Mission: To achieve the Vision

Vision and Mission
Barad, Contract Advisor, United Arab Emirates, Member
I agree with this statement, although the way it was constructed makes the issue seem simple and straight forward. Which neither one of them are.

I Agree but put it Differently …
Julius Nyangaga, Consultant, Kenya, Member
The Mission is ‘How you intend to achieve the Vision’. I.e. what you are or are exploiting as an advantage, who you will work with, your entry point, etc.

Mission and Vision
Rapiah Mohamed
Mission statement is similar to beliefs control system. It is something that organisation wants to use to inspire its employees to achieve its objectives. But do you think in the real practice, the mission and vision can do this?

Missions & Mantras
Julian Beggs
I really like the approach of Guy Kawasaki to the whole thing: blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/mantras_versus_.html He takes a mission statement like “The mission of Wendy’s is to deliver superior quality products and services for our customers and communities through leadership, innovation, and partnerships.” And proposes "If I were the CEO of Wendy’s, I would establish a corporate mantra of “healthy fast food.” End of story. How much more useful is THAT! Easy to understand, carry around with you, communicate, rally around. For me, it's like the saying about a picture painting a thousand words... in this case, a mantra replaces a 60 word mission!! Have a great day!

Mission and Vision
Nelson Waweru, Manager, Kenya, Member
I like Julian's analysis. In other words A MISSION defines your existence. What makes you different from others? On the other hand, a VISION is like a projection of where you would like to be. Where do you see yourself in future. Here the future may be defined, say three years, five or even more.

Mission & Vision are Different
Amey Bhide
Vision is a very high level goal (dream), the way a visionary will want his dream to take shape.
Mission is anything and everything one does (action) to achieve the vision.

Mission & Vision
Sallmann, Manager, Belgium, Member
Could we summarize as follows: vision is the state considered as a success of the predefined purpose, and mission is the route to reach this state?

Mission versus Vision
karan thakur, Consultant, India, Member
Vision clarifies "where we are going", whilst mission clarifies "what we are doing"...

Vision and Mission
Co van Leeuwen, Business Consultant, Netherlands, Member
To me a good mission describes the value and the way you deliver the value to your customer.
Vision is about how this value is going to change in the future. So I rather talk about a value-vision. Because you will get a lot of vision statements but a good value-statement pinpoints the road ahead a company has to follow in the future.

Vision and Mission
John Henry, Manager, United States, Member
To me, the visioning process is the way to get the entire company looking toward the same goal, striving for the same end point. A clear vision is a unifying purpose which each and every member of the organization can relate to and accept as the central purpose. So you must have a clear vision and a cross company / organization buy in to that vision.
A mission is more personal, it is the how do we or I achieve steps that will lead toward the organizations vision. Many organizations create mission without vision, and that is like one of those little cars that runs forward until it hits something and then changes direction. Vision is mandatory, it is the statement of purpose..

Mission and Vision
Manu Bashir, Business Consultant, Ghana, Member
To me a mission statement tell a lot about what an organisation is set up to do or provide. It establishes the purpose of existence and seeks to provide vivid information on what kind of product or services that the entity is providing.
A vision on the other hand sets the strategic direction of that entity and gives a picture of the possible highest height that the entity sees itself achieving in a predefined future. There is a thin line however between the two.

Vision and Mission
Azhar Kazmi, Professor, Saudi Arabia, Member
My vision is what I want to be. Mission is what I am doing / want to do to be what I want to be.

Vision and Mission
william burckson, CEO, Ghana, Member
Mission essentially addresses the question why? The reason for an entity or a person. Vision tackles how an entity or person will look like when the mission is accomplished.
Mission is internal but vision is external.
Mission is felt but vision is seen.
Your mission is your heart, your vision is your sight.
A personal / organisational culture therefore is shaped by its mission. We can not have a complete discussion of mission and vision without touching on objectives/goals. Any vision is impotent without clear objectives/goals. Objectives/goals then becomes the rungs/steps on the ladder that leads to a fulfilled vision.

Vision and Mission
Warren Miller, CPA, CFA, United States, Member
Most folks here have the 'vision' side of the issue down pat. The mission side, however, is all over the map. Some are making it too complicated, and some are making it too easy. Others seem confused.
Let me see if I can add some clarity here. Mission addresses three issues: product or service, target market, and technology (technology is "the process by which inputs will be converted to outputs").
Each operating entity of a company can have its own mission statement because, presumably, it is either delivering different products or services to the same target market or it is delivering the same products or services to a different target market. Mission is neither more complicated nor more simple than this.

Vision and Mission
Alan Kennedy
I make the case in my book, The Alpha Strategies, that vision and mission are simply synonyms for strategy. Because of this, they are not helpful terms. If one considers Vision and Mission in the context of the eight strategy framework which I argue is inherent in every organization and is configured in a manner unique to each organization, then it is possible to provide meaningful definitions. "Vision" becomes the likely outcome of the long term pusuit of the alpha or dominant strategy. "Mission" is simply the Business Definition Strategy (known as Mandate for public sector and not-for-profit organizations).
On a side note, "visions" have all but disappeared in North American public companies because they can be construed as forward-looking statements by securities regulators.
As for the Business Definition Strategy, it was first identified by Peter Drucker when he asked his now famous question "What is my business?" in his classic, The Practice of Management.

Difference Between Vision and Mission
Nay Min Aye, Teacher, Myanmar, Member
Vision and mission are different, vision is a desired future state of a person or organization and mission is what the person or organization does to get the stated vision.

Of Course NOT Every Company Should Have the Same Mission Statement!
Warren Miller, CPA, CFA, United States, Member
Only people with no clue about the definition of 'mission' would make a statement that dumb. A mission statement comprises three components:
1. The company's product/service
2. Its target market
3. Its technology (i.e. the process by which inputs become outputs)
Just as surely as no companies are identical, it's a truism that their mission statements cannot be identical.
To be sure, in mature industries, competitors' mission statements can be similar. But, the extent to which they are similar varies directly with the likelihood of commodity pricing.
Your "solution"--"Simply achieve the Vision"--is equally boneheaded. HOW is the Vision achieved? By implementing the 'strategy'.