The responsibility of defining organizational strategy rests with all individuals within the vertical strategic framework-from corporate leadership to individual employees-and is critical to creating and understanding the influence of the strategy. There are common tools and processes used by organizations to create their strategic direction. The four common documents used by organizations to define strategic direction are the mission, vision, values, and strategic objectives.
Document criteria:
The organization’s mission statement defines what it currently “does” and “does not do”. It describes the organization’s current purpose in several spheres (industry, industrial value chain, products and services, technologies and competencies, etc. – see page 136). The mission statement should be pragmatic yet meaningful, memorable, and genuine.
The organization’s vision statement seeks to define the most ideal future state. It should answer the question, “if the organization could operate in the best possible world five years from now, what would it look like?” The vision statement should be distinct, inspiring, attainable, and bold. It should be a “stretch” goal that is grounded in reality but includes some level of uncertainty.
Values define the beliefs and attitudes of the members of the organization and how all employees should conduct themselves. Values should challenge employees to consider their own behavior as it relates to personal ethics, risk tolerance, receptivity to change, and other personal attributes and motivations.
Strategic objectives are those steps that will help the organization move from its current mission to realizing the vision. You will therefore need to revisit both your organization’s current mission and future vision to write the strategic objectives. They must align. Strategic objectives must also be SMART which stands for: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.