Mission statement definition: Guide for companies and organizations

A mission statement is more than just a piece of paper with nice-sounding words. It's the compass that guides companies and organizations and helps them define and communicate their identity. In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about mission statement definition, the importance of a corporate mission statement, and practical tips for creating and implementing it.

What is a Mission Statement? A Clear Definition

A mission statement is a written statement of an organization's identity and core principles. It briefly and concisely formulates the organization's mission, strategic goals (vision), and key principles for how they are implemented (values). The mission statement serves as a framework for all stakeholders and represents the company's strategic direction.

The Core Elements of a Mission Statement

A comprehensive mission statement typically consists of three main components:

Vision: This describes the company's long-term goal and vision for the future.
Mission: This defines the company's purpose and core mission.
Values and Principles: These establish ethical principles and standards of behavior.

The Importance of a Mission Statement for Companies

A well-written mission statement fulfills several important functions:

Orientation: It provides a consistent direction for all members of the organization.
Motivation: It inspires and motivates employees by providing a clear purpose and direction.
Identification: It promotes employee identification with the company.
Communication: It communicates what the company stands for.
Decision-making support: It serves as a guide for strategic decisions.

Mission Statement Content: What should be included in a good mission statement?

An effective mission statement should include the following elements:

1.) Motto or slogan: A concise statement that clarifies the company's identity.

2.) Mission and vision: A clear statement of what the company stands for and what it wants to achieve.

3.) Values and principles: Statements about how employees interact with one another and how they work together.

Mission Statement Examples: Inspiration from Successful Companies

To understand the power of a well-written mission statement, let's take a look at some inspiring mission statement examples:

1.) IKEA: "Our business concept is to create a better everyday life for the many people. We do this by offering a wide range of beautifully designed and functional home products at prices low enough that as many people as possible can afford them."

2.) Patagonia: "We are in business to save our home planet."

3.) Google: "Our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

These examples demonstrate how companies can summarize their core values and goals in concise and inspiring statements.

How do you create an effective corporate mission statement?

Developing an effective mission statement requires a structured process:

1.) Analysis and preparation: Reflect on your company's core values and goals.

2.) Stakeholder involvement: Involve employees, managers, and possibly customers in the process.

3.) Formulation: Summarize the collected ideas in clear and concise statements.

4.) Finalization and Adoption: Revise and refine the mission statement until it perfectly reflects the essence of your company.

5.) Communication and Implementation: Ensure that the mission statement is communicated and lived throughout the organization.

The role of DIALOGBILD in mission statement development

Visualization can play a crucial role in the creation of a mission statement. This is where DIALOGBILD comes in. DIALOGBILD supports companies in visually presenting their mission statements, thus promoting their understanding and acceptance. Through customized visualizations, DIALOGBILD brings abstract values and goals to life and makes them easily accessible. The visual representation helps to convey complex topics clearly, demonstrate connections, and provide orientation. The process of creating a mission statement with DIALOGBILD can include the following steps: 1.) Analysis of existing material: DIALOGBILD reviews existing texts on vision, mission, and values.

Visual implementation: The developed content is translated into an appealing and meaningful image.
Feedback and adjustment: The created image is presented and adjusted as needed.
Finalization and implementation: The finished dialog image is made available in various formats for internal and external communication.

Mission Statement Definition: The Advantages of Visual Mission Statement Representation

Visualizing the mission statement using DIALOGBILD offers several advantages:

Better comprehensibility: Complex relationships can be grasped at a glance.
Higher retention: Visual information is better remembered than text alone.
Stronger emotional impact: Images appeal to the emotional level and promote identification with the mission statement.
Flexibility of use: The visualized mission statement can be used in a variety of contexts, from presentations to internal training sessions.

Implementing and Maintaining the Mission Statement

A mission statement is only as good as its implementation in everyday company life. Here are some tips for successful implementation:

1.) Communication: Ensure that all employees are familiar with the mission statement. Use various communication channels such as the intranet, staff meetings, or workshops.

