The Ultimate Guide to Company Mission Statements

A good company mission statement improves employee decision making, employee engagement, autonomy and even employee resilience when challenges arise. In this post we’ll cover what goes into a good company mission statement, how to create one, and how to gauge its effectiveness. We’ll also look at how a company statement fits into popular business operating systems and strategy execution. And we’ll cover the difference between company mission and vision.

What is a Company Mission Statement?

A company mission statement is a one-sentence statement that sums up your business’s vision, purpose and values. A good company mission statement is generally 9 words or less; this ensures it is easy to remember. The best mission statements connect with positive emotion by creating a strong call to action for employees, customers and partners alike. A strong company mission statement does this by connecting an easy-to-remember idea with your company vision statement and company core values.

Is a Company Mission Statement the Same Thing as a Company Vision Statement?

A company mission statement compliments other components that are typically collected under the banner of “company vision”. Your company vision statement works best when it is considered as a distinct component. This is because it serves a different purpose than other components like your company vision statement or your company core values.

Your company vision provides a context or background - a “why”- for your business, and a picture of the compelling future you exist to create. Your actionable company core values provide guidelines for how employees will behave and make decisions while realizing that vision. Your company mission statement serves to tie these components together to make it easy for people to recall them when needed.

Imagine you are facing a difficult decision at work. Perhaps a key customer is upset about a situation, or one of you is facing a challenge. Now imagine the situation is one where there is no reference in your processes, policies or procedures. Your mission allows you to quickly connect with the other components of your vision to make a decision that is aligned and consistent with those clear guides.

Based on your response you can later improve your processes. In the moment, the best teams and performers “make a call” based on the information they have. By having a good company mission statement, you ensure employees’ information includes clear guidance on the company’s purpose (your company vision statement) and the types of behaviors you expect from employees (your company core values).

Why Do You Need a Company Mission Statement?

In their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras noted that great companies have a strong “core ideology.” The simplest way to think of this is through the lens of company vision statements and company core values. Together, the company vision statements and company core values are ways to provide clarity on a company’s core ideology in specific terms for everyone in the company.

While companies often put company vision statements and company value statements in place to create this type of ideology, employees often don’t engage with them. There are several things that prevent people from engaging through company vision statements or company core values,

It can be difficult to make sense of them because of how they are written
It can be difficult to remember the specific information contained in them
The information in those components may not resonate enough for it to easily be called to mind

In the face of these difficulties making sense of a company mission statement or company core values, many people dismiss them. As a result, people aren’t able to connect with - or take ownership of - the core ideology of a company. This means that even if you’ve spent a large amount of time and energy building your company vision statement and company core values, they cannot serve their purpose; people are not able to engage with or act on what they cannot recall.

A company mission statement ensures people are able to

Easily remember the information from the company vision and core values
Connect with that information in some emotion way to keep easy to recall
Make decisions that align to the company direction and the desired culture

How Do Company Mission Statements Relate to Business Operating Systems?

Most popular management frameworks and business operating systems have some form of company mission statements. Many cite and build upon Collins and Porras work in Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Objectives and Key Results, as laid out by their creator in the book Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr, exist to help ensure an organization realizes its company mission. Audacious, Doerr's organization that champions OKRs, states its mission explicitly.
The Scaling Up business operating system uses a “One Page Vision Summary” which includes a summary of purpose. In this system, purpose is a variant of a company mission statement; according to the system's creator, Verne Harnish (sp) “If the Core Values are the soul of the organization, the core Purpose (some call it “mission”) gives it heart.”
The Entrepreneurial Operating system’s Vision/Traction organizer is based on Scaling Up’s One Page Vision Summary, and also a core purpose again it is essentially a variant of a mission statement.
The Pinnacle Guides system uses a component of vision called “Why”, and references mission statements when citing examples. The ”why” component for the Pinnacle System is functionally the same thing as a company mission statement, and the justifications for having it align to those for having a company mission statement.

Even if a management framework or business operating system does not explicitly call out the need for a mission statement, having one can still lead to improved performance, better decision making and better execution. As mentioned in the section “Why Do You Need A Company Mission Statement?,” a company mission statement serves to help people easily make sense of and recall any company vision statement and company core value statements.

How a Company Mission Statement Works

As strategist and corporate advisor author Dr. Rebecca Homkes notes, a strategy is the story of how a business creates economic value. Your company mission statement serves as the title of that story and allows everyone to remember it and stay aligned to it. Our brains make sense of information through stories, so using a company mission statement in this way taps into the natural ways human brains work. A good company mission statement is like the “hook” to a good popular song. It can instantly bring the larger ideas from a company vision statement and company core values to the forefront of everyone’s awareness.

👉 Learn more about company vision statements with our ultimate guide to creating a company vision

Examples of Company Mission Statements

How to Craft Your Company Mission Statement

Think of your company’s vision and core values as a book, and you’re brainstorming book titles.

First develop your company vision statement
Then outline your company’s actionable core values
Complete the 5 why’s exercise.
Use the information you’ve pulled together to jot down 10 ideas in 10 minutes using the free company mission statement workbook (click to access via Google Sheets or via Excel)
Use the workbook to evaluate the company mission statement that resonates the most.

Alternately: try our free, AI-driven generator to get an amazing draft after answering 16 simple questions. (one of the outputs is a mission statement).

Common Mistakes Creating Company Mission Statements

Marketing Slogans are not Company Mission Statements. Nike's famous "Just Do It" tagline is often incorrectly cited as their company mission statement. In reality, it's a powerful marketing slogan, not their actual mission. Nike's true mission statement is "To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world." (*If you have a body, you're an athlete.")
Confusing Missions with Business Objectives.
Many formulas exist for creating long, hard to remember or overly specific company mission statements that do not meet the other goals outlined here. A company mission statement should convey the core result or impact your business aims to create, not delve into features, strategies, or operational details.
For instance, "Create wonderful family experiences" is a great company mission statement that sparks emotional connection and employee ownership. In contrast, "Provide the best pizzas to the Dallas area" is more akin to a marketing objective than a true mission.
Confusing "Mission" from Other Contexts.
The term "mission" is used differently in military and business settings. In the military, a "mission" typically refers to a large-scale, temporary operation or project. In a business context, a company mission statement is intended to be an enduring statement of purpose that informs decision-making and fosters organizational alignment, not a finite undertaking.

Checklist for Creating An Impactful Company Mission Statement

3-12 words at most, for maximum impact and memorability.
Directly ties to and supports your company's vision, core purpose ("why"), and values.
Can be quickly explained in just a few sentences to gain buy-in.
Starts with an impactful action verb that conveys a sense of purpose and forward momentum.
Completes the phrase "Our mission is to..." in a meaningful way.
So aligned with your vision, purpose, and values that questioning it calls an employee's cultural fit into doubt.
Inspires pride when shared externally with customers, partners, and the broader community.
Stands the test of time while still allowing for evolution as the company grows and circumstances change.
Resonates emotionally and intellectually, capturing both the heart and mind of stakeholders. stakeholders.