Ron Mager says the line
between a vision and a mission is often blurry. As
owner, president and CEO of
Machinery Systems Inc., it’s his
job to distinguish between the
two and to communicate both
to his 67 employees. As he
explains it, the mission is what
his machine tool distributor
does for its customers and the
vision is what the company
strives to be internally.
For example, he says that if
you tell customers that you
would like to double your revenue in five years, they won’t
care and won’t understand what
it means for them. However, by
telling employees you want to
double revenue in five years,
you are creating advancement
opportunities and resources for
them, so it means something to
them.
By keeping that distinction in
mind, Mager has created both a
vision and mission to continue
growing his $115 million company.
Smart Business spoke with
Mager about how he created
and communicated both his
mission and his vision at his
$115 million company, without
making it a huge rah-rah affair
for his employees.
Create the vision. My partner
and I developed our visions
independently on where we
wanted to take the company,
and we put the two into one
statement.
The vision has to come from
the leader — that’s the leader’s
job. This is where they want to
take the company, and it’s got
to come from the heart. Sit
down with a blank piece of
paper and start scribbling stuff.
The vision statement is not
necessarily a participative
thing. It’s more autocratic —
this is where we’re taking the
company from a financial perspective. Then we develop
how we’re going to do that,
and that becomes participative.
It’s important so people
know where we’re going, and
people want to work for companies that want to prosper
and grow because there’s
chance for advancement and
chances for perks and benefits
and employment security.
The vision is the way of communicating that desire.
Create the mission. Align your
capabilities to the market
demands, and find out what
you’re really good at, and
that’s your mission.
The easiest way to start is by
saying, ‘This is stuff we’re
good at, and this is stuff the
market wants.’ That may not
match 100 percent. Where are
your points of differentiation?
You could be good at making
buggy whips, and you’re in
trouble, so it can’t just be what
you’re good at.
There are analytical ways to
find out whether you’re good
at that or if it’s something the
market wants. You can do
market research. It could be a
survey or a focus group, or it
could be as simple as talking to your customers. In conversation, you look for things, or
sometimes they offer that —
‘How are we doing? What
could we do that we’re not
doing now? What do you think
we’re really good at?’
First, [the mission] communicates to the marketplace
what you think you’re good at,
and they may be looking at
that. Secondly, it communicates to your employees and
helps them in their jobs — it
speaks about your culture and
about what you do for the
marketplace, and it’s important for everyone to know that
because it should guide their
attitude and behavior.
