Strategic Management

Unit 2: Strategic Planning

 Organizational Goals
Developing Your Personal Mission and
Vision
Mission and vision are concepts that can be
applied to you, personally, well beyond their
broader relevance to the P-O-L-C framework.
Personal mission and vision communicate the
direction in which you are headed, as well as
providing some explanation for why you are
choosing one direction or set of objectives
over others. Thinking about and writing down
mission and vision statements for your life
can help provide you with a compass as you
Your Mission and Vision

Note that the development of a personal mission

and vision, and then a strategy for achieving
them, are exactly the opposite of what most
people follow. Most people do not plan further
ahead than their next job or activity (if they plan
their career at all). They take a job because it
looks attractive, and then they see what they can
do with it. We advocate looking as far into the
future as you can and deciding where you want to
end up and what steps will lead you there. In that
way, your life and your career fit into some
Guidelines

The first step in planning a career is obviously

a long-term goal. Where do you want to end
up, ultimately? Do you really want to be a
CEO or president of the United States, now
that you know what it costs to be either one?
There are a couple basic parts to this process.
BHAG

First, set out a bold vision—Jim Collins, author

of Good to Great, describes this as a BHAG a
big, hairy, audacious goal.

Five guiding criteria for good BHAGs is that

they:

1. Are set with understanding, not bravado.

2. Fit squarely in the three circles of (a) what
you are deeply passionate about (including
your core values and purpose), (b) what
drives your economic logic, and (c) what
differentiates you (what you can be the best
in the world at).
3. Have a long time frame—10 to 30 years.
4. Are clear, compelling, and easy to grasp.
5. Directly reflect your core values and core
Values

Second, sketch out your personal values, or

“Guiding Philosophy”—a set of core values
and principles like your own Declaration of
Independence.
Schedule

Once the vision is set, you have to develop

some long-term goal (or goals), then
intermediate-term goals, and so on. If you
want to be President, what jobs will you have
to take first to get there and when do you
have to get these jobs? Where should you
live? What training do you need? What
political connections do you need? Then you
have to set up an orderly plan for obtaining
the connections and training that you need
Finally, you need to establish short-term goals to
fit clearly into a coherent plan for your entire
career. Your next job (if you are now a fairly young
person) should be picked not only for its salary or
for its opportunities for advancement but for its
chances to provide you with the training and
connections you need to reach your long-term
goals. The job that is superficially attractive to you
because it has a high salary, offers the
opportunity for immediate advancement, or is
located in a desirable place may be a mistake
Five Steps

Former business school professor,

entrepreneur (founder of
[Link]), and colleague
Randall S. Hansen, PhD, has done a masterful
job of assembling resources that aim to help
your career, including an excellent five-step
plan for creating personal mission
statements. With his generous permission, he
has allowed us to reproduce his five-step plan
—adapted by us to encompass both mission
The Five-Step Plan

A large percentage of companies, including

most of the Fortune 500, have corporate
mission and vision [Link]
October 29, 2008, from
[Link]
al_mission_statements.html
. Reproduced and adapted with written
permission from Randall S. Hansen. The
content of this work is his, and any errors or
omissions are our responsibility. Mission and
vision statements are designed to provide
ring statement of purpose. A mission and
vision statement act as an invisible hand that
guides the people in the organization. A
mission and vision statement explains the
organization’s reason for being and answers
the question, “What business are we in?”

A personal mission and vision statement is a bit

different from a company mission statement, but
the fundamental principles are the same. Writing a
vision statement offers the opportunity to
establish what’s important and perhaps make a
decision to stick to it before we even start a
career. Or it enables us to chart a new course
when we’re at a career crossroads. Steven
Covey (in First Things First) refers to
developing a mission and vision statement as
“connecting with your own unique purpose and
the profound satisfaction that comes from
fulfilling it.” Covey, S. R. (1994). First Things
First. New York: Simon & Schuster.
A personal mission and vision statement
helps job seekers identify their core values
and beliefs. Michael Goodman (in The Potato
Chip Difference: How to Apply Leading Edge
Marketing Strategies to Landing the Job You
Want) states that a personal mission
statement is “an articulation of what you’re
all about and what success looks like to
you.”Goodman, M. (2001). The Potato Chip
Difference. New York: Dialogue Press. A
ers to identify companies that have similar
values and beliefs and helps them better
assess the costs and benefits of any new
career opportunity.

The biggest problem most job seekers face is

not in wanting to have a personal mission and
vision statement but actually writing it. So, to
help you get started on your personal mission
and vision statement, here is a five-step
as you need, and remember to dig deeply to
develop a mission and vision statement that
is both authentic and honest. To help you
better see the process, Professor Hansen
included an example of one friend’s process
in developing her mission and vision
statements.
Sample Personal Mission Statement
Development
1. Past success:
• developed new product features for
stagnant product
• part of team that developed new
positioning statement for product
• helped child’s school with fundraiser that
was wildly successful
• increased turnout for the opening of a new
local theater company
Themes: Successes all relate to creative
problem solving and execution of a solution.

