CHAPTER 2

CHARTING A COMPANY’S DIRECTION:

VISION AND MISSION, OBJECTIVES,
AND STRATEGY

McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright ®2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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1. Grasp why it is critical for company managers to have a clear
strategic vision of where a company needs to head and why.
2. Understand the importance of setting both strategic and
financial objectives.
3. Understand why the strategic initiatives taken at various
organizational levels must be tightly coordinated to achieve
companywide performance targets.
4. Become aware of what a company must do to achieve
operating excellence and to execute its strategy proficiently.
5. Become aware of the role and responsibility of a company’s
board of directors in overseeing the strategic management
process.

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 WHAT DOES THE STRATEGY-MAKING,
STRATEGY-EXECUTING PROCESS ENTAIL?

1. Developing a strategic vision, a mission, and a set

of values.
2. Setting objectives for measuring performance and
progress.
3. Crafting a strategy to achieve those objectives.
4. Executing the chosen strategy efficiently and
effectively.
5. Monitoring strategic developments, evaluating
execution, and making adjustments in the vision
and mission, objectives, strategy, or execution as
necessary.
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2.1 The Strategy-Making, Strategy-Executing Process

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 STAGE 1: DEVELOPING A STRATEGIC
VISION, A MISSION, AND A SET OF
CORE VALUES

♦ Developing a Strategic Vision:

● Delineates management’s future aspirations
for the business to its stakeholders.
● Provides direction—“where we are going.”
● Sets out the compelling rationale (strategic
soundness) for the firm’s direction.
● Uses distinctive and specific language to set
the firm apart from its rivals.

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 2.1 Wording a Vision Statement—the Dos and Don’ts

The Dos The Don’ts

Be graphic Don’t be vague or incomplete

Be forward-looking and directional Don’t dwell on the present

Keep it focused Don’t use overly broad language

Have some wiggle room Don’t state the vision in bland or

uninspiring terms

Be sure the journey is feasible Don’t be generic

Indicate why the directional path Don’t rely on superlatives only

makes good business sense

Make it memorable Don’t run on and on

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 Vision Statement for Coca-Cola
Our vision serves as the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of
our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue
achieving sustainable, quality growth.
• People: Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they
can be.
• Portfolio: Bring to the world a portfolio of quality beverage brands that anticipate
and satisfy people’s desires and needs.
• Partners: Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers; together we
create mutual, enduring value.
• Planet: Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and
support sustainable communities.
• Profit: Maximize long-term return to shareowners while being mindful of our
overall responsibilities.
• Productivity: Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization.
Effective Elements Shortcomings
• Graphic • Makes good business sense • Long
• Focused • Flexible • Not forward-looking

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 Vision Statement for UBS
We are determined to be the best global financial services company. We
focus on wealth and asset management, and on investment banking and
securities businesses. We continually earn recognition and trust from
clients, shareholders, and staff through our ability to anticipate, learn and
shape our future. We share a common ambition to succeed by delivering
quality in what we do. Our purpose is to help our clients make financial
decisions with confidence. We use our resources to develop effective
solutions and services for our clients. We foster a distinctive, meritocratic
culture of ambition, performance and learning as this attracts, retains and
develops the best talent for our company. By growing both our client and
our talent franchises, we add sustainable value for our shareholders.
Effective Elements Shortcomings
• Focused • Not forward-looking
• Feasible • Bland or uninspiring
• Desirable • Hard to communicate

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 Vision Statement for Walmart

Saving People Money So They Can Live Better

Effective Elements Shortcomings
• Focused • Dwells on the present
• Memorable
• Feasible
• Makes good business sense

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 Follow-up

♦ For which of these businesses (product,

service, or retail) is it the most difficult to
create a vision statement?
♦ How does the scope of a business affect the
language of its vision statement?
♦ How would you reword the Coca-Cola or UBS
vision statements to reduce them to less than
100 words? (Coca-Cola = 127, UBS = 124)

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 Communicating the Strategic Vision

♦ Why Communicate the Vision:

● Fosters employee commitment to the firm’s
chosen strategic direction.
● Ensures understanding of its importance.
● Motivates, informs, and inspires internal and
external stakeholders.
● Demonstrates top management support for
the firm’s future strategic direction and
competitive efforts.

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 Putting the Strategic Vision in Place

♦ Put the vision in writing and distribute it.

♦ Hold meetings to personally explain the
vision and its rationale.
♦ Create a memorable slogan that captures
the essence of the vision.
♦ Emphasize the positive payoffs for making
the vision happen.

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 Crafting a Mission Statement

♦ The Mission Statement:

● Uses specific language to give the firm its
own unique identity.
● Describes the firm’s current business and
purpose—“who we are, what we do, and
why we are here.”
● Should focus on describing the company’s
business, not on “making a profit”—earning
a profit is an objective not a mission.

