Sample business mission statements can help you to create the ideal statement for your business. While these mission statements can be helpful within any organization, they need to be meaningful to your business to make them worthwhile to write.
Key Ingredients in Business Mission Statements
A business mission statement provides a guide for your company to follow no matter what the situation is. It should be meaningful and provide employees and owners of the business with guidance in how to act morally on behalf of the company. This simple statement helps show what your business's goals and values are which can help set it apart from other businesses.
This statement should have three key elements to it:
- The statement should be concise and no more than a paragraph in length. It should describe what your company does and what it does not do. It should be easy to understand from the point of view of anyone who knows nothing about your business.
- Your mission statement should not be about the money you plan to make, but about the values that make your company unique. Keep it focused but be creative.
- The mission statement should inspire you. It should not be a statement for other businesses to learn about you. Rather, it is a statement written by your company for you and your employees to follow.
A Few Sample Business Mission Statements
Using some of the sample business mission statements here, get an idea of how you could write your own. Keep in mind that it needs to be personally about your business. Therefore, you should avoid copying the statement of another company.
- Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream: One of the simplest and best examples of a business statement is that of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. You can read the entire statement at the Ben and Jerry's website. The company has three, a social mission statement, a product mission statement and an economic mission statement. Each one defines the company's goals. For example, the economic mission statement states, "To operate the Company on a sustainable financial basis of profitable growth, increasing value for our stakeholders and expanding opportunities for development and career growth for our employees."
- Yeshiva University: At Yeshiva University's website you can read the mission statements that the company has developed for each type of sector within its business, including undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and even alumni.
- Starbucks Coffee: Starbucks Coffee also has several mission statements to their employees and to their customers. However, the company has a specific overall statement. According to the Starbucks Coffee website their main mission statement is, "To inspire and nurture the human spirit - one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time."
- Google: The large and powerful search engine, Google has taken time to write a business mission statement as well. Google's mission statement is, "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." However, this statement does not cover every aspect of the company's philosophy, which it further breaks down at the Google company website.
- McDonalds: McDonald's mission statement is, "McDonald's vision is to be the world's 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." You can read it at McDonald's.com.
- Disney: According to Walt Disney Company's website, the company's mission statement is quite thorough and includes "To be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to differentiate its content, services and consumer products…."
You can read other large company's mission statements by simply visiting their website and looking under corporate information, including the company's "about" website page. Although your company may be small, these examples show what a mission statement can be and what it says about the company that writes it.
