What’s Your Purpose
Marketing guru Simon Sinek drove into us the adage, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it”. Apple is a very good example of this. Certainly there are many companies that make cell phones. However, it is Apple’s underlying mission and vision for all their products that attracts many loyal and repeat customers. Many companies struggle with their mission and vision statements, certainly their raison d’etre; their reason-for-being. Such is probably due to them not having done their homework and jumped to the final line of creation of both their Mission and Vision statements. Every organization first has to understand, “What’s Your Purpose”.
Identify The Need
Workshops I attended had us jump right in and start crafting both a mission and vision statement. No wonder I felt at a loss. It was tough. What a mistake. Where you really start is way back, looking outward into the environment and landscape you strive to provide a solution to; wether your company is creating a product, delivering a service or sending a message. This covers all types of companies from for-profit Apple not-for-profit NGO orgs. You must know your market well. You must identify what is lacking, what is needed or something that is failing out there, which your company or organization exists and strives to fix. If you don’t understand your landscape well, how can you possibly get your mission and vision statement right? Remember, your Mission and Vision statements will be the core drivers of everything your company or organization does. And if tasks cannot be clearly identified as supporting and working towards you Mission and Vision, then you are wasting your resources, both time and money.
Know your Environment and Landscape Well
Getting and maintaining this pulse comes from many sources. It could be from surveys you run. It can come from market research reports and from media. Talking to customers is the best way. Just ask them. Many are more than happy to share their pain points with you. With social media, there is alot of sentiment and info that can be gained through facebook, linkedin, instagram and pinterest. During presentations and training sessions, a good break could be to slip in a poll every hour, especially when using zoom for virtual presentations. I call this part the (Vision). I deliberately have vision in brackets so as not to confuse it with the final Vision alongside your Mission statements. This is a step that every company or organization should constantly be on top of, as the marketplace landscape is always changing, revealing new opportunities.
Crafting Your What How and Why
The popular thought is that an organization, wether for profit or not-for-profit, should craft a concise focused Mission Statement. Primarily it should answer 2 questions; WHAT do you do? and HOW do you do it. WHAT and HOW. Once answered it should clearly lead and drive the Vision Statement; Why? The Mission statement then supports or naturally leads to the Vision Statement; The WHY. But there is a very important step missing that is seldom, if ever, talked about in reading and exercises leading to creation of Mission / Vision statements. That step is what I call the (VISION).
Doing the Background Work of (VISION)
This is a predecessor step which I deliberately have in brackets, (VISION) so as not to confuse it with an organizations’ VISION statement. This (Vision) is the starting point and where most of the time should be spent. It is the
(Vision) looking outward to identify what is needed or missing in the public at-large. It is this (Vision) that has brought your company or organization to its beginnings. It may identify a product, service or message that is needed. If there is an existing one, it may be lacking in some way. It may be very clumsy to use. It may be expensive. Perhaps it doesn’t last very long and needs constant replacement. It may be a service that just doesn’t do the job. Or it may be a message that is not being received well or creating confusion with mixed messages. It just doesn’t fill the need. It may identify a need for a product that is not yet invented. It also may identify a number of products that attempt to do something, but they are either too expensive, don’t last long or don’t do it very well. This (vision) statement identifies a need; an opportunity.
Creating the (Vision)
This (vision) material is most like market research and can come from many sources. It could come from market research. It can come from surveys. It could come from customer testimonials.
Collect all this (vision) data and you are well equipped to craft your very good Mission and subsequent Vision statement. Your Mission and Vision statement then fully align all your staff to work together, in the same direction, in unison for the same Mission because of your Vision.
Review Regularly
By no means should (Vision), Mission and Vision be placed on the shelf and completely forgotten. The environment changes and so can the need for a product, service or message. And new opportunities may arise. As a minimum annually but ideally as the market conditions change and reshape the landscape. Once this process is in place and defined within an organization, it is easy to tweak and adjust. It becomes a routine maintenance practise. And all key people should always ask themselves and others within the organization, “Are we filling the need?”, “Are we working in fulfilling our Vision?” An organization should always strive for the 1 answer “YES”.
(Vision) Mission Vision
You have arrived at your organizations’ destination. You now have a crafted and researched Mission and Vision statement. The (Vision) drives your Mission. Your Mission drives your Vision. The Mission / Vision drives your marketing team, ambassadors and most importantly, your employees. Your website, social media, brochures and your marketing material should now speak the same language. Your entire team knows what your purpose is. Everything everyone does should be in support of that Mission / Vision statement. Most everyone in your company that markets, sells, and publicizes your product, service or message should be in unison.