2.) Role Model: Managers should live the mission statement and consider it in their decisions.

3.) Integration into Processes: Anchor the mission statement in company processes such as employee interviews or strategic planning.

4.) Regular Review: Evaluate at regular intervals whether the mission statement is still relevant and how well it is being implemented.

5.) Adaptation: Be prepared to adapt the mission statement when the company's reality or environment changes.

Conclusion: The Power of a Well-Defined Mission Statement

A clearly defined and well-communicated mission statement is a powerful tool for companies and organizations. It creates clarity about goals and values, motivates employees, and helps with external positioning. With the support of visualization experts like DIALOGBILD, your mission statement can become a vibrant and inspiring guide for your company. Invest time and resources in developing your mission statement. It will pay off – in the form of committed employees, clear decisions, and a strong corporate identity. Let your mission statement become the compass that guides your company safely into the future.

Beiersdorf Fabrik der Zukunft Leitbild Digital Supply Chain Visionsbild Dialogbild Agentur für Visualisierung von Prozessen, Veränderungen und Visionen.

FACTORY OF THE FUTURE

Beiersdorf Digital Supply Chain Vision

For over 140 years the Beiersdorf AG has been standing for innovative, high-quality skin and body care, as well as leading skin research. The company convinces customers worldwide with its internationally leading brands and their consumer-needs oriented product portfolio. The supply chain, with its resilient and modern production network, significantly adds to this success.

The production processes find themselves in change during the fourth industrial revolution. They become more efficient and connected through the use of modern technologies, as well as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and automatization. The “Factory of the Future” relies on agility, sustainability, productivity and transparency, all of which is driven by digitalization. People and data play a central role in this. Our dialog picture shows exactly these important points and paints a picture of the future.

VW Nutzfahrzeuge Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge die Fabrik der Zukunft Smart geplant Dialogbild Agentur für Visualisierung von Prozessen, Veränderungen und Visionen.

TRANSFORMATION PLANT HANOVER

Process optimization, strategy, cultural work and good communication are key to the VW Nutzfahrzeuge plant management Hanover in leading the way to a successful future. In the past, strategy and transformation processes were often accompanied by powerpoint "battles".There were numerous charts that tried to make it as comprehensible as possible what goals the company wanted to achieve and how it planed to get there.

Now the company wants to go other ways and has developed a vision for the future together with Goldpark and DIALOGBILD. On the one hand, the picture emerged in an intensive process, on the other hand, the discussion about the things that are important to the board in the picture led to a common understanding and also made it possible for different perspectives to be discussed and brought together.

Hellmann Promise For the Better. Together. Leitbild Unternehmenskultur Dialogbild Agentur für Visualisierung von Prozessen, Veränderungen und Visionen.

HELLMANN PROMISE

FOR THE BETTER. TOGETHER.

Helm is a globally active family-owned company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The fields of activity are the business units Chemicals, Fertilizer, Coop Protection and Pharma, which our company with its 1,500 employees takes care of.

In the course of the transformation process, we decided to use a dialog picture in order to communicate the different aspects and areas to our employees in an understandable and easy-to-remember way. For this purpose, each employee also received his or her own picture after the company meeting.

Hahn Gruppe Strategie 2028 Erklärbild Leitbild Strategiebild Dialogbild Agentur für Visualisierung von Prozessen, Veränderungen und Visionen.

STRATEGY 2028

THE HAHN GROUP - TRADITIONALLY INNOVATIVE!

The Hahn Group is one of the largest automobile trading companies in Germany. With around 2,000 employees and 35 plants of the Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat brands in the Stuttgart metropolitan region, Hahn has enjoyed a strong market position for 100 years and is a reliable partner for customers, employees and business partners.

