Mission and goals of the organization: common and different features.

The mission of the organization is the most important component strategic plan development of any company. The mission is the reason for the existence of the enterprise. The mission is determined in the process of strategic planning, it is the main strategy of the enterprise, in accordance with which all other activities are built. Its adoption makes it possible to clearly define the purpose of the activity of this enterprise and does not give managers the opportunity to focus on personal interests.

The mission defines the main goal of the company. The company, as a rule, begins its activity with the definition of a clear mission, established by the top management. However, over time, the mission is gradually overwritten as the company develops new products and conquers new markets. To choose a mission, an enterprise needs to clearly define who will be its customers and what needs of customers it will satisfy. On the basis of the mission, the goals of the activity are determined.

A distinctive feature of the mission is that it must be completed after a certain period of time.

The duration of the mission should be foreseeable and fairly short. As practice shows, most often this period is five years. This is done so that the generation of workers present at the adoption of the mission statement could see the results of their work.

Distinguish between broad and narrow understanding of the mission.

mission broadly is considered as a statement of philosophy and purpose, the meaning of the existence of the enterprise. The philosophy of the enterprise determines the values, beliefs, principles in accordance with which the enterprise intends to carry out its activities.

It is the purpose that determines the activities that the enterprise intends to carry out and what type of enterprise it intends to be. The philosophy of an enterprise usually rarely changes. Although it can change, for example, with a change of ownership. As for the second part of the mission, it may vary depending on the depth of changes that may occur in the enterprise and in the environment of its operation.

In the narrow sense of the mission- a formulated statement regarding why or for what reason the enterprise exists, i.e. the mission is understood as a statement that reveals the meaning of the existence of the enterprise, in which the difference between this enterprise and similar ones is manifested.

The position on the mission of the enterprise is the first step in rethinking the business. The mission statement is an expression of the vision of your business, your company. The mission helps to achieve clarity of purpose within the company, serves as the foundation for making all important decisions, introduces an element of obligation in achieving the goals of the enterprise, leads to understanding and support of the company in the external environment in achieving its goals.

Achieving the strategic goal involves:

System improvement corporate governance in order to create maximum value for the Group;

Qualitative change in the system of customer relationships - the introduction of a new ideology of working with customers, based on a combination of standard technologies with individual approach to the client;

Maximum use of potential international cooperation to promote modern financial services using external resource sources for the purpose of developing the business of the Group's clients;

Improving the Group's internal control and risk management system;

Security high level information and technology support for the Group's business;

Formation of a team of professionals capable of solving contemporary tasks development of the Group;

Implementation of further regional expansion along the path of maximum approximation to service users.

The main goal of any business is to make a profit. Often this goal is identified with the mission, but this is a huge catch for the organization itself, since in this case it is very difficult for the manager to distinguish the activities of his company from competitors and, as a result, count on a long existence.

Goals are set based on the following principles:

Concreteness and measurability;

Achievement and reality. Unattainable goals are not amenable to motivation, but the implementation of easy goals is poorly motivated, therefore, the goals must correspond to the abilities of employees;

Availability of deadlines;

The elasticity of goals, the possibility of their adjustment. This principle is especially relevant in our constantly changing environment.

In the conditions of market relations, taking into account the constant changes in the position of the enterprise itself, its competitors, intermediaries, buyers, forms of financing and the state of the industry in which the organization operates, the obligatory goal of the strategy is also to overcome risk or risk situations not only in the present, but also in the future.

The purpose of the activity is the desired state of the control object after a certain time. The coherence of the work of the staff depends on its correct formulation. But no matter how well the goals of the enterprise are formulated, they must be communicated to the staff, which often does not happen at our enterprises due to an insufficiently developed communication system.

Many companies develop formal mission statements. A mission statement is a statement of a company's main goal: what it wants to achieve in the broadest sense. A clear mission statement acts as an "invisible hand" that guides the company's employees, allowing them to work independently and at the same time collectively to achieve the company's overall goals.

The goals of the enterprise can be short-term, medium-term and long-term.

Short term goals determined for no more than a quarter or a year. This may be an increase in the assortment at a trading enterprise, and the sale of stale goods at a certain time, etc.

Medium term goals established for a period of one to three years. This is both an increase in capacity and an improvement in quality.

