Impact of Mission Statements on Corporate Identity - Dissertation Example

Impact of Mission ments on Corporate Identity Introduction Corporate identity refers to the image created by organisations about themselves in the market not only to achieve their objectives, but also to gain a competitive edge through specific features that can be identified as unique and inimitable in the segment of market they are associated with. Corporations associate themselves with a ‘kind of’ philosophy that has been self created. Van Riel (1992) defined corporate identity as the set of forms of expression that a business uses to offer an insight into its nature (cited by Papasolomou, 2008; p.389) Evolution of corporation can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution era with the introduction of privatization and removal of federal regulation over large organisations. Increasing profits poured greater revenue into the government in the form of taxes, which eventually bred more investments into organisations and increasing money for its shareholders (Perrow, 2002). The earliest corporations were formed by merging of organisations operating on large scale. Corporations have evolved in various forms, and the modern corporations are characterized by their goals and objectives; like, for example, educational institutions like the Carnegie Foundation are committed to educational and/or philanthropic purpose; Lockheed. Inc focuses only on profit making; Toyota is into manufacturing. According to Chief Justice Marshall (1819), ‘a corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in the contemplation of law. Being the mere creation of law, is possesses only those properties which the charter of its creation confers upon it, either expressly, or as incidental to its very existence,’ as cited by Donaldson (1982; pp.3-4) In addition, there exist public and private corporations depending upon their stockholdings. Whatever be the purpose of existence, corporations have to compete for continued existence. For this reason, corporations opt for various methods of establishing their identity, which has become one of the most essential features of the modern organisations. Other events of the 20th century like deregulation with respect to mergers and acquisitions, globalization, economic shocks, increased privatization, and emergence of corporate social responsibility have further reinforced establishment of corporate identity. Why is corporate identity required? Through an identity, corporations sort to create a perception among all its stakeholders. As a strategic tool, this concept is used to enhance achievement of competitive advantage and promise sustainability along with obtaining higher returns, motivating employees, and creating the ‘desired’ perspective about the organisation. Mostly, corporate identity also plays the role of educating or conveying corporate goals to all its stakeholders. Types / methods adopted for establishing a corporate identity: Attributed to their size and extent of impact, Handel explained that large corporations play a significant role in shaping the society in terms of gender, race, class, political power, economic status, sociocultural influence, on environment, etc (2003; pp.371-372). Organisations have the power of people to drive the right thing and also the financial aide to help the society in driving activities that can help the society. In the context of an organisation, society would include employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, government and legal bodies, environment, and all non-associated people of the region. Considering the impact an organisation can create on these societal elements, coupled with a need to establish their identity, organisations have been harnessing their strength in various ways for their benefit and also for the societal advantage. Organisations have sought to establish corporate identity through multiple dimensions like corporate communication, corporate design, corporate culture, behaviour, corporate structure, industry identity and corporate strategy (Malewar & Karaosmangolu, 2003). Simoes et al. (2005) had established a relationship between these dimensions by drawing three important features of establishing corporate identity: the dissemination of mission andvalues, consistent image implementation, and visual identity implementation; Simoes and Dibb (2008; p.70) created the triangle of corporate identity management. Source adopted from Simoes and Dibb (Malewar (ed.) 2008; p.70) The most important aspect of establishing corporate identity, not limited to creation of logos, designs, advertising, or unique themes, is its conscious management through careful planning and execution of all organisational activities in conformity with the marketed and/or established identity. Framing the organisation’s goal in the form of a statement that not only inspires its members, but also challenges the group to stretch its capabilities and achieve its purpose. Another significant method of establishing corporate identity is formulation of a mission statement, in line with its vision, that conveys the main purpose of the organisation through a guiding set of ideas that is articulated, understood, and supported by the organisation’s board, staff, volunteers, donors, and collaborators (Allison & Kaye, p.86). Emphasis on Mission statement Organisations have adopted the process of formulating mission statement as a part of strategic planning attributed its significance in terms of educating all the stakeholders of its purpose and expectations; it also educates the stakeholders of what is not expected of them and what the organisation does not do. The general structure of a mission statement composes of elements such as the main purpose or desired outcome/objective of the organisation, methods/approaches used to achieve the purpose, and what it intends to provide to each segment of the stakeholders (employees, customers, shareholders, board members, and associated business partners.) Hence, the comprehensive set of statements provides much meaning to the organisation in terms of its goals and objectives, and information to all its expectants. Its simple formulation makes it easy for employees to imbibe and register the content in the form