Walt Disney

Premier Thoughts: The CSUB Business Blog

Craig Kelsey Professor of Public Policy and Administration ckelsey@csub.edu Business Education Center www.csub.edu/kej February 14, 2011

Preparing Vision, Mission, and Value Statements

Most decision makers work hard to identify, reflect on, and create ideas that structure their organizations current purpose and ultimate direction. This is simply good planning. The intent of these ideas is to clarify the priorities of the business and to give a long term trajectory of action so that the intended goals of the organization are not only identified but achieved. It has been standard practice for these ideas to be captured in statements of vision, mission and values. When developed and accepted by the organizational staff they represent priority statements that ultimately guide the day to day work of the business. The following information is intended to be a quick reminder and refresher on how to build these statements of guiding principle. Each statement has a different purpose but also maintain an interconnection with all three being helpful and necessary to clarify and reflect the subtleties of the organization. Vision Statement: A vision statement represents the overall goal or purpose of the organization and is described with a global or high level order of words. The statement should be original and peculiar to the organization written in concise terms that are both attractive yet realistic. These statements represent the ideal state of affairs, identifying the future position of the business that the staff are committed to. Here is the vision statement of the Disney Company. Note that the statement is concise yet broad in its intent: “To Make People Happy” – The Disney Company Some might argue that the vision statement is too broad in nature and difficult if not impossible to measure. Never the less, it represents the global direction of that company. NIKE has created a vision statement that is specific to its...