The first is a statement of vision. It provides a destination for the organization. Next is a statement of mission.

This is
a guiding light of how to get to the destination. These are critical statements for the organization and the individuals
who run the organization.

 Vision – Big picture of what you want to achieve.

 Mission – General statement of how you will achieve the vision.
 Objectives – Objectives provide specific milestones with a specific timeline for achieving a goal.

Vision Statement – A mental picture of what you want to accomplish or achieve. For example, your vision may be a
successful winery business or an economically active community.

Vision of an Example Business – A successful family dairy business.

Mission Statement – A general statement of how the vision will be achieved. The mission statement is an action
statement that usually begins with the word "to".

Mission of an Example Business – To provide unique and high quality dairy products to local consumers.

Objectives – An objective turns a goal’s general statement of what is to be accomplished into a specific, quantifiable,
time-sensitive statement of what is going to be achieved and when it will be achieved. Examples of business
objectives are:

 Earn at least a 20 percent after-tax rate of return on our investment during the next fiscal year
 Increase market share by 10 percent over the next three years.
 Lower operating costs by 15 percent over the next two years through improvement in the efficiency of the
manufacturing process.
 Reduce the call-back time of customer inquiries and questions to no more than four hours.

Objectives should meet the following criteria:

 Measurable: What specifically will be achieved and when will it be achieved?

 Suitable: Does it fit as a measurement for achieving the goal?
 Feasible: Is it possible to achieve?
 Commitment: Are people committed to achieving the objective?
 Ownership: Are the people responsible for achieving the objective included in the objective-setting process?

A mission statement is a concise explanation of the organization's reason for

existence. It describes the organization's purpose and its overall intention. The mission
statement supports the vision and serves to communicate purpose and direction to
employees, customers, vendors and other stakeholders. See SHRM's Company
Mission Statement Examples for a variety of samples. Questions to consider when
drafting mission statements could include: 

 What is our organization's purpose?

 Why does our organization exist?   
A vision statement looks forward and creates a mental image of the ideal state that the
organization wishes to achieve. It is inspirational and aspirational and should challenge
employees. Questions to consider when drafting vision statements might include:

 What problem are we seeking to solve?

 Where are we headed?
 If we achieved all strategic goals, what would we look like 10 years from now?

Vision is "Mental perception of the kind of Environment an individual, or an

organization, aspires to create within a broad time horizon and underlying the
condition for the actualization of this perception".

Mission defines " Essential purpose of organisation,concerning particularly why it is in

existence, the nature of business it is in, and the customer it seek to serve and satisfy ".

Objectives represent a managerial commitment to achieve specified results in a

specified period, of time. They clearly spell out the quantity and quality of performance
to be achieved, the time period, the process and the person who is responsible for the
achievement of the objective.

Vision: A picture of the "preferred future;" a statement that describes how the future will
look if the organization achieves its ultimate aims, e.g. "The widgets of choice for a value-
focused world."

Mission: A statement of the overall purpose of an organization. It describes what you do,
for whom you do it and the benefit, e.g. "To provide consumers with high-quality, price-
competitive widgets to meet their personal, business and recreational needs."

Objectives: Specific, quantifiable, realistic targets that measure the accomplishment of a

goal over a specified period of time, e.g. "Increase revenues by x% in 2004. Limit increases
in overhead costs to y%. Achieve a z% reduction in management staff through increased
automation."

1. Vision: A vision is a Big Picture Idea of “What” the organization wants to achieve. What you want
to achieve, something in — Future
A vision statement should inspire the people in organizations, people are excited to be part
of “What”, and motivated to put their energy and time to achieve the “Future”
A good vision statement, I found for an agriculture business:

“A Vibrant Economy driven by value added agriculture”

Here the Vibrant Economy has the ability to inspire the people, who are involved in this agricultural
business
2. Mission: A Mission is about what the organizationdoes to achieve the vision.
A mission is an action statement to achieve the vision. A mission statement is not required to be
inspirational; instead, it provides a clear focus about what an organization does and what it doesn’t.

For example, a mission statement is defined to achieve the above vision:

“To create and facilitate the development of value added agriculture”

Here “Create and facilitate” are two clear focus areas where the organization is required to put its
energy. Organization does efforts for the development (Create) and to make ease (facilitate) the
agriculture business and whatever is not mentioned here, organization is not involved – a clear
direction about what organization does and what it doesn’t.
A mission statement is simple, direct and operative, a great mission statement is:

Short: Mission statement should be easy to remember, each person in organizations should be

aware of the mission statement in order to use in context with the work he/she does.
Simple: Mission statement language should be of everyday life, words like stakeholder values,
financial goals and best practices are not used in daily life. For example a mission statement – “Help
people in achieving work using best practices” – How many people dream about best practices? The
answer is very few; doyou really believe, people talk in such language. The answer is simply ‘NO.’
Operative: A mission statement should provide a clear direction and focus about what an
organization does and a clear route about initiative and resource allocation.
So what kinds of resources are needed for the above mentioned mission statement for agriculture
business? – Probably SME, who can provide their services for the development and facilitation of
the agriculture business, and farmers who may be involved for the financial support in the venture.

A mission statement should help to understand “Who we are”, “What we do” and to “which industry
we belong to” for example a mission statement like “Increasing customer satisfaction” – well, virtually
it is impossible, anyways – does it provide to which industry a mission belongs to? Or what
organization control? The answer is no and hence we cannot claim it as a mission statement.

An organization should try to find out a mission statement, which can drive them.

3. Objectives: An objective is time sensitive statement to achieve the goals of the organization and
defined in measurable terms.
 1. 3. 3 Vision?• What is a vision? – A vision is a clear, comprehensive „photograph‟ of an
organization at some point in the future. It provides direction because it describes what the
organization needs to be like, to be successful within the future. • Visions and Values
http://www.changedesigns.co.za/Articles/Visions_and_values.htm Vision, Mission, Goals,
Objectives
2. 4. 4Why have a vision?• – . . . as Yogi Berra says, “If you don‟t know where you are going,
you probably aren‟t going to get there.” Identifying where you want to go in relation to where
you are is the key to identifying those areas where you need to improve.

 A company’s mission can be defined as: – An operation intended to carry out specific program
objectives – A higher calling or meaning, a reason for being. Often this is the reason the company
was first created – to fill a need in the marketplace or society. – A concise statement of business
strategy developed from the customer’s perspective and it should be aligned with the company‟s
vision. – The mission should answer three key questions: • What is it that we do? • How do we do it?
• For whom are we doing it?

10. 10 Let’s Be Clear!• Vision and Mission are different  A mission statement concerns what an
enterprise is all about.  A vision statement is what the enterprise wants to become.  Strategic
planning is a systematic process whose purpose is to map out how the enterprise should get from
where it is today to the future it envisions.

Objectives are precise targets that are necessary to achieve goals. Objectives are detailed
statements of quantitatively or qualitatively measurable results the plan hopes to accomplish.