30 Great Examples of Mission and Vision Statements (+ How to Write Your Own)

1.

The mission and vision matters

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"Without a mission statement, you may get to the top of the ladder and then realize it was leaning against the wrong building!" - Dave Ramsey 

Think about your favorite brand of clothing. Let’s assume it’s not the cheapest in the market, but rather average or even premium. Why do you keep purchasing from them if there are cheaper options available? Most probably because of the values they represent and stand by, with every piece of clothing they create.

The best brands (regardless of size or industry) will always aim to create the perfect experience for their customers and employees. There are many factors to consider when creating this, but if a brand wants to have the greatest pool of customers, they will invest money and time into it.

All this comes down to the statements of mission and vision of a company. People need the story behind the product or the service before being absolutely sure they will spend their money on it.

2.

Definitions

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Tip: We expand on how to write a good mission statement, a template you can use anytime, and 15 examples of mission statements you can get inspired from.

3.

What are the differences between vision and mission?

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A mission statement concentrates on TODAY and what the company is doing to achieve its objectives.
The vision statement focuses on TOMORROW and the end game: what is the ultimate target for the future.

Don’t fall into the trap of using either of these concepts with the same meaning. We are discussing two separate terms and concepts, both critical for a successful business.

A mission statement is a guideline for the company's vision statement.

4.

The role of the mission and vision statements for any organization

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Mission and vision statements are emblems. Your company needs them.

Effective statements will work as a unifier of the spotlight within the company and outside: in the eyes of the target audience.

They are a perfect way to gain a clear view and ensure you and your management make the best possible decisions.

Remember that these are also a method of separating from the crowd and creating a better and more awesome brand.

Mission and vision statements drive action, empower your employees, and shape company culture.

Finally, mission and vision statements offer principles of existence to the human capital, which is not to neglect because we all need meaning from our daily work.

Mission and vision statements serve three key functions: 

1. communicating the organization's purpose to stakeholders, 
2. informing business strategy formulation, and 
3. developing quantifiable business goals and objectives to measure the effectiveness of the organization's strategy. 

The figure below summarizes these interdependent, cascading roles and their relationships.

5.

How to write a mission statement?

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Here are a few simple steps you need to take in order to write the mission statement your company needs:

• Explain what your company does - what product/service you offer. No need for long descriptions here. Stick to basics.
• List the core values your organization stands by - basically, you will be explaining HOW you do what you do. These are important for both your employees (and keeping them motivated and engaged) and your target audience.
• Talk about WHY you do what you do - it’s key to explain what drives you, the passion behind the business idea.
• Review and clarify - The final result should be a clear and concise statement, not too pompous.

6.

How to write a vision statement?

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Writing a vision statement is an essential exercise for businesses and organizations. It helps to define a clear, inspiring, and aspirational picture of the future. Here are four steps to write a vision statement:

• Define your purpose: Begin by identifying the reason for creating a vision statement. What is the purpose of the vision statement? What do you want to achieve? Is it to inspire your team, guide your decision-making, or communicate your values to your stakeholders?
• Define what is unique regarding your company: Your vision statement should align with your organization's operating model. Speak with your colleagues about the organization's decisions, culture, and goals. By having buy-in, your vision will be more vital as your workforce will be the ones that will live it daily.
• Imagine the future: Envision the future you want to create. What does it look like? How does it feel? What are you doing to make it happen? Try to be specific and use descriptive language to paint a vivid future picture. Remember that you still need to keep that vision statement as something that can be accomplished, let's say, in 5 - 10 years.
• Write the statement: With your purpose, employee feedback on culture, and future vision in mind, craft a concise and clear statement that encapsulates your vision. Use simple language and avoid technical jargon. Make it memorable and inspiring to serve as an aspiration for your organization's future.

Remember, your vision statement should be a living document that evolves over time. Revisit it regularly to ensure it still reflects your organization's ambition and goals.

7.

Examples of mission and vision statements

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Here are 30+ examples of some of the best mission and vision statements of companies that really understand how to get the hearts and money of their customers.

Update: Since the examples started to be popular, we introduced new ones: within technology, pharma, education, fashion, energy, entertainment, consulting, advertising, fintech, insurance, and more. Check them out below.

Technology companies

LinkedIn

• Mission: Connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.
• Vision: Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.
• Why it’s efficient: The mission explains what they do(connect) and who they benefit(every professional). The vision focuses on the ultimate goal-serving everyone globally.