2. Core values:
• Hard working
• Industrious
• Creativity
• Problem solving
• Decision maker
• Friendly
• Outgoing
• Positive
• Family-oriented
• Honest
• Intelligent
• Compassionate
• Spiritual
• Analytical
• Passionate
• Contemplative

Most important values:

• Problem solving
• Creativity
• Analytical
• Compassionate
• Decision maker
• Positive

Most important value:

• Creativity
• Analytical
• Compassionate
• Decision maker
• Positive

Most important value:

• Creativity
3. Identify Contributions:
• the world in general: develop products and
services that help people achieve what they
want in life. To have a lasting effect on the
way people live their lives.
• my family: to be a leader in terms of
personal outlook, compassion for others,
and maintaining an ethical code; to be a
good mother and a loving wife; to leave the
world a better place for my children and
• my employer or future employers: to lead by
example and demonstrate how innovative
and problem-solving products can be both
successful in terms of solving a problem and
successful in terms of profitability and
revenue generation for the organization.
• my friends: to always have a hand held out
for my friends; for them to know they can
always come to me with any problem.
• my community: to use my talents in such a
way as to give back to my community.

4. Identify Goals:
• Short term: To continue my career with a
progressive employer that allows me to use
my skills, talent, and values to achieve
success for the firm.
Long term: To develop other outlets for my
talents and develop a longer-term plan for
diversifying my life and achieving
both professional and personal success.

5. Mission Statement:
• To live life completely, honestly, and
compassionately, with a healthy dose of
realism mixed with the imagination and
things are possible if one sets their mind to
finding an answer.

Vision Statement:
To be the CEO of a firm that I start, that
provides educational exercise experiences to
K–6 schools. My company will improve
children’s health and fitness, and create a
lasting positive impact on their lives, and that
Step 1: Identify Past Successes. Spend some
time identifying four or five examples where
you have had personal success in recent
years. These successes could be at work, in
your community, or at home. Write them
down. Try to identify whether there is a
common theme—or themes—to these
examples. Write them down.
Step 2: Identify Core Values. Develop a list of
attributes that you believe identify who you
are and what your priorities are. The list can
be as long as you need. Once your list is
complete, see whether you can narrow your
values to five or six most important values.
Finally, see whether you can choose the one
value that is most important to you. We’ve
added “Generating Ideas for Your Mission and
Vision” to help jog your memory and
brainstorm about what you do well and really
Step 3: Identify Contributions. Make a list of
the ways you could make a difference. In an
ideal situation, how could you contribute best
to:

• the world in general

• your family
• your employer or future employers
• your friends
Generating Ideas for Your Mission
and Vision

A useful mission and vision statement should

include two pieces: what you wish to
accomplish and contribute and who you want
to be, the character strengths and qualities
you wish to develop. While this sounds
simple, those pieces of information are not
always obvious. Try these tools for generating
valuable information about yourself.
Part I

1. Describe your ideal day. This is not about

being practical. It is designed to include as
many sides of you and your enthusiasms as
possible: creative, competent, artistic,
introverted, extraverted, athletic, playful,
nurturing, contemplative, and so on.
2. Imagine yourself 132 years old and
surrounded by your descendants or those
descendants of your friends. You are in a
warm and relaxed atmosphere (such as
around a fireplace). What would you say to
them about what is important in life? This
exercise is designed to access the values and
principles that guide your life.
3. Imagine that it is your 70th birthday (or
another milestone in your life). You have been
asked by national print media to write a press
release about your achievements. Consider
what you would want your family, friends,
coworkers in your profession and in your
community to say about you. What difference
would you like to have made in their lives?
How do you want to be remembered? This is
designed to inventory your actions and
Part II
Review your notes for these three exercises.
With those responses in mind, reflect on
questions 1, 2, and 3 above. Then write a
rough draft (a page of any length) of your
mission statement. Remember that it should
describe what you want to do and who you
want to be. This is not a job description. Carry
it with you, post copies in visible places at
home and work, and revise and evaluate. Be
as the outcome. After a few weeks, write
another draft. Ask yourself whether your
statement was based on proven principles
that you believe in, if you feel direction,
motivation, and inspiration when you read it.
Over time, reviewing and evaluating will keep
you abreast of your own development.
Step 4: Identify Goals. Spend some time
thinking about your priorities in life and the
goals you have for yourself. Make a list of
your personal goals, perhaps in the short
term (up to three years) and the long term
(beyond three years).
Step 5: Write Mission and Vision Statements.
On the basis of the first four steps and a
better understanding of yourself, begin
writing your personal mission and vision
Final thoughts: A personal mission and vision
statement is, of course, personal. But if you
want to see whether you have been honest in
developing your personal mission and vision
statement, we suggest sharing the results of
this process with one or more people who are
close to you. Ask for their feedback. Finally,
remember that mission and vision statements
are not meant to be written once and blasted
into stone. You should set aside some time
 Thank you…

That ends our topic for this day…

See you next meeting for our new lesson to be discussed.

-Sir Knap-
goals, and mission and vision statements—
and make adjustments as necessary.