The original article in Portuguese is available at: https://revistaadnormas.com.br/2018/09/11/a-identidade-da-empresa-como-um-primeiro-passo-para-o-sistema-de-gestao/
Vision. Vision is the aspiration of what an organization would like to become, it is always future-oriented, is the act of seeing itself projected in space and time. The vision is focused on what the organization intends to be. The term vision is used to describe a clear sense of the future and understanding the actions needed to get there (Chiavenato, 2014). Vision statement should be brief, inspire and challenge. Typically, it is captured in a short tag line. For Collins and Porras the vision was called BHAG, pronounced BEE-hags and shorthand for Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals as a powerful way to stimulate progress. All companies have goals. But there is a difference between merely having a goal and becoming committed to a huge, daunting challenge – such as climbing Mount Everest. A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as a unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a catalyst for team spirit. Therefor, to articulate a vision, an organization should visualize the future and define its role in it. Once the vision becomes clear, the organization can work toward achieving it by developing the strategy plan. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, mission statements and vision statements are distingly different. Successful organizations know where they are headed and have plans to get there. (Westcott, 2014).
Mission and Vision. Mission and vision provide the basic elements for the definition of global objectives and the formulation of the organizational strategy. In the book Principles of Management, the author describes that mission and vision statements play three critical roles: (1) communicate the purpose of the organization to stakeholders, (2) inform strategy development, and (3) develop the measurable goals and objectives by which to gauge the sucess of the organization’s strategy. They also seek to clarify how the relationship among mission, vision and strategy, it is sometimes helpful to visualize them collectively as a funnel (Figure 1). At the broadest part of the funnel, you find the inputs into the mission statement. Toward the narrower part of the funnel, you find the vision statement, which has distilled down the mission in a way that it can guide the development of the strategy. In the narrowest part of the funnel you find the strategy – it is clear and explicit about what the firm will do, and not do, to achive the vision, in other words, strategy provides a specific guide, to the goals and objectives sucess or failure of the organization.
Vision statements also provide a bridge between the mission and strategy. In that sense the best visions statements create a tension and restlessness with regard to the status quo – that is, they should foster a spirit of continuous innovation and improvement.
[PLEASE SEE ORIGINAL ARTICLE FOR THE GRAPHICS] Figure 1: Relationship between mission and vision statements
Strategy. The organizational strategy works as the means to accomplish the mission and leverage the organizational objectives stemming from the company's vision. It is important to emphasize that management systems standards require, within their strategy, a documented policy. In this article, I will focus on a quality management system (ISO 9001), noting that the guidelines fit into other parallel systems such as environmental (ISO 14001) and occupational health and safety (OHSAS 18001, replaced by ISO 45001 in 2018).
Then, quality policy are intentions and direction of an organization as formally expressed by its top management related to quality (ISO 9000, 2015). A quality policy is a formalized document created to communicate the overall intentions and directions of the organization relative to quality. The quality policy is a guide indicate the principles to be followed or what is to be done, but does not stipulate how. The ISO 9001 defines the requirements of the Quality Policy, stating that top management shall establish, implement and maintain a quality policy that: (a) is appropriate to the purpose and context of the organization and supports its strategic direction; (b) provides a framework for setting quality objectiv; (c) includes a commitment to satisfy applicable requiremen; (d) includes a commitment to continual improvement of the quality management system. Besides, the quality policy shall: (a) be available and be maintained as documented information; (b) be communicated, understood and applied within the organization; (c) be available to relevant interested parties, as appropriate.
Goals and objectives provide the foundation for measurement. Goals are outcome statements that define what an organization is trying to accomplish. The objectives, on the other hand, are very precise, time-based, measurable actions that support the completion of a goal. For example, an organization might state a financial goal of “growing its revenues 20% per year”, one objective might be to “open 20 new stores in the next six months”. For each goal could have one or more objectives related. To monitor goals and objectives we use indicators that are the actual metrics used to gauge performance on them. For example, the goal described as improving the organization’s financial performance could be measured through indicators such as, evolution in total sales, profitability, efficiency, among others. Deming said that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”, therefore without measurement, you cannot tell where you have been, where you are now, or if you are heading in the direction you are intending to go.
Often we see large companies neglecting these concepts and principles and smaller companies that simply do not know them. Therefore, a company that respects its values, mission and vision and develops strategies seriously has, without a shadow of a doubt, a more assertive and successful journey.
References
ABNT NBR ISO 9000: Sistemas de gestão da qualidade - Fundamentos e vocabulário. Rio de Janeiro. 2015.
ABNT NBR ISO 9001: Sistemas de gestão da qualidade - Requisitos. Rio de Janeiro. 2015.
CHIAVENATO, Idalberto. Gestão de Pessoas: o Novo Papel dos Recursos Humanos nas Organizações. 4. ed. Barueri, SP: Manole, 2014. 624 p.
COLLINS, James C.; PORRAS, Jerry I. Building Your Company’s Vision. 1996. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 30 jul. 2018.
CORREA, Eduardo. Como construir uma identidade para sua empresa. Revista Urbana, Santo Antônio da Patrulha, p. 32-33, set. 2018.
PRINCIPLES of Management: Developing Mission, Vision, and Values. 2010. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 06 ago. 2018.
WESTCOTT, Russell T. et al. (Org.). The Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence: Handbook. 4. ed. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: ASQ Quality Press, 2014. 654 p.