Long-term goals are set for a period of three to ten years. They may include the development of new markets, the universalization of production, etc.

After establishing the mission and goals, the enterprise can proceed to further activities.

Companies traditionally define their activities in terms of the products they produce (“We make furniture”) or the technology they use (We develop software"). But the mission statement of the company must be market-oriented.

Defining activities from a market point of view is better than definitions from a product or technology point of view. Products or technologies sooner or later become obsolete anyway, and the basic needs of the market may remain the same forever. The market-oriented mission defines the company's activities, taking into account its focus on meeting the basic needs of customers.

That is why Rolls-Royce claims to be in the business of power, not jet engines. Visa provides not credit cards, but the opportunity for customers to exchange values ​​without even leaving their homes, to purchase almost everything and almost everywhere.

When defining the mission, the company's management should avoid two points: both excessive specification and excessive vagueness.

The mission should be:

Realistic.

specific. It should be suitable for this company and no other.

Based on specific features.

Stimulate. The mission is to make people believe.

The company's mission statement should reflect the company's vision and direction for the next ten to twenty years.

Companies should not revisit their mission every few years in response to the slightest change in the market environment. However, the company should redefine its mission if it does not inspire consumer confidence or conflicts with the best way for the company to develop.

At each level of management, the mission of the company needs to be translated into specific strategic goals. Increasing profits becomes the next main goal of the company.

Profit can be increased by increasing sales or reducing costs. Sales volume can be increased by expanding the company's share in the domestic market, developing new foreign markets, or a combination of both. These goals become the actual marketing objectives of the company.

These goals should be as specific as possible. The target to "increase our market share" is not as specific as the target to "increase our market share by 15% by the end of the second year". Thus, we can conclude: the mission of the company determines the philosophy of the enterprise and the main direction of activity, and strategic goals are realistically measurable tasks facing the company.

The formation of the company's goals comes from an assessment of the potential capabilities of the company and the provision of its appropriate resources. In management theory, the goals of the organization are divided into general goals, developed for the company as a whole, and specific goals, developed for the main activities of the company's divisions on the basis of a general strategy.

General goals reflect the company's development concept and are developed for the long term.

There is a typical ranking scheme for general goals expressed by formulating general directions company activities:

Ensuring maximum profitability, with the existing set of activities, determined by the following indicators: sales volume, level and rate of return, annual growth rates of sales and profits, the amount paid wages, product quality level, etc.

Ensuring the stability of the company's position on following directions: technical policy (expenditure on research and development of new products), competitiveness potential (cost reduction, designing new markets), investment policy (the size of capital investments and their directions), personnel policy(provision of labor resources, their training and payment, etc.), solution of social issues.

Development of new directions of development, new types of activities of the company, which involves: development of a structural policy, including diversification of production, vertical integration, acquisitions and mergers, development of information systems.

Specific goals are developed within the framework of general goals for the main activities in each division of the company. The most important among them are:

Determining the level of profitability for each individual unit. Of paramount importance in determining the profitability of each unit is given to such an indicator as the rate of return on invested capital.

In comparison with the data of previous years, this indicator is the most important not only in planning, but also in control, i.e. scheduled reporting and plays decisive role, both in setting goals and in evaluating the results and performance of the firm. Depending on the degree of centralization of management, profitability targets for each division can be set either at the level of top management or at the level of the manager of a subsidiary.

In the first case, they are determined centrally, but the indicators for each subdivision are differentiated depending on the specific conditions that develop for each of them. In highly decentralized companies, production units can set the rate of return for each product themselves. The indicators developed by them are coordinated with the highest level of management and are linked to the global goals of the company.

Other specific goals are developed after the definition of profitability goals and are in the nature of sub-goals, the achievement of which is an important step towards the implementation of the company's mission. Usually they are established by determining the directions of development in the respective functional areas.

In particular, subgoals may include:

- Marketing- achievement of a certain level of sales in absolute terms or an established share of sales in one or more market segments, the introduction of new products, determined by the number or relation to all manufactured products; measures to improve the distribution and promotion system, expand the scope of technical services provided, etc.

- in R&D- development of new products, adaptation of traditional products to the requirements of specific foreign markets; - improvement of the technical level of production.

