During the first ten minutes of class, write a summary memo based on today’s readings: Don Hofstrand, “Creating a Mission Statement, Setting Goals and Developing Strategies,” https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c5-09.html; Wikipedia, Mindspring [read all, but focus on CV&B], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindSpring; and Coca-Cola Company, “Mission, Vision, Values,” http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values. Focus on the long form mission statement reading, but also briefly discuss the Mindspring CV&B and Coca-Cola mission statement. Post your memo as a comment to this blog post.
12 thoughts on “Beginning of Class Reading: Mission Statements”
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To: Jason W. Ellis
From: George Gordon
Date: October 21st, 2015
Subject: Mission Statements
The Iowa State University article talks about what a mission statement consists of. It includes vision, mission and core values. A vision basically states what you to do as a company and it should be simple, to the point and easy to remember. The mission will detail how you you get around to actually getting your vision done. Now the core values aspect shows what the company values and the rules they will follow. Mission statements can increase the success of your company if done right but these should adapt and change over time not be solidified into a statement that lasts forever. After the mission statement, you need to develop goals and objectives that will help you reach the vision for the company.
The coca cola company focuses on people, planet and productivity, in their vision. Their mission is to refresh the world and create value and make a difference. They say they want focus on the needs of their consumers, remain responsive to change and be accountable for their actions and in actions. Overall, their statement gets their message across of what they want to do and accomplish as a company. While the MindSpring article discusses how the company culture of MindSpring was rather casual and employees saw themselves as a family. However, after a merger they added something new to their core values and beliefs and removed the 14 Deadly Sins from their website. Basically, showing how these statements and and values are subject to change depending on what goes on within the company.
TO: Jason W Ellis
FROM: Yamilex De La Rosa
DATE: 21 October 2015
SUBJECT: Mission Statement
A mission statement guides a business and the people involved in the business. A mission statement is three things combined:
a vision
a mission
core value
Vision is the big picture or idea that you are looking to achieve. the mission is basically how you will achieve your vision and core value is how you behaving and reacting as you achieve the mission. Coca-Cola company’s mission is to inspire happiness upon the world and to make a difference. Their vision is to be a great place for their workers so they can be presentable and present their best work. Their brand’s mission statement has very good characteristics since their vision is to create a happy, creative, passionate, and productive work area and lifestyle for those who are purchasing their products and it is very simple. Not only does the company care about its company but the customers as well which helps their company a lot and allows it to grow more and more.
TO: Professor Jason Ellis
FROM: Ryan Doherty
DATE: 10/21/15
SUBJECT: Mission Statements
A company’s mission statement is it’s overall goal. The statement should include three parts, vision, mission and core values. The vision is the a brief explanation of what the company is going to achieve in the long run. The mission states how the company plan to achieve it’s vision. Finally the core values dictate how the company behaves while try to achieve its goal. After the mission statement is completed it should be supplemented by smaller goals and objectives, and strategies on how to reach them. The Coca Cola company states their mission with three simple but ambiguous bullet points. Their vision is more complex and specific. It addresses multiple areas of focus. The values of Coca Cola are centered on the benefit of the company as opposed to the core values of companies like Mindspring. The values Mindspring focused not only on the company but the employees and customers
TO: Professor Jason Ellis
FROM: Mereoni Rabukawaqa
DATE: 21 October, 2015
SUBJECT: Mission Statements
In today’s reading Don Hofstrand, retired extension value-added agriculture specialist explains the importance and key to creating a good vision and mission statement. The main points were that a mission statement should be clear and concise and does not have to be long and wordy to be impressive. Actually, shorter and easier it is to remember, the better – employees/participants will be able to more easily remember the mission statement and their work will be oriented more to the vision. Examples of this are seen in CocaCola’s mission statement, which is actually 3 statements, one of which is “to refresh the world” – simple, easy to remember, and more importantly relevant.
To: Dr. Jason W. Ellis
From: Thaer Tayeh
Date: October 21, 2015
Subject: Mission statements
The article sets out on giving a clear structure of creating a good mission statement. It opens up with introducing the reader to the three elements of a mission statement; vision, mission, core values and goes into detail of their definitions. It goes on to the characteristics of a good mission statement. These characteristics tell us that a mission statement should be simple, the process should be fluid and go smoothly and should generally be for unique and non traditional business’.When making a mission statement you should have an understanding of what goals you wish to achieve and integrate it in your vision. In order to achieve your goal you must have a strategy on how you will use your mission to achieve your vision.
