The first idea is to have a vision for the organization which would be futuristic and shared by everyone in the organization. Any organization should know what they are working towards, the employees, customers, stakeholders should know where the organization wants to be. Vision statement works as motivation and might not reflect the present for the firm and guide the firm to where it needs to be.
For example, Steve Ells the co-founder of Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant chain had a vision “that food served fast doesn’t have to be low quality and that delicious food doesn’t have to be expensive”, and Chipotle is based on that foundation (Chipotle,n.d.). it is futuristic, not bound by any timeline and as stakeholders, we get the idea what the restaurant chain is trying to do. When a company is global, it is especially important that their vision is known to people, so that when they go to foreign markets people get an idea about them.
Second, this is the mission statement for the firm, which should reflect the present and the future. The mission statement should explain “Who we are” and “What we do” and on a philosophical sense, it should explain why the farm exits and the meaning of existence.
For example, Chipotle’s mission statement is to deliver “food with integrity” (The motley fool, 2018). Chipotle sources the ingredients from a specific set of farmer or farms who raise animals and vegetables the way they were supposed to. And customers are served those ingredients. When we think about their vision which is to make healthy food available for affordable prices, they take the healthy part seriously.
One the firm has both a vision statement and mission statement, it needs to understand the difference between those 2. The purpose of vision and mission statements are different, and stakeholders should be able to differentiate those two. While vision is a futuristic statement, the mission is not so futuristic. In this ever-evolving world, firms need to adjust the mission often, to get where they want to go. And it should the leadership team’s responsibility to present both vision and mission to the stakeholders and when mission changes, they should communicate the change too. .
• What role does a strong leader play in the formulation vision and mission statements for a company?
A leader is who can anticipate. For Chipotle we see the founder’s vision became the organization's vision. And often founders are visionaries. We hear about Google’s founders or Apple’s founder, they all are and were visionaries. They had a vision for those companies, where they wanted to be. And the mission is all about what the firm is doing right and the moment and continue doing in foreseeable future.
One of our favorite company Amazon, we can see how their mission evolved over the years. They started as an online book store, then they quickly moved to the music, now they sell so many things, they run a delivery company, cloud computing platform, whole foods etc.
Amazon’s corporate vision is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online(Gregory,2019).”
We can see, although they started with books and now they deliver grocery, they are still sticking to the vision they had. This is where Jeff Bezos being a strong leader was very effective. He had this vision which Amazon adopted and stuck to and now they are this online retail giant.
Amazon’s mission statement is “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience(Gregory,2019).” As an online retailer, this is the mission they are following, as Amazon continues evolving they might change this mission statement in the future.
As a visionary leader starts a company with a vision and a mission, which is nothing but what the company does for the customers and stakeholders, gets adopted by the whole company. As the company grows the mission and vision get shared amongst all the employees and customers.
A strong leader can have a vision that might seem farfetched at that moment but following the mission might get the organization working towards achieving the vision. The leader's strength reflects as he or she makes the workforce rally behind the mission and vision.
Amazon is international now, and wherever they are, they are following the same mission and vision, they have not really adopted different vision or mission based on their geography.
• Analyze whether internal (company culture, firm’s resources, etc.) or external (government regulations, competition, etc.) are the most relevant to a global firm’s vision and mission statements.
Company’s vision and mission are always important to keep the stakeholders aligned and work toward the vision. But, regulations and competition can be a big hurdle at times. For example, Facebook, Google could not enter China because of Regulations and they have great competitions from wechat, Baidu and other such competitions. With globalization, the world was coming close and the market place was expanding for the bigger companies. Now we can see backtracking of globalization with trade disputes and other global issues, and it is difficult to predict the future. But, it is evident if regulations are too tight and if the mission is not something the government would encourage then the company would not do well in those countries. But, if regulation is not a show stopper, often bigger companies take over competitions to kill the competition. Facebook is a great example, it purchased Whatsapp, Instagram those were mainly competitions. Facebook generated enough cash to simply buy out those competitions and kill the competition. Google, Microsoft, Amazon all of them do the same thing. Amazon purchased Whole Foods to enter the grocery business, instead of starting something from scratch.
Google, Facebook, Apple all these companies are doing business outside of the United States. While the vision and mission do not change but the company culture changes based on local culture. US big companies have enough resources to buy out the competition but then sometimes competition beat big brands. For example in China Didi ran Uber out of business and Uber had to leave China.