- for production- establishment of standard indicators that ensure the efficient use of these resources, the development of various programs: cost reduction and product quality control, production of new and improvement of products.

- in finance- determination of the structure and sources of financing, in particular, the share own funds in the estimated investment for the planning period.

The objectives of branches and subsidiaries, usually formed by the parent company, are as follows:

Increasing sales and growth rates of the company;

Increasing the company's market share, increasing profits and especially the rate of return, the "getting used" of the branch and its contribution to the development of the economy of the host country.

The definition of the mission and goals consists of three sub-processes, each of which requires a lot of responsible work.

The first sub-process is to determine the mission of the company, which in a concentrated form expresses the meaning of the existence of the company, its purpose.

This part of strategic management ends with a sub-process of short-term goals.

Defining the mission and goals of the company leads to the fact that it becomes clear why the company operates and what it strives for. And knowing this, you can more accurately choose a strategy of behavior.

The goals of the firm give uniqueness and originality to the choice of strategy in relation to each particular firm. The goals reflect what the company is striving for. If, for example, the goals do not imply intensive growth of the company, then the appropriate growth strategies cannot be chosen, even though there are all the prerequisites for this both in the market, in the industry, and in the potential of the company.

In principle, there are two approaches to setting the objectives of the enterprise. The essence of the first approach is quite simple and well known to Ukrainian management specialists: to set goals based on the achieved level, adding, say, 2-3% to the last year's figures. This is the so-called method "planning from what has been achieved."

The second approach to setting corporate goals is much more complicated, it involves breaking the goal-setting process into a series of successive steps:

1. Definition of mission (philosophy) of business.

2. Establishment of long-term general goals for the planning period.

3. Definition of specific goals (tasks).

It is believed that the main advantage of this step-by-step approach is that it forces the managers and specialists of the enterprise to comprehend what they want to achieve and how.

Mission is a business concept that reflects the purpose of the business, its philosophy (this term literally means« responsibility, role).

The mission helps to determine what the company actually does: what is its essence, scale, prospects and directions of growth, differences from competitors. At the same time, it focuses on the consumer, and not on the product, since the mission (philosophy) of the business is most often determined taking into account the consumer interests, needs and requests that are satisfied by the business. Therefore, the definition of a mission is closely related to marketing and involves answering the question: “What value can a company bring to consumers while achieving greater success in the market?”

To illustrate the concept of mission, we can compare two approaches to business: open a hairdressing salon or a beauty salon for women. The second approach comes from consumer needs and considers the business more broadly, with the prospect of growth: today - only hairstyles, tomorrow - make-up, medical procedures, etc. In this case, the business mission can be defined, for example, as follows: "We make women beautiful."

It is believed that the mission statement should be bright, concise, dynamic construction, easy to understand (often it is a slogan) and reflect the following aspects:

Range of satisfied needs;

Characteristics of the company's products and its competitive advantages;

Business growth prospects.

Surveys show that 60-75% of North American companies have a clearly defined mission. The leaders of many new Ukrainian companies also define the mission of their business. Let us give examples of the formulation of the mission of the company.

Company mission Xerox perfectly demonstrates the prospects for business growth - "From copier to the office of the future."

Other examples of missions:

- “We save your time and money” (Investbank);

- "One step ahead of demand" (firm "Nadiya", Kharkiv);

“We don't just sell equipment. Our main task is to offer solutions to problems for your business” (Plant of self-propelled chassis, Kharkov);

- “We do not just carry out transportation - we offer a transport service” (Southern Railway, Harkov town).

Mission of the organization

Organizational values

Mission is considered as a formulated statement regarding why or for what reason the organization exists, i.e. the mission is understood as a statement that reveals the meaning of the existence of the organization, in which the difference between this organization and its similar ones is manifested.

Typically, the definition of the mission of the organization pursues the solution of the following tasks:

• identify the area of ​​active actions of the organization and cut off the development paths that lead nowhere;
• determine the basic principles of competition;
• develop a common basis for developing the goals of the organization;
• develop a concept of activity that inspires the employees of the organization.

Mission objectives is a vision of what an organization should be or stand for. They should reflect the interests of all groups of influence or different groups of people, one way or another connected with the activities of the organization and involved in the process of its functioning (owners, managers, employees and workers, consumers, suppliers, banks, government agencies, local governments, public organizations and etc.).

