Page 45 - DCOM506_DMGT502_STRATEGIC_MANAGEMENT

Unit 3: Defining Mission, Goals and Objectives

3. Engaging consultants for drawing up the mission statement is also common. Notes
4. Many companies hold brainstorming sessions of senior executives to develop a mission
statement. Soliciting employee’s views is also common.

5. According to Fred R. David, an ideal approach for developing a mission statement would
be to select several articles about mission statements and ask all managers to read these as
background information. Then ask managers to prepare a draft mission statement for the
organisation. A facilitator or a committee of top managers, merge these statements into a
single document and distribute this draft mission statement to all managers. Then the
mission statement is finalized after taking inputs from all the managers in a meeting.
Thus, the process of developing a mission statement represents a great opportunity for
strategists to obtain needed support from all managers in the firm.
6. Decision on how best to communicate the mission to all managers, employees and external
constituencies of an organisation are needed when the document is in its final form. Some
organisations even develop a videotape to explain the mission statement and how it was
developed.

7. The practice in Indian companies appears to be a consultative-participative route. For
example, at Mahindra and Mahindra, workshops were conducted at two levels within the
organisation with corporate planning group acting as facilitators. The State Bank of India
went one step ahead by inviting labour unions to partake in the exercise. Satyam Computers
went one more step ahead by involving their joint venture companies and overseas clients
in the process.

!
Caution Although many organisations have mission statements, their value has sometimes
been questioned. Kay (1996) asserts that visions or missions are indicative of a 'wish -
driven strategy' that fails to recognize the limits to what might be possible, given finite
organisational resources. He cites the case of Groupe Bull, a French computer company,
which for many years sought to challenge the supremacy of IBM, particularly in the large
US market. After several attempts, Bull finally conceded that its mission was faulty. Kay's
analysis was that for 30 years Groupe Bull was: Driven not by an assessment of what it
was, but by a vision of what it would like to be. Throughout, it lacked the distinctive
capabilities that would enable it to realize that vision. Bull epitomizes wish-driven strategy,
based on aspiration, not capability (Kay, 1996).
In a study of some organisations, Leach (1996) found that mission statements and strategic
vision had become fashionable. While in some organisations, mission statements had
made a real impact in clarifying organisational values and culture, others regarded them
only as symbolic public relations documents that had little effect as a management tool.

The dangers are not just that missions are unrealistic and fail to recognize an organisation's
capabilities (as in the case of Groupe Bull), but also that management fails to develop a
belief in the mission statement throughout the organisation. People come to believe in
and act upon the mission statement only when they see others doing so, especially senior
management and other influential players. The ideas of the mission statement need to be
cascaded through the structure to ensure a link between mission and day-to-day actions.

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