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 The Ideal Mission Statement

♦ Identifies the firm’s product or services.

♦ Specifies the buyer needs it seeks to satisfy.
♦ Identifies the customer groups or markets it is
endeavoring to serve.
♦ Specifies its approach to pleasing customers.
♦ Sets the firm apart from its rivals.
♦ Clarifies the firm’s business to stakeholders.

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Linking Vision and Mission with Core Values

♦ Core Values
● Are the beliefs, traits, and behavioral norms that
employees are expected to display in conducting
the firm’s business and in pursuing its strategic
vision and mission.
● Become an integral part of the firm’s culture and
what makes it tick when strongly espoused and
supported by top management.
● Matched with the firm’s vision, mission, and
strategy contribute to the firm’s business success.

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 STAGE 2: SETTING OBJECTIVES

♦ The Purposes of Setting Objectives:

● To convert the vision and mission into specific,
measurable, timely performance targets.
● To focus efforts and align actions throughout
the organization.
● To serve as yardsticks for tracking a firm’s
performance and progress.
● To provide motivation and inspire employees
to greater levels of effort.
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 THE TWO ESSENTIAL KINDS OF
OBJECTIVES TO SET

♦ Financial Objectives ♦ Strategic Objectives

● Communicate top ● Are related to a firm’s
management’s targets for marketing standing and
financial performance. competitive vitality.
● Are focused internally on ● Are focused externally
the firm’s operations and on competition vis-à-
activities. vis the firm’s rivals.

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 SETTING FINANCIAL OBJECTIVES

Examples of Financial Objectives

♦ An x percent increase in annual revenues
♦ Annual increases in after-tax profits of x percent
♦ Annual increases in earnings per share of x percent
♦ Annual dividend increases of x percent
♦ Profit margins of x percent
♦ An x percent return on capital employed (ROCE) or return on
shareholders’ equity investment (ROE)
♦ Increased shareholder value—in the form of an upward-trending stock
price
♦ Bond and credit ratings of x
♦ Internal cash flows of x dollars to fund new capital investment

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 SETTING STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

Examples of Strategic Objectives

♦ Winning an x percent market share
♦ Achieving lower overall costs than rivals
♦ Overtaking key competitors on product performance or quality
or customer service
♦ Deriving x percent of revenues from the sale of new products introduced
within the next five years
♦ Having broader or deeper technological capabilities than rivals
♦ Having a wider product line than rivals
♦ Having a better-known or more powerful brand name than rivals
♦ Having stronger national or global sales and distribution capabilities
than rivals
♦ Consistently getting new or improved products and services to market
ahead of rivals
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 Good Strategic Performance Is the Key
to Better Financial Performance
♦ Good financial performance is not enough:
● Current financial results are lagging indicators of
past decisions and actions which does not translate
into a stronger competitive capability for delivering
better financial results in the future.
● Setting and achieving stretch strategic objectives
signals a firm’s growth in both competitiveness and
strength in the marketplace.
● Good strategic performance is a leading indicator
of a firm’s increasing capability to deliver improved
future financial performance.

Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2–20
 EMPLOYING A BALANCED SCORECARD

♦ A balanced scorecard measures a firm’s

optimal performance by:
 Placing a balanced emphasis on achieving
both financial and strategic objectives.
 Avoiding tracking only financial performance and
overlooking the importance of measuring whether
a firm is strengthening its competitiveness and
market position.

The surest path to sustained future profitability year after year is to

relentlessly pursue strategic outcomes that strengthen a firm’s business
position and give it a growing competitive advantage over rivals!

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 THE MERITS OF SETTING STRETCH
OBJECTIVES

♦ Setting stretch objectives promotes better

company performance because stretch targets:
● Push a firm to be more inventive.
● Increase the urgency for improving financial
performance and competitive position.
● Cause the firm to be more intentional and
focused in its actions.
● Act to prevent complacent coasting and easy
achievement of ho-hum performance outcomes.

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 THE NEED FOR SHORT-TERM AND
LONG-TERM OBJECTIVES

♦ Short-Term Objectives:
● Focus attention on quarterly and annual
performance improvements to satisfy near-
term shareholder expectations.
♦ Long-Term Objectives:
● Force consideration of what to do now to
achieve optimal long-term performance.
● Stand as a barrier to an undue focus on
short-term results.

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 THE NEED FOR OBJECTIVES AT ALL
ORGANIZATIONAL LEVELS

♦ Breaks down performance targets for

each of the organization’s separate units.
♦ Fosters setting performance targets that
support achievement of firm-wide
strategic and financial objectives.
♦ Extends the top-down objective-setting
process to all organizational levels.

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 STAGE 3: CRAFTING A STRATEGY

♦ Strategy Making:
● Addresses a series of strategic how’s.
● Requires choosing among strategic alternatives.
● Promotes actions to do things differently from
competitors rather than running with the herd.
● Is a collaborative team effort that involves
managers in various positions at all
organizational levels.