When developing a mission, the following groups of factors are taken into account:

1. The history of the emergence and development of the organization, its traditions, achievements and failures, the current image.
2. Existing style of behavior and way of action of owners and managers.
3. Resources, i.e. everything that an organization can manage: cash cash, recognized product brands, unique technologies, employee talent, etc.
4. Environment, representing the totality of all factors that affect the organization's ability to achieve its goals through the chosen strategies.
5. Distinguishing characteristics of the organization.

For example, the mission of the Marriot Hotel Company is formulated as follows: “We strive to be the best in the world in providing accommodation and food for our customers by encouraging staff to provide customers with extraordinary services and to protect the interests of shareholders.”

Following the above rules is a very difficult task. This is one of the main reasons why not all organizations have well-defined missions, and some simply do not have them.

Organization goals

The main source base for the formation of the organization's goals is marketing and innovation. It is in these areas that the values ​​of the organization are located, for which the consumer is willing to pay. If an organization is not able to meet the needs of consumers at a good level today and tomorrow, then it will not have a profit. In other areas of activity (production, personnel, etc.), goals are valuable only to the extent that they improve the organization's ability to meet customer needs and implement innovations (innovations).

There are six types of goals:

1. Achievement of certain indicator values market share.
2. Innovation Goals. Without developing new products and delivering new services, an organization can very quickly be outclassed by competitors. An example of this type of goal would be: 50% of sales should come from products and services introduced in the last five years.
3. Resource goals characterize the organization's desire to attract the most valuable resources: qualified employees, capital, modern equipment. These goals are marketing in nature. Thus, organizations compete to attract the most capable university graduates, retailers compete for the best location of outlets. As a result, the achievement of such results creates the prerequisites for the implementation of other tasks.
4. Performance Improvement Goals. When personnel, capital and production and technical potential are not used efficiently enough, then the needs of consumers will not be satisfied enough, or this will be achieved through excessive expenditure of resources.
5. Social Goals aimed at reducing the negative impact on natural environment, to assist society in solving problems of employment, in the field of education, etc.
6. Purpose of obtaining a certain profit can only be established after formulating previous goals. Profit is something that can help raise capital and encourage owners to share the risk. Profit is therefore better seen as more of a restrictive goal. The minimum profitability is necessary for the survival and development of the business.

Organization and Marketing Performance Indicators

The definition of activity goals and their evaluation are directly related to the choice of appropriate performance indicators.

Very often, this indicator is considered the profit of the enterprise. In doing so, it is assumed that profit maximization is the main goal of the organization.

The following arguments are usually given in support of this view:

1. Profit maximization is the formal goal for which an organization exists. The one who has invested is not interested in specific projects, but in profit.
2. Profit is the ultimate reward for working efficiently and creating value for consumers.
3. Profit is a simple and understandable criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of business decisions. it main criterion choosing the best solutions.

When profit maximization is considered as the main and only goal of the organization's activity, then this approach should be considered simplified both from a theoretical and practical point of view. The organization seeks to achieve, rather than the maximum level of profit. Often this value of profit acts as a restrictive goal when formulating goals focused on consumers and innovations.

Profit maximization as an evaluation criterion when considering alternative strategies can be used as a first approximation in finding the best solutions. Other criteria should be taken into account in the subsequent stage of the analysis.

The choice of the criterion for the effectiveness of the activities of a non-profit organization

First of all, it should be noted that along with organizations that live off their profits, there are also non-profit organizations. The choice of a school or a hospital as a criterion for the effectiveness of the activity contradicts the very idea of ​​​​creating such organizations. However, profit can be one of the indicators of the effectiveness of the self-supporting component in the activities of non-profit organizations.

Below we will only talk about organizations that live off their production and economic activities, which will be called companies.

Despite the predominant use of profit indicators to measure business success, they have certain disadvantages. First, in practice, profit indicators can be manipulated quite easily and simply by managers in order to obtain falsified results. A variety of and, moreover, completely legal methods of depreciation accounting for inventory valuation, accounting for research and development costs, foreign currency transfers, and in particular many options for registering new acquisitions, can turn losses on individual accounting items into large reporting profits and vice versa.

