01 December 2016

Strategic Management: Mission (Just the Quotes)

"Good mission statements focus on a limited number of goals, stress the company's major policies and values, and define the company's major competitive scopes." (Philip Kotler, "Marketing Management", 1967)

"'Structure follows strategy' is one of the fundamental insights we have acquired in the last twenty years. Without understanding the mission, the objectives, and the strategy of the enterprise, managers cannot be managed, organizations cannot be designed, managerial jobs cannot be made productive. [...] Strategy determines what the key activities are in a given business. And strategy requires knowing 'what our business is and what it should be'." (Peter F Drucker, "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices", 1973)

"In general, growth is an intrinsic source of change with potentially unintended effects and some subunits are better positioned than others to protect themselves against such effects. Oligarchical tendencies are present in almost all membership-based organizations, such as unions and voluntary associations, and if unchecked, can lead to transformations. Organizations with diffuse goals or innovative leadership are sometimes able to survive the crisis of complementing their original mission by moving onto other goals." (Howard E Aldrich, "Organizations and Environments", 1979)

"The key mission of contemporary management is to transcend the old models which limited the manager's role to that of controller, expert or morale booster. These roles do not produce the desired result of aligning the goals of the employees and the corporation. [...] These older models, vestiges of a bygone era, have served their function and must be replaced with a model of the manager as a developer of human resources." (Michael Durst, "Small Systems World", 1985)

"We manage with a mission. We don't strive for superior or excellent management. We strive to manage for the mission. We never lose sight of the fact that we are in this business to help girls grow." (Frances Hesselbein, Management Review, 1987)

"A mission statement should define the business that the organization wants to be in, not necessarily what it is in." (Russell L Ackoff, "Re-Creating the Corporation", 1999)

"An organization's mission statement: (1) should contain its reasons for existence and its most general aspirations, its ideals. (2) It should identify in very general terms the way(s) by which the organization will pursue its ideals, that is, the business it wants to be in. (3) It should formulate the ways by which it will attempt to serve each of its stakeholder groups. (4) It should meet the preceding requirements in a way that is exciting and challenging to all its stakeholders. Finally, (5) it should establish the uniqueness of the organization." (Russell L Ackoff, "Re-Creating the Corporation", 1999)

"You basically get what you reward. If you want to achieve the goals and reflect the values in your mission statement, then you need to align the reward system with these goals and values." (Stephen Covey, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Workbook", 2000)

"Leadership is much less about what you do, and much more about who you are. If you view leadership as a bag of manipulative tricks or charismatic behaviors to advance your own personal interest, then people have every right to be cynical. But if your leadership flows first and foremost from inner character and integrity of ambition, then you can justly ask people to lend themselves to your organization and its mission." (Frances Hesselbein, "Hesselbein on Leadership", 2002)

"In virtually every organization, regardless of mission and function, people are frustrated by problems that seem unsolvable." (Meg Wheatley, "Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time", 2005)

"Mission is at the heart of what you do as a team. Goals are merely steps to its achievement." (Patrick Dixon, "Building a Better Business", 2005)

"Strategy is the serious work of figuring out how to translate vision and mission into action. Strategy is a general plan of action that describes resource allocation and other activities for dealing with the environment and helping the organization reach its goals. Like vision, strategy changes, but successful companies develop strategies that focus on core competence, develop synergy, and create value for customers. Strategy is implemented through the systems and structures that are the basic architecture for how things get done in the organization." (Richard L Daft, "The Leadership Experience" 4th Ed., 2008)

"The organizations of the future are filled with smart, fast, flexible people on a mission." (Seth Godin, "Tribes: We need you to lead us", 2008)

"A clear, thoughtful mission statement, developed collaboratively with and shared with managers, employees, and often customers, provides a shared sense of purpose, direction, and opportunity." (Philip Kotler & Kevin L Keller, "Marketing Management" 15th Ed., 2016)

"Good mission statements have five major characteristics. (1) They focus on a limited number of goals. (2) They stress the company’s major policies and values. (3) They define the major competitive spheres within which the company will operate. (4) They take a long-term view. (5) They are as short, memorable, and meaningful as possible." (Philip Kotler & Kevin L Keller, "Marketing Management" 15th Ed., 2016)

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