Mission An organization’s mission is the purpose or reason for the organization’s existence. It tells what the company is providing to society—either a service such as housecleaning or a product such as automobiles. A well-conceived mission statement defines the fundamental, unique purpose that sets a company apart from other firms of its type and identifies the scope or domain of the company’s operations in terms of products (including services) offered and markets served. Research reveals that firms with mission statements containing explicit descriptions of customers served and technologies used have significantly higher growth than firms without such statements.61 A mission statement may also include the firm’s values and philosophy about how it does business and treats its employees. It puts into words not only what the company is now but what it wants to become—management’s strategic vision of the firm’s future. The mission statement promotes a sense of shared expectations in employees and communicates a public image to important stakeholder groups in the company’s task environment. Some people like to consider vision and mission as two different concepts: Mission describes what the organization is now; vision describes what the organization would like to become. We prefer to combine these ideas into a single mission statement.62 Some companies prefer to list their values and philosophy of doing business in a separate publication called a values statement. For a listing of the many things that could go into a mission statement, see