Are mission, vision and values good for anything?

Mission, vision and values have a bad name because they are often boardroom exercises: five generic words, written in an afternoon, that nobody reads again. But the underlying idea is good and practical. A company needs to know why it exists, where it wants to go and how it decides when things are hard.

What each one is, in simple words

• Mission: why the company exists today, and for whom. "We help X to achieve Y."
• Vision: where it wants to be in a few years, described concretely.
• Values: the criteria it uses when it has to choose, above all when choosing costs something.

Why they fail

• They are generic. "Excellence", "innovation" and "respect" fit any company. If a competitor could sign them, they say nothing.
• Nobody uses them. They stay on the website and never reach the Monday meeting.
• They are too aspirational. They describe the company one would like to be, and those who work there know it is not true.
• There are too many. Ten values equal none.

A test for each sentence

1. Does it help decide? Can you point to a decision where it changed the answer?
2. Is there a visible behaviour? "We reply the same day" can be seen; "we are close" cannot.
3. Does it cost something? A true value sometimes obliges you to turn down a job or lose money.
4. Is it different? Would another company in your sector say exactly this?

How to write them from real decisions

1. Recall three hard decisions from the last two years: a customer turned down, a quote lowered or not, a person hired, a mistake admitted.
2. For each one, ask: why did we decide this way? The answer is a criterion.
3. Group similar criteria. Three to five remain.
4. Write each one as a short sentence with a behaviour: "We say what we will not do before we start."
5. Write the mission in one sentence and the vision in another.

Where to use them

When new people join, in proposals, in how you say no to a job, in the tone of messages, in choosing suppliers. If you do not use them in any of these places, they are not ready yet. To give body to the mission sentence, see how to write a value proposition in one sentence. And once the company has all this written down, the brand guidelines become easier to make. In Brand Strategy, this is the starting point: what you say, to whom and why you are different.

Three decisions from last week

Take the last three decisions you made in the company and write beside each one the reason, in a sentence. If the reason was "because we have always done it this way", note it. If it was "because it is the right thing for the customer" or "because we cannot guarantee it", you have a raw value there. Repeat for a month and the repetitions become the basis of the company's values. Show the result to those who work with you and ask: do you recognise yourself in this? If someone does not, the sentence is probably not true or has not yet been discussed. Once written, put the sentences somewhere visible and use them in a real decision for a month. If nobody invoked them in that time, they are too vague and go back to the table. If they were invoked and helped, they stand, and can then go on the website, in proposals and into the conversation with whoever joins the team.

In short

• Mission is why the company exists, vision is where it wants to be and values are the decision criteria.
• They fail when they are generic, nobody uses them or there are too many.
• Each sentence should help decide, have a visible behaviour and cost something.
• They are better written from real decisions than from a list of words.

Quick questions

Does a small company need this?

It needs to know what it does and how it decides, but not a long document. It can fit in a paragraph and a list of three values.

How many values should I have?

Three to five are enough. More than that, nobody remembers them.

Should I publish the values on the website?

If they are true and show behaviours, yes, they help customers understand how you work. If they are generic, it is better to rewrite them before publishing.