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 Who Is Involved in Strategy Making?

♦ Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

● Has ultimate responsibility for leading the strategy-making
process as strategic visionary and as chief architect of
strategy.
♦ Senior Executives
● Fashion the major strategy components involving their areas
of responsibility.
♦ Managers of subsidiaries, divisions, geographic
regions, plants, and other operating units (and key
employees with specialized expertise)
● Utilize on-the-scene familiarity with their business units to
orchestrate their specific pieces of the strategy.

Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2–26
 Why Is Strategy-Making Often
a Collaborative Process?
♦ The many complex strategic issues involved and
multiple areas of expertise required can make the
strategy-making task too large for one person or a
small executive group.
♦ When operations involve different products, industries
and geographic areas, strategy-making authority must
be delegated to functional and operating unit managers
such that all managers have a strategy-making role—
ranging from major to minor—for the area they head!

Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2–27
The Strategy-Making Hierarchy

Corporate Multibusiness Strategy—how to gain synergies from managing a

Strategy portfolio of businesses together rather than as separate businesses

Two-Way Influence

• How to strengthen market position and gain competitive advantage

Business
• Actions to build competitive capabilities of single businesses
Strategy
• Monitoring and aligning lower-level strategies

Two-Way Influence

• Add relevant detail to the how’s of the business strategy

Functional Area
• Provide a game plan for managing a particular activity in ways that
Strategies
support the business strategy

Two-Way Influence

• Add detail and completeness to business and functional strategies

Operating
• Provide a game plan for managing specific operating activities with
Strategies
strategic significance

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 2.2
A Company’s Strategy-
Making Hierarchy

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 The Concept of Strategic Intent

An organization exhibits strategic intent when it

relentlessly pursues an ambitious strategic
objective, concentrating the full force of its
resources and competitive actions on
achieving that objective!

Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2–30
 Characteristics of Strategic Intent

♦ Indicates firm’s intent to making quantum gains in

competing against key rivals and to establishing itself as
a winner in the marketplace, often against long odds.
♦ Involves establishing a grandiose performance target
out of proportion to immediate capabilities and market
position but then devoting the firm’s full resources and
energies to achieving the target over time.
♦ Entails sustained, aggressive actions to take market
share away from rivals and achieve a much stronger
market position.

Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2–31
 What Is a Strategic Plan?

Elements of a Firm’s
Strategic Plan

Its strategic vision, business

mission, and core values

Its strategic and financial

objectives

Its chosen strategy

Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2–32
 STAGE 4: EXECUTING THE STRATEGY

♦ Converting strategic plans into actions

requires:
● Directing organizational action.
● Motivating people.
● Building and strengthening the firm’s
competencies and competitive capabilities.
● Creating and nurturing a strategy-supportive
work climate.
● Meeting or beating performance targets.
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 Managing the Strategy Execution Process

♦ Staffing the firm with the needed skills and expertise.

♦ Building and strengthening strategy-supporting
resources and competitive capabilities.
♦ Organizing work effort along the lines of best practice.
♦ Allocating ample resources to the activities critical to
strategic success.
♦ Ensuring that policies and procedures facilitate rather
than impede effective strategy execution.

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 Managing the Strategy Execution Process

♦ Installing information and operating systems that enable

effective and efficient performance.
♦ Motivating people and tying rewards and incentives
directly to the achievement of performance objectives.
♦ Creating a company culture and work climate conducive
to successful strategy execution.
♦ Exerting the internal leadership needed to propel
implementation forward and drive continuous
improvement of the strategy execution processes.

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 STAGE 5: EVALUATING PERFORMANCE
AND INITIATING CORRECTIVE
ADJUSTMENTS

♦ Evaluating Performance:
● Deciding whether the enterprise is passing the
three tests of a winning strategy—good fit,
competitive advantage, strong performance.
♦ Initiating Corrective Adjustments:
● Deciding whether to continue or change the
firm’s vision and mission, objectives, strategy,
and/or strategy execution methods.
● Based on organizational learning.
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 THE ROLE OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

♦ Obligations of the Board of Directors:

● Critically appraise the firm’s direction, strategy, and
business approaches.
● Evaluate the caliber of senior executives’ strategic
leadership skills.
● Institute a compensation plan that rewards top
executives for actions and results that serve
stakeholder interests—especially shareholders.
● Oversee the firm’s financial accounting and reporting
practices compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

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Achieving Effective Corporate Governance

♦ A strong, independent board of directors:

● Is well informed about the firm’s performance.
● Guides and judges the CEO and other executives.
● Can curb management actions the board believes
are inappropriate or unduly risky.
● Can certify to shareholders that the CEO is doing
what the board expects.
● Provides insight and advice to top management.
● Is actively involved in debating the pros and cons
of key strategic decisions and actions.

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