Vision, Mission & Values
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Vision, Mission & Values

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Guiding Question: Do we know why we are working together?
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Content provided by University of St.Gallen, Institute of Technology Management

Your team will face many challenges in the upcoming months and years. To master these challenges, a strong bond and alignment within the team is essential.

This can (partly) be achieved by defining a common vision, mission as well as common values. However, this is not a one-off task – once defined (with the aim of long-term impact), they need to be regularly reflected upon after certain time or events (based on actual implementation).

The following sub-chapters tries to guide you through the process(es) providing details about each step.

🔖 Contents on this page:

A strong and pragmatic framework to define the vision, mission and value statements of a startup is the following (following Kirkpatrick, 2016):

👁️ Vision (WHY)

"The idealistic, timeless dream"

  • Formal description of the organisation’s desired, long-term future state. (2)
  • Explains why a company exists, which kind of positive impact the team is aiming at
  • Creates shared meaning/understanding among team members, inspiration, motivation, attraction
  • Form: statement

💪 Mission (WHAT)

"The realistic long-term goal"

  • Defines the products or services provided to customers or constituents. (2)
  • Can include perspectives of various stakeholder
  • "We do X to achieve Y"
  • Form: statement

❤️‍🔥 Values (HOW)

"The desired character of a company"

  • Define the means or behaviours by which the organisation will go about attaining its vision. (2)
  • The rules of the game: what is (not) acceptable behaviour? (‼️ Does not provide the path - that’s in the Strategy: explains how the mission and vision will be carried out)
  • Shown by promoted employees
  • Form: list / behavioral statement
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Attributes of impactful vision/mission statements (see Glossary below for definitions)

👉 How to: The process

There are initial thoughts/statements in any company!

Usually, companies are on one of the following five development stages: (2)

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Stage 1: The uncommunicated statement(s)
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Stage 2: The unstated, yet implemented statement(s)
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Stage 3: The formally stated statement(s)
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Stage 4: The refined statement(s)
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Stage 5: Re-examined statement(s)
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Depending on the quality of your previous efforts and your current stage, decide yourself where to enter the following ideal 4-step process (2, MGR):

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1. Develop
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2. Communicate
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3. Implement
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4. Re-examine
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The communication (step 2), implementation (step 3) and regular re-examination (step 4) of the statements is an iterative process that requires time and resources. Many companies neglect step 2-4 and get lost in the daily hustle and bustle. However, these steps are crucial in order to create the aforementioned bond and alignment within a company. Without them, the initial development is almost useless. So create a 'purpose-focused routine' and make the re-examination of the statements a fixed part of regular meetings, such as OKR planning sessions.

📖 Examples from other companies

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Uber

🛠️ Glossary of guiding principles

NameDefinitionSource
Clarity

The extent to which the vision statement is understood by employees

2

Future focus

Describing the desired future (not current) state

2

Abstractness & challenge

Providing a non-concrete, difficult yet achievable future

2

Idealism

Portraying a highly desirable future

2

Brevity

Providing a succinct, easy-to-remember statement

2

Uniqueness

Describing how the organization differentiates itself from other organizations, including its products and services, markets, strategy, or company history

2

Success definition

Stating how the company measures its progress in achieving the desirable future

2

📚 Additional Resources