Creating a Global Mission Statement

Breda, Dealttre, and Ocre present the idea that corporate identity, brand identity, and individual identity are intrinsically tied together in a dynamic system that allows each to evolve and adapt, and that a company accomplishes this through “storytelling”, where story telling is the image that a company presents about itself through its brands, (2008). Thus in actuality, although it may seem to be the opposite, the physical products that a corporation sells have very little to do with their corporate identity. Instead corporate identity is more aligned with the consumer experience that is associated with the corporation’s products, as dictated by the information that is given to the consumer through the image portrayed. Consumers make a choice to buy into the corporation’s identity, and associate themselves with their products, or to reject the corporation’s image and to purchase from a competitor. To discern a corporation’s identity the consumer experience associated with their products must be evaluated, along with the image and attitude the corporation chooses to project, these in turn must be incorporated into the mission statement. Fred R. David discusses that a company needs to convey an attitude and an outlook in their mission statement that should appeal to its stakeholders, (2011, p. 49). As such, a mission statement should not only be a reflection of the attitude and the outlook that a company wants to express to its internal stakeholders, but also what it wants to express to its external stakeholders, notably its customers. In regards to the development of a mission statement, pairing David’s concept of attitude and outlook, with the concept of Breda et al that corporate identity, brand identity, and individual identity are linked, the mission statement should reflect the image that the corporation wants to portray to consumers.

One should look to the company itself, specifically at the company’s vision, preferably at the company’s vision statement if they already have one, to create a global mission statement. Additionally if the company has a preexisting mission statement then I would seek to refine it to reflect that they now are seeking to develop strategically into an international market. If the company does not have a vision statement then this should necessarily be developed first, as David states that the company’s vision statement should provide the foundation for developing the company’s mission statement, (2011, p. 43). Additionally what the company seeks to accomplish in business, or their reason for being, should be translated into their mission and incorporated into their mission statement. This information should be acquired through primary sources by interviewing the firm’s management, and should also be supplemented through secondary sources by researching articles containing interviews with the company’s management.

If we know that a company has expressed a desire to compete with their products globally; they therefore already see themselves, or have a vision of themselves, as an international company and are interested in a strategic plan to accomplish this. As such, the researcher should ascertain whether or not the image the corporation is presenting is conducive to individual consumers in the environment they are seeking to enter by researching that particular market. If the current image isn’t conducive to the image they need to portray in the foreign market, then the company will need to perfect the corporate and brand identities they convey to suit the individual identities that they want to appeal to in that market.
Thomas, Pollack, and Gorman in discussing the strengths and weakness of theoretical perspectives state that the Resource-Based View framework and approach to strategic advantage, postures that resources are the building blocks for the strategic growth of a firm and a firm possessing inimitable resources can achieve a sustained competitive advantage, (1999). Thomas et al elaborate that when a firm fails to recognize a resource which it possesses, it will chronically underperform. Of these resources, human resources are of the ultimate importance for success in strategic management when expanding globally, and those steps that serve to reinforce managers and employees towards a supportive culture should be given the highest priority when implementing strategic objectives. David writes that implementing strategy is dependent upon the successful motivation of employees, that interpersonal skills are critical to strategy implementation, and that each department or division must be motivated to contribute their part to the successful implementation of the strategic objective, (2011, p. 7). Thus, appropriately ranking the importance of those implementation steps of an objective that are dependent upon an enthusiastic corporate culture to succeed is critically important, and those steps should be prioritized.

Strategy evaluation is an ongoing process and ongoing data collection is important to evaluate the process and ensure that it is effective. David maintains that strategies are necessarily subject to review and change, as both external and internal factors are change, and that an organization must review external and internal factors, measure performance, and implement corrective actions, (2001, p. 7). According to Lanigan and Bentley performance in corporate culture can be attributable to incentives, motivation, skills, or environmental conditions and the solution to overcoming resistance is to implement the appropriate measurement tools to discover where the problem may lie, (2006). Lanigan and Bentley further maintain that an employee’s behavioral intentions are attributable primarily to their attitudes about implementation, how other people feel about implementation, and their feelings of self-efficacy.

Appropriate measurement tools should be utilized periodically to evaluate an employee’s understanding and acceptance of the firm’s strategic objectives, their behavioral intentions towards the strategic objectives, and to determine how best to increase their motivation both towards achieving the strategic objectives and towards fostering a corporate culture that is enthusiastic about achieving these objectives.

A particular ethical issue of globalization is that it tends towards cultural and social homogenization and often fails to respect cultural diversity. This is especially evident when a firm attempts to impose its existing corporate and brand identity on a population where individuals are reticent to accept it without examining the impact it may have on another culture. Increased globalization not only affects nations culturally, it also affects nations ecologically as corporations are apt to manufacture products where environmental regulations are less stringent, economically as the finances of nations become more and more intertwined as witnessed by the recent global economic crisis, and legally and politically as nations align with one another to impose trade barriers and enact trade treaties. In addition to these considerations, local and regional import and customs legislation needs to be taken into account when pursuing a global venture.

References:

Breda, C., Dealttre, M., & Ocre, R. (2008). The Story behind identities: from corporate discourse to individual recognition. TAMARA: Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science, 7(1), 82-90. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Business Source Complete.

David, F. R. (2011). Strategic management: concepts and cases (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall.

Lanigan, M., & Bentley, J. (2006, January 1). Collecting sophisticated evaluations even when corporate culture is resistant. Performance Improvement, 45 (1), 32-38. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Business Source Complete.

Thomas, H., Pollack, T., & Gorman, P. (1999). Global strategic analyses: frameworks and approaches. Academy of Management Executive, 13(1), 70-82. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Business Source Complete.