Of course, companies that care about creating and maintaining a favorable image, first of all, proclaim missions that have a social sound and have a high attractive force for all groups of the company, and above all for its managers and employees. Without this, it is difficult to use such an important management tool as company culture (corporate culture). True, there is an opinion that the goals of the mission belong to the category of so-called declared goals, “working for the public”, and among the hidden, undeclared goals, the goal is to make a profit.

To a certain extent, this contradiction can be overcome by linking the goals of the company with the goals of the marketing plan. Since the marketing plan directly sets the task of selling certain products in selected markets, the goal of such activities is to achieve the planned indicators of sales volume, profit, market share. At the same time, the priorities and values ​​of these indicators depend on the development goals of the company as a whole. Thus, the profit indicator naturally fits into the goals of the marketing plan, and the achievement of certain results contributes to the achievement of the company's more general goals.

Today, a company is required to be able to choose a multi-purpose perspective for itself and satisfy the needs of the most different groups interests. The main task management of the company is to reconcile these dissimilar and in many ways conflicting interests. Within a well-balanced company, the reconciliation of these interests is usually not difficult. One reason is that influence groups generally do not seek to maximize their interests, instead they just hope to get a satisfying result. In fact, leaders operate in the zone of tolerance. tolerance zone is the area effective functioning, within which the company satisfies the interests of all its key influence groups.

The second most important indicator after profit for many companies it is growth in sales volume, turnover or value of assets. Some executives believe that there is a relationship between company size and marginal profitability. Until a company becomes a major player, they argue, it will be vulnerable to stronger competitors. Others point to a link between the size of a company and the pay of its executives.

Therefore, the multidimensional, rather than focused on 1-2 indicators, nature of determining the goals of the company's activities is becoming more widespread. As a result of this methodological reorientation, a multi-criteria approach to evaluating the performance of companies is becoming more and more widely used. Thus, Forbes magazine uses a ranking system for the top 500 US companies, which includes the following evaluation criteria: the average profitability level over the past 5 years (return on shares of their total market value and return on invested capital), sales growth rates, return on shares, as well as absolute values sales volumes, net income and share of profit in the price for the last year.

The main differences between a company's mission and its goals can be defined in the following four dimensions:

1. Temporal aspect. The mission has no time criteria. Goals, on the other hand, are always temporary and imply a deadline when they must be achieved.

2. Focusing. The mission has a focus on the external environment for the company, for example, to achieve recognition or become a leader in the industry. Goals, on the other hand, most often refer to the internal aspects of the company and are expressed in terms of the use of available resources to achieve specific internal indicators.

3. Specificity. The mission is expressed in terms that have a common, relative nature relating to the image of the company, its corporate identity. Objectives are usually expressed in terms of specific outcomes and are expected to be achievable.

4. Measurability. Both the mission and the goals are, in a sense, measurable. But the measurability of the mission is of a relatively qualitative nature, while the provisions approved in the goals are of an absolute, quantitative nature.

The formation of goals is based on the decomposition of the mission into components and goals that ensure it; the result of the formation is a tree of goals.

Basic requirements for building a goal tree

When building a tree of goals, a number of requirements are imposed on goals:

Clarity and clarity of the formulation of each goal that does not allow arbitrary interpretations;

The goals of each level should be comparable in scope and importance;

The formulation of goals should provide the possibility of a quantitative or ordinal assessment of the degree of its achievement;

Completeness of disaggregation: each goal top level should be presented as sub-goals of the next level in such a way that the achievement of all the goals of the lower level would mean the achievement of the goals of the upper level;

The goal of the higher level is not simply the sum of the goals of the lower level;

The goal of the lower level is determined by the higher ones;

The goal of the lower level is a means to achieve the higher goal;

As you move to the lower levels, the goals become more and more specific;

The entire goal tree is a single but detailed goal.

When building a tree of goals, their structuring can be done according to at least four criteria:

According to planning horizons (short, medium and long term);

By level of generalization or priorities (corporate, medium and operational level);

By areas of activity (financial, marketing, development of a new product, information equipment, etc.);

By the direction of the company's efforts (development, stabilization).

In practice, a combined approach is often used. For example, general corporate goals are formed first, from which financial, marketing, etc. follow, and they, in turn, are structured according to planning horizons (Fig. 3.).

