1 Corporate aims, missions and goals

M.R.2 1.Corporate aims  Express the long-term intention of the organisation to develop in a certain way.  Everyone in the organisation should work towards achieving a common vision  Help build team spirit, encourage commitment  Example McDonald‘s: provide friendly service in a relaxed, safe and consistent restaurant environment  Small companies do not write down their aims

3 Corporate aims  Whether stated or unstated – corporate aims act as a basis upon which to form goals or objectives for the organisation  allows delegation

4 2.Mission statement  a qualitative statement of the organisation aims – intended to motivate within the firm and to convince those outside it of the company‘s commitment  attempt to put corporate aims into words  should identify positive characteristics such as creativity and quality rather than maximising profit

5 The mission model  Purpose  Values  Standards and behaviour  Strategy  Are interdependent  E.g. Unilever: raise the quality of life Coca-Cola: our mission is to get more people drink Coke than water Coca-Cola: our mission is to get more people drink Coke than water

6 3.Purpose  Identification for employées‘ work.  Mission statement identifies several stakeholders in whose interests the business is said to be run

7 4.Values  The values reflect the beliefs among the employées. This unwritten code is called culture of business   Mission statement provides an opportunity to shape this business culture  Set of values which employees can feel proud of – motivates them to work towards the organisation‘s objective  Difficult in large companies where each department has its own culture – no dominant corporate culture

8 Sources of business culture  Company routines – everyday decisions  Formal controls – organisation structure (vertically by functions, horizontally by layers of hierarchy)  Peer structure – interrelationships between individuals and groups  Symbols: language, signs of status  Rituals and myths – behaviour, stories from the past

9 Attitudes and business culture  Body shop – soft, less profit-focused culture  more socially based (opposite: shareholder)

10 Approach to key issues  Attitude towards risk: entrepreneurial – risk averse  Reward distribution: ‚them and us‘ – fat cats  Teamwork  Equity: more based in small firms (Nissan plant in Sunderland)

11 Types of business culture  Power culture – pleasing the boss  Role culture – power depends on the position  Task culture – power lies in the expertise  Person culture – within functional departments (lawyers, accountants)  Principal reason for introducing a mission statement: provide a common purpose amongst employées

12 Behaviour standard  IBM: all managers should operate an open door policy  Criticism: mission statements are only part of a PR strategy  Missing link: identify the standars of behaviour expected from the employees which symbolise the purpose, strategy and values of the organisation

13 Developing a mission statement  If all staff are involved in preparing (and agree the outcome) – a mission statement, the result will be a statement of shared values  E.g. clothing retailer: maximise sales and serve the customer in the best way  E.g. a woman tries on, appears to like, a dress which looks ill-fitting at the back, should you step in to point this out?  All staff should answer in the same way. The sales-driven staff might say no. The risk of losing the sale would be too great.  Focus on the customer: yes  customer confident in the honesty of the staff, will return.

14 Length of a mission statement  Can vary  1 page  single phrase  Others prepare extensive documents consisting of the purpose, strategy and values of the organisation in detail  Statement should be memorable

15 Criticism of mission statements  No purpose than to gain publicity  Common for quite different companies to have very similiar mission statements  Time and effort could be used more effectively elsewhere in the business  Even when the statement sets out the organisation‘s purpose, strategy and values – firms fail to implement the ideas  86 % of the organisations have a mission statement