How to Build Powerful Mission Statements: A Core Tool for Success

In times of rapid change, companies find themselves needing to evolve quickly in order to take advantage of new opportunities. Now more than ever, companies must be agile and nimble in their strategic decisions and directions.

By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D., Director of Innovation, Emerging Science and Technology, AAPG

What is often left behind as companies focus on deals, directions, and personnel changes, is the fact that without a clear mission statement that has sufficient flexibility to keep focus, the organization may run the risk of unravelling. In this case, it is important to take a step back and to revisit the company’s reason for existence. Does the company’s reason for existence still make sense? In times of rapid change, particularly of technology, business environment, political and economic structural change, the original reason for the company’s existence might change. That change needs to be reflected in the mission statement.

The Purpose and Overall Intention of the Organization

First and foremost, in an organization’s strategic planning and execution is the mission statement. However, the mission statement is often overlooked and its power unappreciated.

A well-crafted mission statement can help all stakeholders continue to communicate clearly with each other, and to look at all the changes in business conditions as an opportunity to maintain a coherent set of behaviors. Without an effective and mutually understood mission statement, the organization runs the risk of fragmenting into small, mutually incompatible parts.

Attributes of an Effective Mission Statement

Organizations can take months developing their mission statement. While the process can become onerous and the wordsmithing taken to extremes, it is important to recognize that the mission statement the “go-to” location for all the organization’s stakeholders’ sense of purpose, direction, and meaning. Above all, the mission statement has to be clear and actionable, so that later, in developing a strategic plan, targets can be created with measurable outcomes.

Brief: The mission statement needs to be clear, succinct, and easily understood by all constituencies.

Memorable: The purpose of the company should be expressed in a way that is memorable so that whenever there is a question about a direction or the need to weigh various options, the mission statement comes to mind in a clear, easy-to-remember way.

Action-focused: Mission statements are about action and they clearly guide what the members of the organization do.

Positive: The focus is positive, with a sense that the reason for the organization’s existence is reasonable and success is achievable.

Targeted to a specific audience: The audience for the mission statement consists of stakeholders within and outside the organization.

Tie to an envisioned future: The mission statement should have a clear connection to the organization’s vision statement, which should be aspirational and inspiring.

Purpose of the Mission Statement

In addition to encapsulating what the purpose of the company is, the mission statement unifies team members. The mission statement enables goal-oriented, measurable action.

The mission is not just about actions that are expressed in facts, figures, numbers, and projections. A good mission statement should inspire and engage emotions so that people in the team feel a positive, optimistic sense of unity and flow. A good mission statement should unite actions and also a sense of identity.

A good mission statement establishes a collective identity that makes people want to come together and work toward a common cause. For that reason, the mission statement should reflect a philosophy of inclusion and mutual respect. The mission should inspire individuals in the organization to care about each other as they work together to make the aspirational vision a reality.

So, there are tie-ins to both the corporate vision and values. The organization’s vision statement is a description of what the company will look like in the future. The values statements are articulations of beliefs and guiding principles.

Importance of a Good Mission Statement

Developing a mission statement is not easy, and the committee charged with developing the mission statement may start to either become too general, or can become too specific. There are a few things to keep in mind when looking at the various drafts and iterations of a mission statement:

Clarity: The mission statement needs to be written in a way that is understood in the same way by all the stakeholders.

Effective Delegation of Action: The mission statement should not lend itself to top-down centralization, but should encourage voices from across the organization to suggest better ways to get to the ultimate goals. The mission statement encapsulates effective leadership and meaningful delegation of work, responsibility, and seeking growth opportunities.

Coordination and Teamwork: A mission statement should encourage members of the organization to communicate clearly, to coordinate their efforts, and to think about working together in teams.

Mission Statement in Action

As articulations of the organizational reason for existence and core purpose, they directly connect to decisions and strategic behaviors. Here are a few of the major ways it does so:

Unifying tool: The core function of the mission statement is to communicate well; the mission statement itself constitutes a unifying tool that threads all the parts together and in proper sequence.

Integration: The mission statement is a nexus. It allows connections and integration between it, as an action-oriented statement, and the organization’s vision, goals, and values.

Strategy: The mission statement launches the strategic process, and forms the linchpin of all subsequent activities. All team activity and dedication of resources should pass the test of whether it aligns with the mission.

Identity: The organization’s core identity forms around the mission statement. The mission statement must be broad enough to allow the organizational sense of self and beingness to adapt with changing times and circumstances.

Ethical Standards: The mission statement should possess an innate integrity that relates to core values of high ethical standards, transparency, and respect for people, nature, and the legal framework.

Team: The mission statement facilitates the formation of effective teams that communicate with each other effectively in order to achieve well-understood goals.

Examples of Newly-Honed Mission Statements

In recent years, many companies, particularly those in transportation, infrastructure, and energy, have recrafted their mission statements to reflect new conditions. Here are a few examples, all of which reflect many of the principles of mission statement development reflected above. Please note that the emphasis in the paragraphs is what the companies themselves have presented in bold-face in their websites.

Total Energies: To become the responsible energy company means providing better energy that is more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Our ambition: to be a world-class player in the energy transition.

ExxonMobil: Exxon Mobil Corporation is committed to being the world's premier petroleum and chemical manufacturing company. To that end, we must continuously achieve superior financial and operating results while adhering to high ethical standards.

Kinder Morgan: Provides Energy Transportation and Storage Services in a Safe, Efficient and Environmentally Responsible Manner for the Benefit of People, Communities and Businesses.

Siemens: Siemens' mission is to create outstanding and high-performing technology and products that will revolutionize the world and change the perceptions of its users and customers.

Equinor: Equinor is an international energy company committed to long-term value creation in a low-carbon future. Our purpose is to turn natural resources into energy for people and progress for society.

A Guiding Conclusion

After reflecting on the importance of a clear mission statement that serves unifying, facilitating, and empowering functions, it is clear that some of the most successful companies in the world take their mission statements very seriously. In addition to making sure that the mission statements reflect the core reason for existence, they also possess a powerful public relations function, communicating a positive message to individuals, communities, companies, and governments.