of organisational expectations; most importantly, employees and board members consider mission statements to be inspiring (add ref). Learning about the reinforcing capability that a mission statement carries encouraged me to explore the mission statements of various well-known organisations. These statements are indeed inspiring, and noted a few of them: Google-‘To make the world’s information universally accessible and useful’; Dell- To be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve ; McDonald’s- McDonalds vision is to be the worlds best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile; Sony- To experience the joy of advancing and applying technology for the benefit of the public; Toyota- To sustain profitable growth by providing the best customer experience and dealer support. Almost every organisation has its mission statement formulated, and ensures its actions, design, and culture accord with its mission (adopted from Mission Statement, n.d). Exploring Microsoft The commonly found components of a mission statement include their goals, customer and market segments, stakeholders, all related through a mutually benefiting concept/philosophy. Considering Microsoft’s mission statement that states, ‘at Microsoft, we work to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential. This is our mission. Everything we do reflects this mission and the values that make it possible.’ This is the revised mission statement, formulated after Steve Ballmer became the CEO. With a vision to be more successful in next twenty five years, Ballmer arrived at this mission statement. The new mission statement outlined management process to improve cross-functional coordination, tighten accountability, and speed up decision making (Cohan, 2003; p.158). This new approach reflects all the elements of a concrete identity, i.e. visionary, unidimensional, dynamic and also powerful. Microsoft’s mission under Gates’ leadership was to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers, which he was able to accomplish successfully considering its immense growth known to the people of the world. What attracted my attention was that Microsoft’s work culture and organisational initiatives are strongly supportive of learning culture and openness, which in turn gets invested into the company in the form of performance and results. An article in the Sunday Times (2009, 8 March) reported Microsoft to be one of the most employee-satisfied companies, and staff at Microsoft believed that their experience with Microsoft gave them much learning that is valuable for their future. This news reported that employees had innovative technology at their fingertips, which they were able to use before its public launch. They found their work stimulating (81%), felt excited about Microsoft’s future (80%) and believed they made a valuable contribution to its success (81%). More insight into Microsoft’s strategies such as- arrangement of regular get-togethers at all levels to celebrated success, morale budget to keep teams happy and motivated, infrastructure conducive to relaxed and creative thinking, accessibility to latest technology-helped in understanding how Microsoft’s strategies and initiatives helped in encouraging learning and growth in the organisation, as committed in their mission statement. This interesting insight into Microsoft’s commitment to learning and progress encouraged me to look for more information related to the organisation; my attempt directed me towards another milestone created by Microsoft prior to the publishing of the first news article. This giant has extended its contribution towards learning and growth to the outer world as well. It is reported to have tied up with many schools and institutions to promote meaningful education; one such initiative is with trust schools and professional support services group by providing software and systems along with its staff expertise to help in providing quality education. The Microsoft group manager for education relations apparently stated, “We are involved with schools because it fits with the company’s mission statement to help everyone realise their full potential. We are also involved because though we are small in the UK – we employ just over 2,000 people – our partner business community employs 480,000 people. We need people to leave school with 21st century skills” (Braid, 2008). Factors impacting corporate identity and its challenges Reinforcement of a corporate brand through inspiring vision and mission require strong commitment, involvement, and trust. Monopolistic vision and mission are a challenge to the organisation. Hence, formulation of mission, based on the vision, requires participation from all key members of the organisation, like all board members. Mission statement is not just a statement, but a set of activities related to each sphere of the organisation to be performed in a specific and distinct manner that reinforce the organisations values and continually take the organisation closer to realization of its vision. Although these aspects point at the philosophy, practically mission statement fails if the organisation fails to gain commitment from its employees and key leadership team. Secondly, organisational culture needs to be raised or created in accordance with its values. Gap between organisational culture and external perception of the organisation created through its vision and mission statements come in way to creation and sustenance of the corporation’s image and reputation (Schultz, Antorini and Fabian, 2005). I was able to relate these challenges to Microsoft’s case; when Ballmer took over as CEO its external reputation was at stake, owing to the numerous cases filed against Microsoft for its insincere practices meant to rule the software market in the world; reestablishing its corporate image was a highly challenging task. Under these circumstances, Ballmer had to adopt distinctive strategies to reestablish the company and its image; change the culture to a more dynamic and open one that could encourage high commitment, involvement and openness among internal customers; and change the strategies to stronger and competitive business plans that would reinforce its values of honesty, integrity and respect. These events