Definition: A mission statement is a declaration that defines the purpose of a company’s existence. In other words, it sums up why the company was created for.
What Does Mission Statement Mean?
Mission statements are essential to describe the key elements of a business or organization. The main purpose of these statements is to point out what the company do, who are they serving and how. Companies can also state what makes them different from the competition. Now, the importance of this mission statement is that it communicates something, it transmit the essence of the business to employees, suppliers, clients and any other party involved with the organization.
This statement also sets the parameters for any decisions made in terms of products or services being offered, markets being served, among other aspects of the business that have to be defined according to the limits set by the mission statement. If the company is venturing itself into new and different markets or it is going to change its essence, the mission statement has to be changed also.
Here’s an example.
Example
Pet Lovers LLC is a company that provides pet care services to its neighborhood. The company is a small startup with just 4 months in business. They have been getting some clients and they already finished the stage where they identified the actual needs of its customers and they developed a service called “Pet Pick-Up”.
This service consists in picking up the dog at the owner’s home to perform any service the owner desires. The company is addressing a previously identified need, which is that its customers are too busy to take the pet to the store. In this case, how would a mission statement look like?
According to our definition, a mission statement is a declaration that defines the purpose of a company’s existence. An example of how it would look it for Pet Lovers would be the following: “Pet Lovers is a local pet care store that aims to provide worry-free services to keep your pets healthy and happy”.
