Descriptive Mission Metrics

A vision statement summarizes what you want your company to become in the future while the mission statement summarizes the qualities of the company and what it should be doing to achieve its vision. A company does not obtain the qualities needed to attain its vision overnight. This is the reason why a mission statement must be comprehensive while providing enough measurable details. The measurable details are the basis for the formulation of a long-term plan and strategy. The last two are basic components of the strategic management aspect of the business. The measurable specifics contained in the mission statement are what managers call the mission metrics.

How then to formulate a satisfactory mission statement? Businesses, small or large, practically contend with the same things — management, human resources, financial and non-financial resources, products, services, and markets. It should be easy to describe the quality of management you like to be manning your company, the words efficient, innovative, and responsive tell a lot. You would like to see your human resources to be professional, loyal, and committed to the idea of providing the best service. You would like your finances to be stable, able to meet the needs of the company and demands of the business, and you would like your services and products to be useful and enjoy great success in the market.

The description of the company’s mission determines what the company should be doing. So, what do you do to achieve all these things? Well, that is what strategic plans are there for — translate your mission statement into concrete programs. Surely, your strategic plan will find a place for a comprehensive human resources development program, where the qualities described in your mission statement for management and rank and are inculcated and constantly nourished. You will have a financial management team capable of installing a system capable of maximizing resource utilization and capable of allocating resources where they are needed most. You will have a market and production team capable of analyzing market trends and producing products that people will find serviceable.

An efficient management demanded by your mission will formulate plans that can be measured because expected outputs are specific — with strict time frames, specified units of production, with allocated financial budgets, and qualified people assigned to particular tasks. These are efficiency measures.

You somehow have to be able to translate the mission description into concrete and measurable actions or qualities. All managers and ordinary employees would know what is required by the word efficiency. The words responsive and dynamic are measurable descriptions as opposed to excellent, superb, or outstanding. They are measurable because, for example, you know that responsive management is management that is capable of immediately providing solutions to internal and external issues that affect business operations. So, what you do is formulate an appropriate human resource development, install a working monitoring system and other structures that would make management responsive.

Mission statements need not be long-winded statements. Mission metrics in the from of “specific” and “breakable” descriptions of the qualities you would like to have and the things you intend to do in order to attain what you would like to be in the future should be enough.

By: Sam Miller

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