment and development of the company while a vision statement provides reason and purpose to the customers to stick with the organisation, by presenting the promising future of the company to them.
-
A company must identify and then organise their winning ideas in order to create a mission statement. It is created in such a way that it makes the company stand out from its competitors and attracts customers to invest in the company. Next, the organisation must also list down the key measures that they intend to use in order to achieve these ideas. A unique mission statement is the reason for a company’s fundamental existence.
-
A company must write a mission statement first – in order to define their strategies – and only then can they proceed to create a vision statement. Once the company’s mission is clear, the real human value and the market value of your company will be known and this in turn, will ensure that you have a loyal following.
Both the vision statement and the mission statement are important business and marketing strategies of every company. The article above brings forth the meaning of both the words and seeks to explain the basic differences between the two!