Coca cola is a prime example of executing an effective mission statement. Their mission as stated in the article is, to refresh the world, to inspire moments of optimism and happiness and to create a value and make a difference. They lay out their vision for increasing the quality of growth with people, partners, the planet, profit etc. Coca cola’s mission statement focuses on the needs of consumers and the profits and getting out and observing the market. Overall Coca cola shows how to clearly create a mission statement, have a goal and follow a strategy to obtain their vision.
TO: Professor Jason Ellis
FROM: Naveeda Akhtar
DATE:October 21, 2015
SUBJECT: Beginning of Class Reading: Mission Statements
In “Creating a Mission Statement, Setting Goals and Developing Strategies,” by Don Hofstrand, I learned that a mission statement must include a Vision, Mission and Core Values. A vision is the big picture idea of what you want to achieve. The Mission is the general statement of how you will achieve your vision.The Core Values is how you will behave during the process. The characteristics of a good mission statement include being short, straight-forward, and clear so nobody gets confused. Also, when writing the mission statement you should not do everything at one time but over a period of time to not only make it better but to also adapt it to the change in the company.
In “Mission, Vision, Values,” by the Coca-Cola Company, I learned that their mission is to create a difference in the world and spread happiness. Also, their vision is to be a widely-known brand which helps customers and staff in any possible way. Their values include shaping a better future, being committed, and making sure that what they do, they do well. Personally, I find Coca-Cola`s mission, vision, and values very funny since I do not believe that they are actually accomplishing what they are trying to pursue. It sounds like a lot of talk but not enough action. The only things that seem true in their goals is trying to create profit and making Coca-Cola “the brand.” Anything else regarding how to benefit the customers and making them happy does not seem legible at all.
TO: Dr. Jason W. Ellis
FROM: Anika Aarons
DATE: October 21, 2015
SUBJECT: Mission Statements
This article “Creating a Mission Statement, Setting Goals and Developing Strategies” lists guidelines to follow for conducting a business development plan. Firstly, the use of a mission statement is required in order to highlight the goal of your plan to achieve the ultimate goal. Mission statements should include a vision, mission, and the core values. By then furthering to develop an ultimate goal. By then furthering to develop an ultimate goal and objective, which helps you focus on maintaining on track. The given example of the Coca – Cola Company’s mission statement provides the ideal example of how a company can advertise and sell themselves by simply sharing the benefits of their values. In hopes to get people on board and trust their product and the changes it brings to the world.
The excerpt taken from Wikipedia elaborates on the MindSpring CV&B which are rules, commitments, values, and beliefs that should be followed within companies among people working in teams. Such as treating each other with respect, clarification, of decisions being made, no slacking, on your individual responsibilities, and committing with care overall in a professional matter.
TO: Dr. Jason Ellis
FROM: Valentina Pineda
DATE: October 21, 2015
SUBJECT: “Creating a Mission Statement, Setting Goals and Developing Strategies,” “Wikipedia, Mindspring”, and Coca-Cola Company, “Mission, Vision, Values,” summary.
The three article mentioned above talk about the importance of having a meaningful and clear mission statement for the success of a company.. As it is mentioned in the articles “mission statement is the the guiding light for a business and individuals who run the business”meaning that all products offered to the public should reflect on the company’s statement.To ensure that the vision and mission statements are followed companies should also create specific goals, objectives and strategies or action plans. A company should always consider writing this statement in a very simple and direct way that would make it easy to understand and remember. To explain further to complete a mission statement there needs to be vision in which you state the overall goal of your company, a mission in which you detail how you will get your vision done and lastly the core values are the rules the company will abide by during the process of carrying out their mission. For example in the coca cola company they mention productivity, people and the planet in their vision, so their mission they explain that the would carry out their vision by refreshing the world and creating high quality and value products to make a difference. They focus on delivering to the customers and I think that even though the words are short they are straight to the point and accomplish their goal really well.
