The guiding principle

Purpose and strategy will become empty intellectual pursuits, unless they can be converted into action, transformed into policy and guidelines for behaviour, which will help people to decide what to do on a pragmatic and down-to-earth basis. Human beings are emotional: in order to capture and capitalise on the emotional energy of a company, the mission needs to furnish a moral or philosophical platform for behaviour to run alongside its commercial criterion. This brings us to the next element in our definition of mission.

Values are the beliefs and moral principles of a company's culture. It is the foundation on which the company is built. Values provide the raison d'etre for a company; they provide a meaning to the norms and behaviour standards in a company. Thus, we understand that purpose, strategy, behaviour standards, and values constitute the four components of a mission: a strong mission will permeate in a company, where these four constituents flourish and reinforce each other.

A sense of mission is an emotional commitment. Some people feel and possess this sense of mission: whereas there are others, who do not feel such an emotional bondage. A sense of mission occurs when there is a congruence of values between the company and the employee. For example, if the corporate behaviour standard lays stress upon cooperation and collaboration; and if an individual employee by nature is cooperative and helpful, then there will be a match of values between him and the company.

It is the confluence of values which promote a sense of mission; it is through values that individuals experience an emotional identity with the company. Strategy does not necessarily create compatibility between an employee and the company. There are many managers who are in intellectual agreement with the company's purpose and strategy; but that does not per se translate into an emotional involvement; to that extent the implementation of a strategic plan will suffer default. It is only when the individual identifies himself with the framework of values and behaviour norms in a company, that is when his emotional commitment comes to pass, it is, then strategy will turn into a mission.

People are always looking for something more than a mere and normal existence. The mundanity and humdrum of day-to-day living does not satisfy them. They constantly seek and strive for a larger and deeper meaning of life. Values provide them with this meaning. When an individual works in concert with a group of people operating with harmonious values in the company, he finds and feels a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction. The void and vacuum earlier encountered by him is dissolved. Work becomes a joy and a pleasure, because it is imbued with a nobility of purpose; it uplifts him into an exalted state, and gives him intrinsic happiness.

In this context, it is useful to understand the basic difference between what is vision, and what is mission, as there is a tendency to confuse these two concepts. In order to select a proper course of direction, a business leader must first develop and formulate a mental image of a viable and desirable future state of the company. This image is what is known as a vision. A vision articulates a realistic, credible, and attractive future for the company; a state which will be far better from the current business scenario.

A vision and a mission, sometimes, can be one and the same. A possible and desirable future state of a company may include all the elements of mission namely, purpose, strategy, behaviour standards, and values. The differentiating criterion, however, is that while vision refers to a future state, mission concerns the current state as well. When a vision is accomplished, it is replaced by a new vision, because growth and expansion are mandatory for a company to survive. However, the mission has a relatively longer span of validity and relevance; quite often it is timeless and infinite. A vision is more involved with a goal, whereas a mission is more associated with a way of behaviour.

Today, the business world has become more competitive and market- driven. Companies which are not clear about their values, and which have not won the commitment of their employees will find it difficult to survive, leave alone succeed. A management team equipped with a mission is likely to outperform such others in the field who have no mission. As we are asking the managers to become more conscious and cognisant of the emotional and moral aspects of their companies, it is imperative to explain how such attention and action will lead to better performance. The benefits are derived from two sources: from the clarity of direction which flows and follows as a consequence, when you define a mission; secondly, from the collective commitment, loyalty, and zeal emanating from the individuals who are injected with the spirit of mission.

The mission team will have value as well as strategic intents to guide it while taking decisions. When taking strategic decisions, senior managers are all at sea, as they are mostly dealing with ambiguous, complex, and uncertain issues, in which no clear right or wrong is manifest. After taking into account all the available facts and figures, they are more often inclined to depend on their personal intuition and judgment.

In such a context, a clear and authentic conceptual framework of values will be an excellent source to engineer consistent and uniform decisions. Managers rely more often on their corporate mission, which defines and delineates their business philosophy, when taking impromptu decisions. By experiencing the links between strategy and purpose on the one-hand, and between value and purpose on the other hand, the managers are more likely to stay on track and steer on course.

Companies with clear missions are more fastidious about the people they employ and promote. The parameters of selection stretch beyond the traditional range comprising education, experience, skill level, and leadership evidence. What kind of people will mesh and meet with the culture of the company is a major criterion.

Companies with strong missions always have strong norms and behaviour standards. Their employees adhere to such clear and strict codes of conduct, which ipso facto endow them with an overall corporate loyalty, rather than departmental affinity. They find it easier to trust their colleagues, and overcome the petty and ubiquitous work rivalry and suspicion. Strong shared values foster a healthy and less cynical view of their peers, and a deeper regard for the basic objectives of the company. A sense of mission may not altogether eliminate power games, and personal idiosyncrasies, but it will certainly defuse and reduce them to a manageable extent.

A mission statement is the enunciation of a company's avowed mission. It can help to clarify an issue, or a point of order; it can serve as a symbol for the common cause shared by the people in the company; it can, also, help such individuals who are led astray to be brought back to the right track. A mission statement is akin to the constitution of a country; it is like the gospel of a religion. In a company, a mission statement must be seen as a document sacrosanct and inviolable: it encapsulates the guiding principles of behaviour and conduct, for its employees to follow.

Creating a mission is an intellectual process, because mission is an intellectual concept. It deals with the logic which connects behaviour to purpose. Whereas convincing and converting an industrial population to accept and adopt the mission is part of socialisation, and an emotional process. The employees are buying into a new philosophy of action. It will take time for a mission to get into the bloodstream of a company. It will take time to align the behaviour patterns in a company with its values. It will take further time to align the company's values with the values of its employees.Converting a company to a new mission is akin to converting a community to a new religion. It has all the pains and characteristics of proselytism. It is, therefore, obvious that such a change will not endure.

In order to create a resonance between strategy and values as well as propound the behaviour mode in a company, managers need to continue with the process of thinking, analysis, and experimentation for a fairly long time. Working with mission demands devotion and dedication of a high degree. It is in this passion for mission that we find an opportunity par excellence for improvement and progress.

R. Devarajan

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