Rice. 3. An example of structuring a goal tree by criteria

Table 4.1

Variants of company goals

Image is the perception of the company by customers, suppliers and other market participants of the company.

The company can choose one of these goals or try to achieve all of them at once.

Any organization is created in order to carry out some tasks. If we are talking about a commercial structure, then its main purpose is to make a profit, if we are talking about a charitable organization, then it is created in order to help those who require protection and guardianship. However, in order for employees and management to be more clearly aware of what and why they are doing, a mission is needed. We will tell you in this article what it is and how to correctly compose a mission and goals.

The mission and goals of the organization are the program provisions on which all its activities are based. Mission is the most general description what the company was created for, what task it is designed to solve. At the same time, it should be noted that making a profit cannot be the company's mission - it must be broader and show how the company can be useful to society. There is no contradiction in this, because, in the end, only by being somehow useful and in demand can a company count on the fact that its products will be bought, and hence making a profit. In order to better understand what a mission is, here are examples of the missions of well-known companies:

The mission of the Lukoil company is to turn the energy of nature for the benefit of people

McDonalds - Providing fast and quality service with standard products

Microsoft's mission is to help people and businesses reach their full potential through digital technology.

The mission of Walt Disney Studios is to make people happy.

It is worth making a clear distinction between concepts such as the mission and purpose of the organization. If the mission is the most general description of the reason for the existence of the organization, then the goal is a clear description of the tasks that must be completed in order to make the mission a reality. can be short-term and long-term, as well as change in the course of its activities, while the mission remains unchanged throughout the entire period of the company's activities. Thus, the mission and goals of the enterprise represent a single whole philosophical core of its activity - the mission answers the question "why is our company needed?", and the goals answer the question "what needs to be done in order to fulfill the mission and, accordingly, justify its existence ? Only with such a core will the company carry out its activities effectively and methodically.

Certain requirements are put forward for the mission and goals:

The company's mission is its statement to the society, therefore, it should be created with an eye on the external audience - consumers, competitors, regulators. The mission must necessarily show that the company is useful, moreover, it is necessary for society.

The goals of the company, on the contrary, are directed inward - at the employees, and outline in front of them what the company should achieve with their help in the short and long term. Therefore, if the mission can be somewhat vague, then the goals should be as clear and understandable as possible - this way they will be easier to perceive by employees, which means they will be implemented faster and more efficiently.

Unfortunately, the leaders of most companies have not yet realized that a well-written mission and goals of the organization will help them make their work easier and more efficient, and most importantly, result-oriented, so only some companies in the CIS countries have goals and, moreover, missions. Hopefully, over time, they will understand that the mission and goals are not just beautiful words rather an important business tool.

We hope that this article has helped our readers to understand what the mission and goals of the organization are and how important they are for its successful operation. Good luck in business!

When you pronounce the word "mission", some majestic epithets appear in your mind. It is associated exclusively with something global and large-scale. And what does modern management invest in the concept of "mission and goals of the organization"? Is this also something unimaginable or is it still an obligatory attribute of company management?

Definition

"Without a mission, no company can exist." These postulates are printed in all textbooks on marketing and management. This is based on philosophical reasoning that a company is created not for making a profit and making money, but for something noble, for example, improving the world order. From an economic point of view, such statements are absolutely not true: any entrepreneur wants to receive income from the invested funds and the effort expended. This is natural, normal and correct. But how will the consumer react if he is directly told: “I want to make money from you”? Most likely negative. But a softened wording, such as: "The mission and goals of the organization that I created are to satisfy the needs of customers and make me a profit," will suit everyone.

So, the mission is a kind of philosophical root cause of the company's birth, the definition of its features and differences from similar organizations.

contact groups

The management of the company should focus on solving several goals at the same time: making a profit, increasing the organization's assets, satisfying consumers, ensuring the interests of shareholders, etc. By focusing on one or two goals, managers lose potential customers or investors, staff loyalty falls, etc. As a result, the mission and goals of the organization are limited to elementary survival in a crisis. What do representatives of interest groups expect from the company?