in the history of Microsoft, the most successful software giant, can be related to what Schultz, Antorini and Fabian (2005) described as a dynamic process, with two distinct yet significant paths-firstly, the external branding aspect based on visual perspectives, and second being the outcome of the first path that provides a more realistic opinion about the organisation to all its stakeholders. Creating a corporate identity by establishing value-adding vision and mission statements has not only helped organisations to achieve desired results but also in earning high returns. A well formulated mission statement, which is simple and clear to understand and remember, inspiring and unique can be considered as good; the returns will also be promising as well as permanent for more time. I have noticed that once a mission statement is formulated and has achieved an established position for the company, other companies in the same segment tend to adopt a different vision and mission; this is to ensure minimal ‘threat’ to their business as well as to provide a distinct view to attract customers/clients. So, once a mission statement is established, the organisation’s strategies cannot deviate from its mission, even if the strategies are meant to achieve one or more of the missions. In such incidents, although the mission statement or the organisation may not fail, its strategy would either fail or take very long time to yield results. This attempt to compete with competitors’ domain expertise may be viewed as encroachment by clients/customers, which may even affect their ‘trust’ on the organisation’s identity or brand. Like, for example, many search engines have been introduced by different software giants, including Microsoft, in the market dominated by ‘Google,’ but none till date has been able to compete neck-to-neck with Google. Although Microsoft has replaced its MSN Live Search with the latest, ‘Bing,’ with a promise of better service than Google, this initiative has not been very successful till date. In a news article published by Harkin (2009), he lists different search engines launched and their performance in comparison with Google. Interestingly, the report indicates that Microsoft’s Bing is still in the initial stages, and will take much time to catch up or achieve the desired results. However, what I believe is that unless Microsoft introduces uniqueness in its search engine, in line with its present strategies and vision, achieving the desired result will be a challenging task. Even if Bing is equally competitive with Google in providing search results, it will be very difficult for the users to get used to ‘Bing’ from Google that is synonymous with searching. Linking their mission of providing learning and helping people realize their full potential with this search engine can provide uniqueness to their product that can attract more users. For example, in my opinion, providing free access or access with lesser prices than the present ones to specific libraries or e-learning sites and publishing Microsoft-related business experiences from entire world can be two unique selling points for Bing. Literature suggests that establishing corporate identity through mission and vision statements is subject to multiple interpretations (Boyle, 2001); however, it is also essential that appropriate use of mission and vision statements requires some amount of translation and interpretation in individuals’ perspectives. Hence, dissemination of these statements must be a critical and continuous activity. Exemplifying through actions is also equally important because these statements are meant to be put into action constantly. Such recurrent exemplifications become highly critical when dealing with ethical, moral and legal issues within or outside the organisation, as seen in the case of Microsoft. Conclusions and learning points This research has been helpful in understanding the importance of establishing a corporate identity and sustaining it in order to sustain the organisation’s competitive edge. Increasing competition and a need to sustain in business are the most commonly associated reasons for corporations opting for a corporate identity; however, corporate identity offers much more than these benefits. Framing a mission statement in the process of establishing corporate identity has become a regular function in every organisation; however, integration of strategies with mission decides the success of the organisation. Moreover, the strategies firstly create a perception of the corporate identity and the outcomes eventually have an impact on organisation’s perception with respect to reality. Mission statements have to be inspiring to the external and internal customers; leadership involvement and commitment to drive organisation’s mission actually determine success of mission statements. References Allison, M.J. and Kaye, J. 2005. Strategic planning for nonprofit organisations: a practical guide and workbook.( Ed.2). New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Phase:2; pp:85-124 Boyle, P. 2001. Organisational ethics in health care: principles, cases, and practical solutions. California: John Wiley and Sons. Cohan, P.S. 2003. 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Facets of Corporate Identity, Communication and Reputation. Oxford: Routledge. Ch: 66-82 Schultz, M, Antorini, Y.M and Csaba, F.F. 2005. Corporate Branding-An Evolving Concept. In Corporate branding: purpose/people/process : towards the second wave of corporate branding. Denmark: Copenhagen Business School Press DK. (Ch:1; pp: 9-22). Websites Braid, M. 2008. Firms raise education to new level. The Sunday Times. The Times Online. (internet). 3 February 2008. Available at http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/recruiter_forum/article3294952.ece (Accessed 2 April 2010). Harkin, J. 2009. Can you live without Google? The Times Online (internet). 12 June 2009. Available at http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6480438.ece (Accessed 3 April 2010). Mission Statement (n.d). samples-help.org. (online) Accessed at http://www.samples-help.org.uk/mission-statements/index.htm (Accessed 2 April 2010). Microsoft: IT/internet services. 2009. 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