Strategic Planning in the Small Business

Unit

3

HO 3-3

(continued)

"returning

to the things

we do best."

Often the corporation's

management

strayed

from their

basic mission and later

realized their error.

The

Frm's Basic Philosophy

The second major

element of the

mission statement is

an expression of the

firm's management

ph

1

,osophy.

The mission statement

helps to define

the culture of the organization.

Recently,

much has been written

about corporate

culture and its impact,

power, and influence

on behaviors

and corporate

actions of large

organizations. The concept

of culture is equally

important for

the

small

firm. The mission statement

should capture

the owner or manager's

basic philosophy

of

how

they will conduct

the business. The result

is a value orientation

that becomes an

important

guide

for subsequent management

action. Will

the firm be a risk taker?

Will it be employee

oriented? How

will employees be treated,

trained, and

promoted? Will the

firm be run on

highest ethical

standards? Will

it be an aggressive

competitor? Will it

be a pioneer or a

follower, me-too

firm? The key to

this element is to

include those items

about which

management feels strongly,

not.

the

and omit those

items for which

they do For example,

mission

statement may

not mention anything

about a promote-from-within

policy

and may

instead discuss

the strategy )f hiring

young managefs with

new ideas.

Capsule 4-1 illustrates

a mission statement

for a small

toy manufacturing company.

Note that

the statement

clearly lays

out the nature of the

firm as well as the

tone or philosophy

of the

company. At
the same time it does
not give away any
proprietary secrets.

Capsule
4-1 Joy's
Toy Company-Company
Mission

Joy's Toy Company

produces a wide

line of moderately

priced educational

toys

for pre-school and

early school age children.

We service Missouri

and

the surrounding

six states, and we sell

directly to schools

or school

district buying

centers.

We

care about children

and view their education

as the critical part

of our

task. Our

toys are designed

to enrich the child's

educational experience.

All design work

is done in-house to

assure responsive,

innovative

products.

Our first product

priority is quality. We

would rather lose

a sale by being

high-priced than

sell low quality merchandise

for low prices.

We offer

quick and accessible

service and

repair on all merchandise

we sell.

In

hiring sales representatives,

we seek to

attract former primary

school

teachers who

are in tune with the

needs and wants of children,

and who

car identify

with the concerns

of parents. We exclusively

promote from

within.

285