• Shareholders are interested in the growth of dividends, the reliability of investments and the stability of the organization.
• Company managers want to receive not only cash reward for effort, but also for power.
• Consumers need high-quality, but not very expensive goods and services.
• Employees of the company want to be confident in the future: salary stability, job satisfaction, etc.
• Lenders must be sure of the timely return of their funds and the receipt of interest.

Contact groups also include suppliers, government authorities, public organizations that advocate for the preservation of the planet's ecology, etc.

Therefore, the main task of management is to harmonize all the versatile and sometimes conflicting interests of the contact groups. Defining the mission and goals of the organization helps to cope with this task.

Meaning

No man can afford an aimless existence. Even if all material and spiritual issues are resolved (even if previous generations family), people ask questions about the meaning of their existence. What then to say about companies that are initially created for some purpose. The formation of the mission and goals of the organization must be completed even before the creation of this very company. Because both the initial investment and organizational structure, and the availability of technology and other resources are determined precisely by the mission. It helps to understand and solve the following problems:

• identification of differences between the company and analogues;
• creating a basis for ensuring the consistency of goals;
• creation of criteria for assessing the quality of not only goods, but also the work of the company itself;
• coordination of interests of all representatives of the contact groups;
• creation of a reliable support for maintaining staff loyalty.

That is, the mission and strategic goals of the organization make it possible to subordinate any activity of the company to the solution of the tasks set.

Mission Statement Algorithm

Like any process, the development of the mission and goals of the organization can be decomposed into elementary components: determining the boundaries of competitive activity, strategic vision of the company's management, identifying the necessary competence of personnel and describing the interests of contact groups.

As soon as the idea of ​​​​creating a company arises, the company becomes a player in the product market, that is, it begins to compete. Management should decide on the industry in which the enterprise will operate, consider the target consumer direction (describe the range of customers and their needs) and determine the geography of the market (local, state or global scale). The answers to these questions will paint the big picture and indicate the boundaries within which to work out the details of the mission and goals of the organization.

The company's management can draw up several types of this most important document. Expressed in one capacious phrase, the mission can become the company's slogan, accessible and understandable to everyone. How do well-known companies formulate the mission and goals of the organization? Examples are known to all of us: Apple Computers - "The highest quality computers for people around the world"; Nike - "just do it (just do it)" (implies that you just need to go in for sports and yourself); Facebook - "Enabling people to connect and make the world more open and connected."

But a multi-page volume, in which the sequence of actions of the entire team is described in the most detailed way to the smallest detail, can only be intended for internal use. In this case, the mission and goals of the organization must be critically evaluated. That is, in addition to competitive advantages. should be analyzed and weak sides companies, as well as identify ways to eliminate them.

Who should formulate the idea?

Often the definition of the mission and goals of the organization takes a formal character. The owner of the company gives the installation, and at best the executive director draws up a document that remains unclaimed and misunderstood by all employees of the company. Of course, in this case, all the heights intended by the owner will not be reached.

To prevent this from happening, the mission, goals and objectives of the organization must be written collectively. That is, all heads of functional units, all heads of departments and leading specialists should be involved in the preparation of this document. Only such a "collective work" will create a truly worthwhile guide to action. Indeed, in this case, the interests of individual participants in the process will be coordinated and woven into the activities of the company.

Issues

In order for the mission of the organization and the goals of management not to look like a fantasy story, it is necessary to analyze the external and internal environment of the company. A detailed study of macro-environment factors will bring the performance as close as possible to the desired indicators. In addition, an objective real assessment of the situation on the market will give the company the opportunity to grow and function effectively. After all, only by critically evaluating your efforts, you can develop a strategy for activity.

However, in the modern world, information flows roll over us like a snowball, and it is very difficult to single out what is really necessary. Therefore, all incoming data should be filtered. You can determine the primary filters by formulating the mission in advance. To a certain extent, this situation can be called a vicious circle. But, as we already know, the mission, strategy and goals of the organization can be expressed in primitive sentences. What does the company do? manufactures children's toys. What are the company's goals? Recoup the initial investment in six months of work. At this point, it does not matter at all how realistic the goals are. The main thing is that filters for filtering out useless information have been obtained. And now we can start the analysis. external environment.

