Corporate Strategic Planning and Mission Statement Essentials

Implementing

• Organizing: Assigning specific tasks to team members to achieve company goals.
• Implementing: Directing tasks to ensure they are completed successfully.

Controlling

• Measuring results: Tracking performance metrics.
• Diagnosing results: Analyzing outcomes against objectives.
• Taking corrective actions: Implementing specific plans to address underperformance, such as restructuring or personnel adjustments, to ensure goals are met.

Corporate and Division Strategic Planning

Some corporations grant business units autonomy to set their own sales and profit goals. Others dictate goals while allowing units to develop their own strategies, or participate collaboratively in both processes. All corporate headquarters undertake four primary planning activities:

1. Defining the corporate mission
2. Establishing strategic business units
3. Assigning resources to each strategic business unit
4. Assessing growth opportunities

Defining the Corporate Mission

An organization exists to accomplish a specific purpose. Organizations develop mission statements to communicate with managers, employees, and customers. A clear, thoughtful mission statement provides a shared sense of direction and opportunity.

Effective mission statements reflect a vision—an “impossible dream” that provides guidance for the next 10 to 20 years. High-quality mission statements share five major characteristics:

• Focus on a limited number of goals: Avoid claiming too much; prioritize core objectives.
• Stress major policies and values: Narrow individual discretion to ensure employees act consistently.
• Define major competitive spheres: Clearly outline the market dimensions where the company operates.
• Take a long-term view: Maintain the mission unless it ceases to be relevant.
• Short, memorable, and meaningful: Aim for brevity, such as three- to four-word corporate mantras like “Enriching Women’s Lives.”