Company Mission Statements

Business school teaches us that the one thing you should develop is a company mission statement for your business, but so many people get it wrong.

The mission and vision statement are one of the same thing and part of marketing development and may include terms such as objectives, value, purpose, goals and objectives. In reality, a mission statement should be short and to the point so that everyone can understand it from your customers to your staff.

Writing a Mission Statement

At the end of the day, writing a mission statement should be simple, as it's just a summary of the company strategy. It's there to tell people where the business is heading in easy to understand terms.

Unfortunately, when you look at examples from big blue-chip companies, you're often left wondering what on earth is going on with their business. They are bland and generic and focus on the internal workings of an organisation rather than their customers. Here are some dos and don'ts on writing a statement correctly.

Don't Include These Items

The worst you can say is you're going to be the biggest and best in your industry. This phrasing doesn't differentiate you from your competitors, so avoid using the following terms:

Don't say you're going to be the biggest or best.
Avoid general terms that don't mean anything.
Don't make your mission statement into a strategy document.
Don't waffle and use generic terms.
Avoid industry jargon and acronyms.

Do Use The Following

If you're writing a statement, what should you include? It does depend on your overall goal, but try some of the following:

Be specific in your goal terminology.
State why your business is in existence.
Refer to your employees, customers and suppliers.
State how you are going to achieve your goals.
Keep the entire statement to a couple of paragraphs.

Mission Statement Examples

Here are some examples of mission statements that we quite like. The first few are frequently asked for (probably for business studies and school exercises), so we've listed them below.

McDonalds Mission Statement

There are a few different variations online, so we have provided them all.

McDonald's vision is to be the world's best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.
McDonald's aim to be the UK's best fast service restaurant experience.
McDonald's brand mission is to be our customers' favourite place and way to eat and drink. Our worldwide operations align around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which centre on an exceptional customer experience - People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion.
To be our customers' favourite place and way to eat.

The last one is perfect because it says who they are focused on (their customers) and what they hope to achieve. Behind this will be various strategies for defining "our customers", "favourite place" and "way to eat". We are sure it took them many hours to develop it but it is a good example, and succinct.

eBay Mission Statement

Again, we found a few online, which we've listed below.

We help people trade practically anything on earth.
eBay delivers the world's largest online marketplace to customers via any connected device, connecting people with the things they need and love.

The first eBay statement is akin to the McDonald's one, in that it tells you exactly what is going on in a short eight-word sentence.

Google's Mission Statement

Again, Google's mission statement ensures you understand what they are about very quickly. Their mission is simple:

To organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Google's vision statement is to provide access to the world's information in one click.

Much like the previous two examples, these statements explain precisely the purpose of the organisation to everyone that reads it. By keeping the variables within the statement short and understandable means both your customers and employees know where your company is heading with its strategy.

So there you have three example statements from very large multinational companies which should help you understand how to construct mission statements. In reality, it's something that's a paragraph or two long and focuses on your customer needs.