If you can't formulate a mission

There are situations when the mission and main goals of the organization cannot be formulated. This is especially common when a company that has been operating for a long time, during the next expansion (or going through a crisis), decides to restructure. The first thing that experts say in such cases is that the company is unbalanced, there is no unanimity in it, each department “moves on its own”. A little less with similar situation may be encountered when a firm decides to expand. And it does not matter if a new direction is opened, or a product enters a new market.

It is necessary to analyze the mission and goals of the organization and adjust them in accordance with new data. Otherwise, the work of the company will perfectly illustrate Krylov's fable "The Swan, the Cancer and the Pike". Competitive advantages will be lost, and consumer loyalty will come to naught.

What is a goal

Defining an enterprise development strategy involves a clear formulation of the goals of both the entire company and its individual divisions. The concept of the mission and goals of the organization is always considered as a whole. After all, the goals of the company follow from the mission, and the timely and effective achievement of goals leads to the fulfillment of the mission. But still find out the definition of this concept.

The goal can be called any state of specific performance indicators of the company, which must be achieved within a certain time frame. That is, in order for the goal to be considered formulated, it is necessary to set the desired value of profit, for example, and set the period for which it must be received. Only in this case can we talk about the effectiveness of the mission and purpose of the organization.

Examples of setting goals, in which at least one of the named parameters is absent, we meet at every step not only in enterprises, but also in personal life: lose weight, build muscle, make money. All these are desires. The goal should sound like this: lose weight by 5 kilograms in 2 months, pump up the muscles of the arms in six months (here, however, you still need to clarify exactly how to pump up: to a certain volume of biceps or to “carrying your beloved with ease”), earn money honest labor to buy a yacht within five years. Only such a clear presentation of the final result within the specified time frame will allow us to work effectively. For companies, these restrictions are even more important. After all, it is necessary to coordinate all the resources of the company, perhaps redistribute them in order for the goal to be achieved.

To facilitate the control of the correctness of setting goals, you can use the SMART principle. This abbreviation is made up of the first letters of words that characterize the goals:

• specific - specific,
• measurable - measurable,
• agreeable - agreed (with the mission of the company, among themselves, with direct performers),
• realistic - achievable,
• timebounded - defined in time.

Classification

It would be wrong to say that there is a single system for classifying goals. Experts find different characteristics by which they can be distinguished. Nevertheless, the mission, goals and objectives of the organization are most often associated with the time factor. Distinguish between long-term, medium-term and short-term goals. Looking ahead, let's say that in general terms, the mission is the long-term goal of the company, and the task is the short-term one. But let's take a closer look.

The fundamental difference between long-term and short-term goals lies in the accuracy of the wording. If for a long-term goal the statement “to take a leading position in the market” is normal, then for a short-term goal, clear limits are needed, which we talked about a little earlier. The more specific and detailed the goal (in this case, it can be called a task), the higher the probability of its timely achievement.

Most often, to achieve a long-term goal, it is necessary to establish several intermediate ones. They are called medium term. Another fundamental difference short-term goals from long-term is the quantity. So, there cannot be many strategic goals: a maximum of two or three. There can be 40 or 100 operational tasks. That is why they are called tasks because they are very specific and the implementation of one will not lead to any result, but the totality of solutions will give the desired. This interconnectedness of goals is called a hierarchy and, simply put, it is a pyramid, at the base of which are multiple short-term goals, and at the top is the mission of the company.

Functional classification of goals

And yet, goal setting is classified not only by execution time. The most common is the functional division of tasks:

• Market goals affect such performance indicators of the company as the dynamics of sales volume, increase in the number of customers, expansion of market share, etc.
• Production goals are formulated to improve the work of the organization, ensure a given volume of production, expand production capacity, technology upgrades, etc.
• Organizational goals are a consequence of the solution of the two previous types of tasks: they are aimed at restructuring the company and the need to attract more professional staff.
• Financial goals are designed to link together all previous tasks. They have a unified measurement system and calculate indicators such as gross income and profitability of the enterprise.

In what order the targets will be set (from market to financial or vice versa) does not matter. The consistency of all tasks and the possibility of mutual situational adjustment are important. It is possible that not all of the listed types of goals will be worked out by the firm. Their quality and quantity depends on the specifics of the industry in which the activity is carried out, on the state and aggressiveness of the external environment, on the mission, after all.