Vision or Mission?

“Do we need a mission and a vision? Aren’t they the same? Which one is more important? Does it even matter?”

A colleague of mine would refer to this as a very “client-y” thing to talk about. If true, however, we as strategists usually have to have an opinion on it. So if the above does not sound familiar, what about this next one?

“Our brand needs a purpose statement. Does that replace the vision, or is it something entirely different?”

(Okay, I sense you nodding your head now.)

Modern marketing is well past a century of development, for better or worse. As people’s attention has become ever more challenging to capture, so have many of our marketing practices. Such change has given rise to new persuasion models, brand languages, strategy systems, and ad lingo ironically used to “bring clarity” to the endeavor. I recently saw this proliferation referred to as the rise of a “new-aged adlandia” – the kind of place that the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute consistently debunks book after book (and rightly so).

Some of these concepts only seem new (or purport to be). Most are timeless notions that have been co-opted and renamed by marketers for new applications (think military maneuverings or misreadings of Maslow, Margaret Mead, or even Miles Davis, if you ask me).

For the time being, I’ll exclude a deep dive into purpose (also referred to as cause, conviction, ambition, conscience, etc.), because it is worthy of its own article. But in short, any strategy statement can amplify the cause-driven nature of an organization with the right combination of words (more importantly, with real action and genuine conviction of leadership). For some organizations, the inclusion of a dedicated purpose statement allows them to make it more critical.

The remainder of this article will focus on vision and mission.

These ideas are typically expressed as declarative statements. In fact, on their worst day, that is all they are – hollow platitudes full of commas and compound sentiments destined to bounce around on screensavers more so than in anyone’s head or daily practices. At their best, they are the simple, memorable beliefs of a company that really knows itself and isn’t afraid to use that conviction as a compass to guide what they do.

To that end, either vision or mission expressions (or sometimes both working in a complementary fashion) can be powerful tools for guiding large groups of people who share a common goal. These two concepts preceded modern marketing by thousands of years, being applied first in the pulpit of organized religions and in the theaters of war – two man-made constructs where the control of large groups of people to achieve a common goal is tantamount.

However, despite their longevity, vision and mission have become misunderstood – often seen as duplicative or contradictory. Moreover, if they are both different in definition and utility, how do they work together? The pondering of such questions burns hours of productivity – the type of time that is often most elusive. This brings us to this document, devised to shorten debate and promote action concerning a proper understanding of vision and mission.

Speaking of meta-everything, let’s get meta right now. The vision and mission of this document are:

VISION: Encouraging companies to guide their organizations to success with clarity.

MISSION: To clearly define the complementary roles of vision and mission as tools to inspire consistent conviction in organizations

Even modest observation of the above statements explains the subject at hand, specifically in five ways:

1. Vision and mission are complementary (not duplicitous).
2. Vision is hierarchically above mission.
3. A well-defined vision resembles an aspirational objective or goal that may never be entirely completed – but the journey to complete the task is what makes the difference.
4. A well-defined mission provides a specific action to take to realize the vision.
5. Although just words, their simplicity and lack of commas, semicolons, and run-on ambiguities make them more likely to be remembered, and thus more likely to be used.

For further clarification, one may find the following analogies and examples (in no specific order) as memorable ways to discern the differences between vision and mission:

• A vision is more internal, a mission more external. (This is why a vision is often more helpful in the boardroom, and a mission is more effective in the field.)
• A vision is an aspirational goal, whereas a mission is an executable means to achieve the goal.
• A vision is what you want to do. A mission is how you need to do it.
• A vision sounds more like a long-term goal (or most crucial objective), a mission more like an action you can tangibly take today.
• A vision inspires leaders to guide their teams with a clear mission.
• A vision can be intangible guidance, whereas a mission must be universally tangible so it can be observed, monitored, measured, and maintained in the daily actions of the organization.
• In retail/services, a customer may never be able to recite the brand’s vision but can often describe the benefits they receive from interacting with employees who are enacting the mission.
• A vision will not instruct the frontline employee exactly how to behave. That is the mission of the mission.
• A vision motivates leaders to act over time, and a mission leads the organization to action every day.
• In military terms, a vision wins the war; a mission wins the battle (by taking that hill).
• In commonsensical terms, a vision keeps students safe in schools with a mission to pass legislation that effectively regulates the unfettered proliferation of guns.
• In religious terms, a vision inspires the faith; a mission takes it to the people (“I hath a vision to goeth on a mission”).
• In Scooby-Doo terms, the vision promotes the importance of skepticism. The mission is to have those meddling kids remind us that humans are the real monsters.
• In the Marvel Universe, the vision is either a green or white synthezoid played by Paul Bettany; the mission is to always find that powerful object before the enemy finds it and becomes more powerful. (More simply put, their mission is to continually take my money.)

And once again, digression signals completion.

If the above writings have not clarified the subject, this document has failed its mission. By failing in its mission, it has not helped to live out the vision. This sum failure means that companies may have a more difficult time correctly applying these concepts to successfully guide their organizations.

But if this article did clear things up, then mission accomplished.