strategic-management

48 PART 2 • STRATEGY FORMULATION
Reuben Mark, former CEO of Colgate, maintains that a clear mission increasingly
must make sense internationally. Mark’s thoughts on vision are as follows:
When it comes to rallying everyone to the corporate banner, it’s essential to push one
vision globally rather than trying to drive home different messages in different cultures.
The trick is to keep the vision simple but elevated: “We make the world’s
fastest computers” or “Telephone service for everyone.” You’re never going to get
anyone to charge the machine guns only for financial objectives. It’s got to be something
that makes people feel better, feel a part of something. 8
A Resolution of Divergent Views
Another benefit of developing a comprehensive mission statement is that divergent views
among managers can be revealed and resolved through the process. The question “What is
our business?” can create controversy. Raising the question often reveals differences
among strategists in the organization. Individuals who have worked together for a long
time and who think they know each other suddenly may realize that they are in fundamental
disagreement. For example, in a college or university, divergent views regarding the
relative importance of teaching, research, and service often are expressed during the
mission statement development process. Negotiation, compromise, and eventual agreement
on important issues are needed before people can focus on more specific strategy
formulation activities.
“What is our mission?” is a genuine decision; and a genuine decision must be based
on divergent views to have a chance to be a right and effective decision. Developing
a business mission is always a choice between alternatives, each of which rests on
different assumptions regarding the reality of the business and its environment. It is
always a high-risk decision. A change in mission always leads to changes in
objectives, strategies, organization, and behavior. The mission decision is far too
important to be made by acclamation. Developing a business mission is a big step
toward management effectiveness. Hidden or half-understood disagreements on the
definition of a business mission underlie many of the personality problems, communication
problems, and irritations that tend to divide a top-management group.
Establishing a mission should never be made on plausibility alone, should never be
made fast, and should never be made painlessly. 9
Considerable disagreement among an organization’s strategists over vision and
mission statements can cause trouble if not resolved. For example, unresolved disagreement
over the business mission was one of the reasons for W. T. Grant’s bankruptcy and
eventual liquidation. As one executive reported:
There was a lot of dissension within the company whether we should go the Kmart
route or go after the Montgomery Ward and JCPenney position. Ed Staley and Lou
Lustenberger (two top executives) were at loggerheads over the issue, with the
upshot being we took a position between the two and that consequently stood for
nothing. 10
Too often, strategists develop vision and business mission statements only when
the organization is in trouble. Of course, it is needed then. Developing and communicating
a clear mission during troubled times indeed may have spectacular results and
even may reverse decline. However, to wait until an organization is in trouble to
develop a vision and mission statement is a gamble that characterizes irresponsible
management. According to Drucker, the most important time to ask seriously, “What
do we want to become?” and “What is our business?” is when a company has been
successful:
Success always obsoletes the very behavior that achieved it, always creates new realities,
and always creates new and different problems. Only the fairy tale story ends,
“They lived happily ever after.” It is never popular to argue with success or to rock