The automotive industry is undergoing the greatest upheaval in its history. The Hahn family of entrepreneurs has always implemented innovative ideas and broken new ground, making the company an extremely successful enterprise. In 2018, the management developed a long-term strategy that, in addition to economic factors, also includes topics such as digitisation and new business models. The great challenge that drew our attention to DIALOGBILD was to make this 150-page paper understandable to all employees in a simple form.

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Remelting and casting, rolling and slitting: With its 2,200 employees Aluminium Norf is the biggest aluminium rolling and casting facility in the world. This extraordinary working environment presents the most diverse challenges for employees and managers: The processing of the hot 32-ton aluminium ingots not only demands perfect precision and team work, but also exact know-how of all the different machines, processes and of course safety regulations. Furthermore environmental standards, quality and customer requirements and the company′s own values play an important role in the daily working routine.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

Bäderland is the urban swimming pool operator in Hamburg with a broad offer of services in the fields swimming, fitness, wellness and relaxation. With 26 indoor and outdoor pools, Bäderland is Germany‘s largest and Europe‘s second largest swimming pool operator. To communicate the newly revised company mission and the future company goals to the employees and to create a common understand, Bäderland decided on the development of a dialog picture.

MISSION STATEMENT LOGISTICS

INDIVIDUAL, INNOVATIVE & PROACTIVE

The Festo Group provides answers to questions in the field of automation technology. The success of these answers is demonstrated by the 300,000 customers worldwide from over 35 industries in 176 countries. If one of the approximately 33,000 catalog products is not suitable, Festo will develop customized customer solutions: Individual, innovative and proactive.

In order to drive forward its own internal development within OPEX, Festo initiated the collaboration with DIALOGBILD. The goal was to communicate to employees at first glance where their own work area is and which topics also interact across the board.

STRATEGY AGENDA

FUTURE-ORIENTED DESIGN OF COOPERATIVE BANKING

With its 220 employees, the BVR is at the forefront of the cooperative banking industry in Germany and represents the interests of its members, in the context of the cooperative set of values. The focus is not only on advising and promoting the cooperative credit unions but also on actively shaping the banking of the future, which involves monitoring trends and working on strategy, culminating in new strategic goals.

With its strategy agenda in mind, BVR turned to Dialogbild to work together on a visualization that would be able to illustrate the interdependent unity of the strategies for all cooperative members and create a multidimensional overview.

What is a mission statement?

A mission statement is a written statement of an organization's identity, core principles, and values. It describes the vision, mission, and desired corporate culture and serves as a framework for orientation for all stakeholders.

What elements does a mission statement typically contain?

A mission statement typically consists of the following elements:

Vision: Long-term goals and vision of the future
Mission: Purpose and core mission of the company
Values: Ethical principles and standards of conduct
Strategic goals: Concrete objectives derived from the vision and mission

Why is a mission statement important for companies?

A mission statement is important because it:

Provides guidance for employees and managers
Creates a strong corporate culture and identity
Strengthens the trust of customers and partners
Supports strategic decisions
How long should a mission statement be?

An effective mission statement should be short and concise, containing approximately 100 words or one to three sentences. It should convey the core messages clearly and understandably.

How do you develop an effective mission statement?

Developing a mission statement involves the following steps:

Analysis and preparation
Stakeholder engagement
Formulation of key messages
Finalization and adoption
Communication and implementation

How often should a mission statement be revised?

A mission statement should be reviewed regularly and adjusted as needed. It is typically focused on the next five to ten years.

How can you communicate a mission statement effectively?

Various methods can be used to effectively communicate a mission statement:

Internal workshops and training
Visual representations (e.g., through DIALOGBILD)
Integration into corporate processes and communications
Regular discussion in employee meetings

What role does visualization play in mission statement communication?

Visualization can significantly increase the comprehensibility and effectiveness of a mission statement. Companies like DIALOGBILD help to clearly present complex relationships and strengthen emotional connections 7.