Corporate aims,
missions and goals
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1. Corporate aims
 Express the long-term intention of the organisation
to develop in a certain way.
 Everyone in the organisation should work towards
achieving a common vision
 Help build team spirit, encourage commitment
 Example McDonald‘s: provide friendly service in a
relaxed, safe and consistent restaurant
environment
 Small companies do not write down their aims
M.R.
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Corporate aims
 Whether stated or unstated – corporate
aims act as a basis upon which to form
goals or objectives for the organisation 
allows delegation
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2. Mission statement
 a qualitative statement of the organisation
aims – intended to motivate within the firm
and to convince those outside it of the
company‘s commitment
 attempt to put corporate aims into words
 should identify positive characteristics such
as creativity and quality rather than
maximising profit
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The mission model
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Purpose
Values
Standards and behaviour
Strategy
Are interdependent
E.g. Unilever: raise the quality of life
Coca-Cola: our mission is to get more
people drink Coke than water
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3. Purpose
 Identification for employées‘ work.
 Mission statement identifies several
stakeholders in whose interests the
business is said to be run
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4. Values
 The values reflect the beliefs among the
employées. This unwritten code is called culture of
business 
 Mission statement provides an opportunity to
shape this business culture
 Set of values which employees can feel proud of –
motivates them to work towards the organisation‘s
objective
 Difficult in large companies where each
department has its own culture – no dominant
corporate culture
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Sources of business culture
 Company routines – everyday decisions
 Formal controls – organisation structure
(vertically by functions, horizontally by layers
of hierarchy)
 Peer structure – interrelationships between
individuals and groups
 Symbols: language, signs of status
 Rituals and myths – behaviour, stories from
the past
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Attitudes and business culture
 Body shop – soft, less profit-focused culture
 more socially based (opposite:
shareholder)
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Approach to key issues
 Attitude towards risk: entrepreneurial – risk
averse
 Reward distribution: ‚them and us‘ – fat cats
 Teamwork
 Equity: more based in small firms (Nissan
plant in Sunderland)
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Types of business culture
 Power culture – pleasing the boss
 Role culture – power depends on the
position
 Task culture – power lies in the expertise
 Person culture – within functional
departments (lawyers, accountants)
 Principal reason for introducing a mission
statement: provide a common purpose
amongst employées
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Behaviour standard
 IBM: all managers should operate an open
door policy
 Criticism: mission statements are only part
of a PR strategy
 Missing link: identify the standars of
behaviour expected from the employees
which symbolise the purpose, strategy and
values of the organisation
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Developing a mission statement
 If all staff are involved in preparing (and agree the
outcome) – a mission statement, the result will be a
statement of shared values
 E.g. clothing retailer: maximise sales and serve the
customer in the best way
 E.g. a woman tries on, appears to like, a dress which looks
ill-fitting at the back, should you step in to point this out?
 All staff should answer in the same way. The sales-driven
staff might say no. The risk of losing the sale would be too
great.
 Focus on the customer: yes  customer confident in the
honesty of the staff, will return.
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Length of a mission statement
 Can vary
 1 page  single phrase
 Others prepare extensive documents
consisting of the purpose, strategy and
values of the organisation in detail
 Statement should be memorable
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Criticism of mission statements
 No purpose than to gain publicity
 Common for quite different companies to have
very similiar mission statements
 Time and effort could be used more effectively
elsewhere in the business
 Even when the statement sets out the
organisation‘s purpose, strategy and values –
firms fail to implement the ideas
 86 % of the organisations have a mission
statement
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