LibGuides: Business Frequently Asked Questions: Finding Company Mission Statements (2024)

FAQs

LibGuides: Business Frequently Asked Questions: Finding Company Mission Statements? ›

How Do I find a company's mission statement? Mission statements are usually included at the very beginning of the company's annual report or in the Chairman's letter to shareholders. These reports can usually be found on a company's Investor Relations web site, and through the Mergent Online research databases.

For a company's mission statement, visit their webpages. Mission statements are typically found under the About Us, Our Company or Investor Relations links which are often located at the bottom of a company's homepage.

What do we do? How do we do it? Whom do we do it for? What value are we bringing?

1 Understand the question

The first step is to understand what the interviewer is asking you when they refer to the company's mission statement. They might ask you to explain what it means to you, how it aligns with your own values and goals, or how you would contribute to it in your role.

Most companies have mission statements, but many of them are outdated and were created before HR leaders had clear guidelines on what makes an effective mission statement.

What are the three parts to a mission statement? A mission statement includes what a company does, the organization's purpose, and/or what it wants to achieve, and its values or how it wants to achieve those goals.

The mission statement is a clear and concise statement (one simple sentence) of what the unit is assigned to accomplish. It expresses the unit's primary task and purpose represented by the "five Ws" -- When (time), Who (unit), What (task), Where (grid), and Why (purpose) for the mission assigned.

A live connect with all the stakeholders in the ecosystem is created through a vital statement which is commonly known as Mission Statement of the institution. W2H meaning What, why and how. These are the basic three questions which are answered in a brief and pointed one, two liner or three liners.

Your mission statement should clearly express what your brand does, how it does it, and why the brand does it. You can quickly sum this up in your mission statement by providing the following: Brand purpose. What does your product or service do or aim to offer and for whom? Brand values.

What questions to ask when creating a mission statement? ›

Does the mission statement make a compelling declaration about your purpose and values? Reflect your responsibilities to stakeholders? Does the mission statement say what you do and what makes you different? Is the vision statement realistic and achievable?

Answering these questions will help organize an effective vision statement into documented thoughts: What problem does my organization seek to solve? Why do I believe this problem needs to be addressed? Does this problem matter to other people?

Why is it important that you are doing this work? What is distinct about the way that you will approach this issue? Who are the communities that will benefit from the work that you'll do? What will success look like for your grassroots group, and how are you going to achieve this success?

Nike's mission statement is, “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” And as co-founder Bill Bowerman once said, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”

Mission statements vs. vision statements

But they mean two very different things. Your mission statement is what your company is doing right now, while your vision statement is what you hope to achieve in the future – where you are in this moment versus where you're going.