Mission Statement Sample – Formal Version

What is a Mission Statement? A Mission Statement summarises what the project (company or personal) is trying to achieve. However, many people wont know what it is. It can provide focus in planning and used as an aid to setting goals, objectives and may help decision making. So, how do you go about generating one? Formal approach It sets out to answer:

• What do we do? (product)
• For whom do we do it? (customer)
• How do we go about it? (Strategy)

The aim is to make sure that everyone is on the same wavelength. A simple approach may be OK for many cases, for example, short duration or uncomplicated projects. However, more complex and longer projects often require a formal approach, making sure that all issues are raised and discussed before producing a Mission Statement example. Typical stages are described below and could be carried out using a brain storm technique. Internal and exte al environment Consider the effect of the internal and exte al environment on the project. Internal aspects could be, ‘What is the personnel department’s policy in recruitment?’ Exte al areas might be, ‘Are there any regulatory restrictions in place or legal constraints?’ Keep it as brief as possible. It should be easier for internal issues than exte al. If the whole team is within one department it is easier than if a matrix arrangement is in place. Stakeholders Note all of the stakeholders, that is, anyone who has a vested interested in the project, for example, the customer, Project Sponsor, suppliers, senior managers, consultants etc. Identify the customers Identify the customers from the above stakeholders. This will be the users of the project management teams output. At least one will be the project’s major customer. Identify and reduce to 2 or 3 key customers Do this from the list above. What do they want? In order to find out what they want from the project go and ask them! Don’t guess. Success criteria How will you measure the success of the project? This will covers soft, as well as hard issues, for example, job satisfaction, training (soft) or budgets, schedule, sales, expansion (hard). If you are unsure how you will measure success you will never know if you have been successful. Consider critical future events What significant events might you consider, for example, merger, exchange rate movements, recruitment policies etc? Prepare the Mission Statement You should now be in a better position to generate the an example of a Mission Statement. The above process should promote discussion and get the team thinking laterally, not confine them to a box. Having completed the exercise, everyone should have a lot clearer idea when compiling the Mission Statement. This can be written in a stepwise procedure:

• Each person writes his own version of the Mission Statement sample.
• Each is compared and any differences resolved.
• Combine into an agreed Mission Statement.
• Publish the Mission Statement.
• Record in the Project Notebook (if you keep one).