The Company Mission: Navigating the Final Frontier to Achieve Success
- Zoran Vidovic
- Nov 15, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 29, 2024
So, we have mentioned 11 key elements of a company in our previous post, "Entrepreneurship; a Journey Into the Unknown. Or is it?"
Let's dig into the mission element, as it is the main goal of our enterprise.
What is the company's mission?
It is the final frontier.
It is the main driving force.
It is the essence of an enterprise.
It is the main reason for its existence.
It is the final goal we aim to achieve with our enterprise.
It is a statement of our dedication and perseverance in making the world a better place.
It binds us on our quest to achieve it through entrepreneurial processes without losing ourselves.
The company's mission statement should be clear on why the company exists, what purpose it serves and how.
Why is it important?
It is imperative to have the company mission for each enterprise, as it keeps everyone on the path of success in line with set goals.
It is no different than our personal lives, as we have life missions that we aim to fulfill on a daily basis.
It could be our ultimate life mission, such as starting a family.
It could be our long-range life mission, such as starting a career.
It could be our mid-range life mission, such as finishing college.
It could be our short-range life mission, such as refurbishing a house.
Whatever we do, we have a plan, and we try to stick with it to accomplish it. This includes even a simple grocery store visit where we come prepared with a mission plan in the form of a shopping list of items we plan to buy at a certain price to fulfill our basic needs and stay within our budget.
So, our company mission will be the same. We will identify a need that needs to be satisfied in our society and achieve it in a way that complements our character and belief system while benefiting society.
What to avoid?
We need to avoid making the profit our mission, as it then opens a wide range of approaches not necessarily in line with social consensus or the greater good for society.
The profit will follow if we identify the need that needs to be satisfied for our consumers, whether it is a product or a service.
A profit-oriented mission is taking us in a direction where we are bound to bend and even break the rules to achieve it. A mission aligned with the greater good for society helps us maintain the highest level of social preservation.
Is the mission written in stone?
Yes and No.
Yes, in a way that it is the main drive and cannot be ignored in daily operation and future development. Every decision needs to be in line with our mission. All professional development for our employees and ourselves needs to be in line with our mission.
No, in a way that it needs to be revisited when new directions have been identified in a market shift or consumer needs. We need to avoid the mindset that we have always done it this way and adapt to the market and needs of our consumers. This, however, also needs to be fueled by the greater good for society and not by pure profit.
How does it affect our operation?
The mission is constantly driving the direction of our operation in sustainable and achievable ways, in line with the greater interest of society.
It serves as a check on the balance between human desire and the need to achieve more profit and power and the interests of our consumers and society as a whole.
How you may ask?
Well, if we set our mission to be pure profit and power, it will take us on a trajectory of a hostile and toxic company culture, which will result in a borderline acceptable or absolutely unacceptable approach to obtaining it.
It could range from unethical, but not necessarily illegal, actions in minimizing the tax responsibilities, which then negatively affects society.
It could take us in the direction of unfair competing practices against our competitors and suppliers and put them in an unfavorable position by utilizing immoral and unethical business practices.
It could foster a company culture based on competition and self-preservation rather than teamwork and cooperation in achieving the company goal. This then creates good ground for immoral and selfish behaviors with a tendency to potentially harm others in their pursuit of greatness.
It could result in the delivery of mediocre or even flawed products or services for our consumers, which will inevitably result in a loss of trust.
Either way, we will find ourselves chasing our tails in a constant struggle to maintain the illusion of excellence while we resort to the same old fraudulent practices.
On the other hand, if we set our mission with the desire to serve our society and fulfill certain needs in a sustainable way that complements our society, we will have better results in the long run.
Our actions will be in accordance with the law, ethics, social consensus, and our belief system, and above all, they will serve the greater good.
Our company will compete fairly and with respect to our competitors and partners, who we are going to see more as an inspiration boosting our ingenuity and innovation.
Our company culture will flourish and create a good ground for personal development for ourselves and our employees, as well as the society as a whole.
Our company will deliver great products and services, which will be rewarded with our consumer's trust and loyalty.
So, it's no brainer, although we need to understand that staying on the good side comes at a certain cost. It is much easier to achieve a fast return and good financial results with a broken moral compass, but in the long run, the company mission set in great values returns greater interest.
How to preserve the mission?
Treat it as a base of the company, as it is, rather than some abstract document serving to lure potential customers.
We need to set all other elements of our enterprise in line with the mission to prevent drifting away from it.
We also need to maintain our focus on the mission with the ability to see it from different perspectives to be able to determine if it serves the greater good with new market shifts and consumer needs.
How do we create a company mission?
Firstly, we are going to come up with an idea of a product or service we are interested in providing, either through conscious (brainstorming) or unconscious approaches (eureka moment).
Then we need to understand if such a product or service is going to satisfy an existing need or if we will need to create a need for it. This is an important part of the process, and we need to be cautious and ask ourselves: Is the need we plan to create or satisfy good for society, as not every idea proved to be?
An example would be tobacco products, which have been created and, with extensive marketing efforts, installed as basic human needs, although it could not be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, it is absolutely toxic and not good for human consumption, contrary to the not-so-distant marketing messaging that even depicted medical doctors as smoking advocates in the 1940s and 1950s.
Once we are comfortable with the idea, as we are confident it will serve society, we then need to decide what positive impact it is going to have and how.
Is it going to improve the life quality?
Is it going to improve people's health?
Is it going to bring society closer together?
Is it going to minimize environmental damage?
Whatever it might be, once we find the positive effect it will have on society, we will then have our mission within reach.
We are going to honor it by putting it all together.
The product/service we plan to offer
The positive effect on society and the environment
The way we plan to achieve it and stay within our set parameters
An example: "We are dedicated to delivering organic, fresh food from local farmers to our community in a day. Our mission is to elevate human health through sustainable, organic, locally sourced farming. From local farm to your table, as we are committed to preserving both your health and our environment."
This now brings us to the question of how we are going to achieve this and in what time frame. That is going to become our company vision.