TO: Jason W. Ellis
FROM: Christopher Navarrete
DATE: October 21, 2015
SUBJECT: Mission Statements
Don Hofstrand in his article discusses how to create successful mission statements for businesses. These statements are considered to be a “guiding light” (Hofstrand) for companies to follow. They cover three important parts: the vision the company is interested in achieving, how exactly they will obtain that vision, and how they will behave during the process of acquiring said vision (core values).
According to Hofstrand, after developing the mission statement, it is important to create a goal, an objective, and strategy. A goal should be flexible and acceptable while an objective should be feasible and measurable. The strategy should explain how the goal and objective will be achieved.
Coca Cola creates a successful mission statement by clearly stating its vision, mission, and core values. They are: to be an effective fast organization, to refresh the world, and to be passionate about their business. Mindspring also creates a successful mission statement, however it does so differently. Compared to Coca Cola, they mainly focused on being a company that is fun, fair, courteous, and honest.
TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Reazul Hassan
DATE: 10/21/2015
SUBJECT: Creating a mission with a goal.
The article from the Iowa State University states that you must have a vision, mission and core values for the guiding light for businesses. You must create a successful vision statement with goals, objectives, strategies/ action plan. the Vision statement is a statement which gives you a mental picture of what you are trying to accomplish. The mission statement talks about how you are going to accomplish your vision. The core values are the principles that the people are going to follow in order to achieve their vision.
The coca-cola company site is the prime example of a business which has the vision, mission and core values on point. The reason is because they are stated in the site as followed; “Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions.
To refresh the world…
To inspire moments of optimism and happiness…
To create value and make a difference.”
“Our vision serves as the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable, quality growth.”
“Our values serve as a compass for our actions and describe how we behave in the world.”
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values/
TO: Dr. Jason W. Ellis
FROM: Yulduz Saidinova
DATE: October 21, 2015
SUBJECT: Mission Statement
From article “Creating a Mission Statement, Setting Goals and Developing Strategies by Don Hofstrand I learned about that a mission statements has to include:
Vision, Mission and Core Values.
Vision has to be like big picture, like our idea what we want to achieve. Mission is basicly will be details or overall statement how we will achieve our vision. Last one which is Core Values is about rules or behavior during the achievement of the process. In order to achieve our mission that we set up we have to follow the rules, we have to set up goals and develop them, also statements has to be clear so no one will misunderstand or get confused. If we create good mission statements it will help the company to increase its success.
The Coca Cola Company mainly focuses on the people. In their vision they want to create a difference between the people and in the world. Their main mission is to make their productivity to increase, stay on top of their customers needs. and be one of the main world known brand. Overall they want to have better future and be successful company.
MindSpring company is different than other companies. Their employees see themselves as a family. After merging with EarthLink they removed their 14 deadly sins from their website and the changed their core and values. Most importantly MindSpring company is not only focuses on the company, they also focuses on their employees. Not every Company is concerned about their employees and they will have negative environment inside. Even the ex employees of the MindSpring company occasionally get together in Christmas and throw a party. It shows that this company really did created a family based environment between their employees, if the employees happy with their work environment, they will work really happy with customers.
To: Professor Jason Ellis
From:Robert Smith
Date:10/21/15
Subject:”Mission Statements”
The article, “Creating a Mission Statement, Setting Goals and Developing Strategies,” by Don Hofstrand, explains what mission statements are and how they can benefit your company. The article states that a mission statement can be compared to a guiding light for companies, since it guides them, or gives them a sense of direction they would want to be heading as a company. The mission statement is made up of 3 parts, which are the vision, the mission, and the core values. The vision is the idea of what you want to achieve. The mission is the statement on how the vision will be achieved. The core values are how you will behave while going through the process of trying to attain your vision. Once these 3 elements are developed, next you need to have goals and objectives. Goals are milestones needed to complete vision. A goal should be acceptable, suitable, and flexible. Objectives are time sensitive, specific statements for achieving the goal. An objective should be measureable, suitable, feasible, commitment, and have ownership (the people responsible for reaching the objective should be included in the objective-setting process). The article also stresses the importance of having a strategy. Strategies are plans on how you will get to achieving your set goals and objectives. Good mission statements should be simple (and can be modified later if necessary). The purpose of writing the statement is to clarify what the team is trying to accomplish. Goals should be in harmony with the vision you have, and your mission. Every mission should start with a vision.