The strategic management model - stages and mission statement

Résumé du document

After the Second World War, globalization was promoted by different organizations like the GATT, creating a great number of companies in the world and increasing the competition. To capture a part of the market, a firm has to establish its own management strategy to know its goals, to grow or to survive on the market because it constitutes the skeleton, or the structure of an enterprise. A part of this strategy is defined by the mission statement which is used by most firms and began being studied since the early 1970s. The mission statement is a document in which a brief statement of the purpose of a company, organization, or group is provided. In fact, a mission statement is the limited agreement about their purpose and content. But an organization cannot succeed in its business if it depends only on its mission statement. Is it then possible to say that a mission statement is the most important stage in the strategic management model?

Extraits

[...] In other words, if the mission statement is poorly understood it's because top managers do not properly explain it to employees as they take it without any degree of seriousness. Many companies do not pay attention which proves that mission statement is not essential in the corporate strategy. This phenomenon can also be explained by the fact that mission statement can have ambiguity: so few of the statements are perceived to be clear. Next, the mission statement is sometimes impractical. Indeed, companies can have very difficulties to realize their goals. It can be explained partly by lack of resources available to employees to achieve their aims. [...]

[...] We can say that it resolves divergent views among managers. For example, a new product program or project must take from the company's mission statement the same dimensions of strategy, values, purpose, behaviour to be set up and to respect the company's vision. Finally, mission statement constitutes a real motivation and inspiration for employees. It gives them a meaning of their work, their efforts, and the goals they have to achieve and it getting everyone focused on common objectives. For example, Nike, the famous sport clothes brand, with its mission statement Bring Inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” improve the motivation of its engineers to search and develop new innovative product. [...]

[...] We can see that mission statement is a really important stage in the strategic management model because it constitutes the backing of all the strategy and it helps companies in different way. According to John V Mullane, mission statement influence positively firm performance. But today, many studies are set up in companies to improve their strategies and to permit them to grow, so the importance of mission statements is more and more discussed. Indeed, for some people or managers, mission statements are not very important. Many studies have been conducted, and they prove that they are not always a crucial stage in the companies' strategy. [...]

[...] Indeed, the document may reveal to competitors the company's strategies, directions and purposes and they can use it to become more competitive. Thus, the mission statement can create negative effects on company performance and may even become dangerous. Furthermore, mission statements can not trying to keep a firm on track. Business environment is constantly changing, and many companies need to be flexible and have freedom of action to adapt their management to seize opportunities. A to strict adherence to a mission may prevent the company to seize development opportunities and other benefits could be offered by the changing of environment. [...]

[...] Finally, many strategies and stages are used in strategic management and they are really important for a company. In the history, trade was seen as an activity where the primary purpose of business was to collect maximum profits and for Drucker (1959), on the contrary, the principal aim for a company is surviving. Thus we can question the real function of the mission statement for a company: does it help really a firm to be more profitable or does it only permit to survive on the market? [...]