Page 47 - DCOM506_DMGT502_STRATEGIC_MANAGEMENT

Unit 3: Defining Mission, Goals and Objectives

Notes

Task Find out the mission statement of any one service company. Do they really
work the way their mission says?

3.7 Distinction between Vision and Mission

We have already distinguished between vision and mission statements in the previous section;
we throw more light on this distinction in this section. While a mission statement describes
what the organisation is now; a vision statement describes what the organisation would like to
become. A vision statement defines more of a direction as to “where are we headed” and “what
do we want to become”, whereas the company’s mission broadly indicates the “business purpose”
of the organisation. The distinction between vision and mission can be summarized as follows:

Table 3.1: Distinction between Vision and Mission
Vision Mission
1. A mental image of a possible and 1. Enduring statement of philosophy, a creed
desirable future state of the organization. statement.
2. A dream. 2. The purpose or reason for a firm’s
existence.
3. Broad. 3. More specific than vision
4. Answers the question “what we want to 4. Answers the question “what is our
become?” business”.

3.8 Concept of Goals and Objectives

3.8.1 Goals

The terms “goals and objectives” are used in a variety of ways, sometimes in a conflicting sense.
The term “goal” is often used interchangeably with the term “Objective”. But some authors prefer
to differentiate the two terms.
A goal is considered to be an open-ended statement of what one wants to accomplish with no
quantification of what is to be achieved and no time criteria for its completion. For example, a
simple statement of “increased profitability” is thus a goal, not an objective, because it does not
state how much profit the firm wants to make. Objectives are the end results of planned activity.
They state what is to be accomplished by when and should be quantified. For example, “increase
profits by 10% over the last year” is an objective.
As may be seen from the above, “goals” denote what an organisation hopes to accomplish in a
future period of time. They represent a future state or outcome of the effort put in now.
“Objectives” are the ends that state specifically how the goals shall be achieved. In this sense,
objectives make the goals operational. Objectives are concrete and specific in contrast to goals
which are generalized. While goals may be qualitative, objectives tend to be mainly quantitative,
measurable and comparable.

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