References –
Retrieved on 6/28/2019. Retrieved from https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/31/chipotles-mission-statement-and-the-far-flung-ingr.aspx
Retrieved on 6/28/2019. Retrieved from http://performance.morningstar.com/stock/performance-return.action?t=CMG
Gregory, L ( February 2019). Amazon.com Inc.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An Analysis). Retrieved from http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis
Retrieved on 6/28/2019. Retrieved from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chipotle-sets-new-goal-to-drive-environmental-sustainability-300626470.html
Retrieved on 6/28/2019. Retrieved from https://ir.chipotle.com/management/john-hartung
For example, Steve Ells the co-founder of Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant chain had a vision “that food served fast doesn’t have to be low quality and that delicious food doesn’t have to be expensive”, and Chipotle is based on that foundation (Chipotle,n.d.). it is futuristic, not bound by any timeline and as stakeholders, we get the idea what the restaurant chain is trying to do. When a company is global, it is especially important that their vision is known to people, so that when they go to foreign markets people get an idea about them.
Second, this is the mission statement for the firm, which should reflect the present and the future. The mission statement should explain “Who we are” and “What we do” and on a philosophical sense, it should explain why the farm exits and the meaning of existence.
For example, Chipotle’s mission statement is to deliver “food with integrity” (The motley fool, 2018). Chipotle sources the ingredients from a specific set of farmer or farms who raise animals and vegetables the way they were supposed to. And customers are served those ingredients. When we think about their vision which is to make healthy food available for affordable prices, they take the healthy part seriously.
One the firm has both a vision statement and mission statement, it needs to understand the difference between those 2. The purpose of vision and mission statements are different, and stakeholders should be able to differentiate those two. While vision is a futuristic statement, the mission is not so futuristic. In this ever-evolving world, firms need to adjust the mission often, to get where they want to go. And it should the leadership team’s responsibility to present both vision and mission to the stakeholders and when mission changes, they should communicate the change too. .
• What role does a strong leader play in the formulation vision and mission statements for a company?
A leader is who can anticipate. For Chipotle we see the founder’s vision became the organization's vision. And often founders are visionaries. We hear about Google’s founders or Apple’s founder, they all are and were visionaries. They had a vision for those companies, where they wanted to be. And the mission is all about what the firm is doing right and the moment and continue doing in foreseeable future.
One of our favorite company Amazon, we can see how their mission evolved over the years. They started as an online book store, then they quickly moved to the music, now they sell so many things, they run a delivery company, cloud computing platform, whole foods etc.
Amazon’s corporate vision is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online(Gregory,2019).”
We can see, although they started with books and now they deliver grocery, they are still sticking to the vision they had. This is where Jeff Bezos being a strong leader was very effective. He had this vision which Amazon adopted and stuck to and now they are this online retail giant.
Amazon’s mission statement is “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience(Gregory,2019).” As an online retailer, this is the mission they are following, as Amazon continues evolving they might change this mission statement in the future.
As a visionary leader starts a company with a vision and a mission, which is nothing but what the company does for the customers and stakeholders, gets adopted by the whole company. As the company grows the mission and vision get shared amongst all the employees and customers.
A strong leader can have a vision that might seem farfetched at that moment but following the mission might get the organization working towards achieving the vision. The leader's strength reflects as he or she makes the workforce rally behind the mission and vision.
Amazon is international now, and wherever they are, they are following the same mission and vision, they have not really adopted different vision or mission based on their geography.
• Analyze whether internal (company culture, firm’s resources, etc.) or external (government regulations, competition, etc.) are the most relevant to a global firm’s vision and mission statements.
Company’s vision and mission are always important to keep the stakeholders aligned and work toward the vision. But, regulations and competition can be a big hurdle at times. For example, Facebook, Google could not enter China because of Regulations and they have great competitions from wechat, Baidu and other such competitions. With globalization, the world was coming close and the market place was expanding for the bigger companies. Now we can see backtracking of globalization with trade disputes and other global issues, and it is difficult to predict the future. But, it is evident if regulations are too tight and if the mission is not something the government would encourage then the company would not do well in those countries. But, if regulation is not a show stopper, often bigger companies take over competitions to kill the competition. Facebook is a great example, it purchased Whatsapp, Instagram those were mainly competitions. Facebook generated enough cash to simply buy out those competitions and kill the competition. Google, Microsoft, Amazon all of them do the same thing. Amazon purchased Whole Foods to enter the grocery business, instead of starting something from scratch.
Google, Facebook, Apple all these companies are doing business outside of the United States. While the vision and mission do not change but the company culture changes based on local culture. US big companies have enough resources to buy out the competition but then sometimes competition beat big brands. For example in China Didi ran Uber out of business and Uber had to leave China.
References –
Retrieved on 6/28/2019. Retrieved from https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/31/chipotles-mission-statement-and-the-far-flung-ingr.aspx
Retrieved on 6/28/2019. Retrieved from http://performance.morningstar.com/stock/performance-return.action?t=CMG
Gregory, L ( February 2019). Amazon.com Inc.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An Analysis). Retrieved from http://panmore.com/amazon-com-inc-vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis
Retrieved on 6/28/2019. Retrieved from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chipotle-sets-new-goal-to-drive-environmental-sustainability-300626470.html
Retrieved on 6/28/2019. Retrieved from https://ir.chipotle.com/management/john-hartung
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