Google

• Mission: To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
• Vision: To provide access to the world’s information in one click.
• Why it’s efficient: Some say Google has not chosen the best statements, but numbers disagree. The mission seems complex, but the vision is much clearer.

Apple

• Vision: To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.
• Mission: To bring the best user experience to customers through innovative hardware, software, and services.
• Why it’s efficient: The most valuable company worldwide needs to have an excellent way to highlight its mission and vision. The products we use in our day-to-day life are examples that the mission is alive, and the vision is a huge ambition that they have for a company that sold 232 million iPhones, 61 million iPads, 82 million AirPods, and 53 million Apple Watches, 26 million Mac and MacBook units were sold in 2022 according to BusinessofApps.

Amazon

• Mission: To serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience.
• Vision: To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.
• Why it’s efficient: The mission is very clearly stated, and the vision is 1000 steps further, saying Amazon will give their customers whatever they want.

Samsung

• Mission: To create superior products and services that contribute to a better global society.
• Vision: To inspire the world. Create the future.
• Why it’s efficient: Samsung decided to mix these two concepts into one successfully.

Facebook

• Mission: To give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.
• Vision: People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.
• Why it’s efficient: The mission promises a community, something we all want. The vision focuses on why this community is of importance to us all.

Microsoft

• Mission: Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
• Vision: To help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.
• Why it’s efficient: Microsoft is a company that is known worldwide for its products. Its mission is very well articulated, highly ambitious, and very aspirational. It showcases the ambition to reach a wide market and audience by providing immense value. The vision is very complementary and again focuses on 3 ambitions: large opportunity, huge growth, and global impact. Both mission and vision statements are short, bold, and impactful.

Shopify

• Mission: To make commerce better for everyone.
• Vision: To make commerce better for everyone, so businesses can focus on what they do best – building and selling their products.
• Why it’s efficient: The mission is extremely succinct, while the vision is only an extension of the mission statement.

Airbnb

• Mission: To live in a world where one day you can feel like you’re home anywhere & not in a home, but truly home, where you belong.
• Vision: Belong anywhere.
• Why it’s efficient: The mission concentrates on how Airbnb wants to make you feel at home anywhere. The vision hints at the ultimate goal: global presence, not only local or regional.

Sony

• Mission: A company that inspires and fulfills your curiosity.
• Vision: Using our unlimited passion for technology, content and services to deliver groundbreaking new excitement and entertainment, as only Sony can.
• Why it’s efficient: Both mission and vision afirmations are bold, ambitious and visionary. Sony is constantly innovating within the electronics, entertainment, music or pictures while bringing joy and spark new emotions to it's consumer.

Advertising and marketing companies

WPP

• Mission: To develop and manage talent; to apply that talent, throughout the world, for the benefit of clients; to do so in partnership; to do so with profit.
• Vision: to be a creative transformation company, using the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, clients and communities.
• Why it’s efficient: WPP vision is very distinctive in the advertising space. For sure they are well known as a leader in the business and their statement clearly highlights how they can make things different. Moreover their mission statement is also known as why we exist as a company. Proably a different way to look at the overal goal or ambition of the company over the long term.

Automotive and transportation companies

Tesla

• Mission: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
• Vision: To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.
• Why it’s efficient: There is a lot of boldness in both statements: the word accelerate, plus “the most compelling”-the best. These two statements are clearly designed to drive the target audience and the employees simultaneously.

DB Schenker

• Mission: To be the leader in multi-modal transport and integrated logistics using cutting edge technology and innovative processes.
• Vision: We aim to provide value-added cost-effective supply chain solutions that would maximise customer satisfaction, achieve above-market returns, and to become the employer of choice
• Why it’s efficient: The global logistics and transportation business highlight both the long term goal, and also concrete ways to achieve it's purpose trough a very short, clear and specific vision relevant to mutiple stakeholders.

Financial services and insurance companies

Allianz Life Insurance

• Mission: We secure your future - informs how we operate, every day.
• Vision: Living your life with confidence - is our hope for every customer who entrusts their money to our care. At the end of the day, we want to help people manage risks in retirement.
• Why it’s efficient: Both mission and vision statements focus on people, the key customers of the insurance company, and how the organization handles their needs as a successful partnership.

Wise

• Mission: Our mission is to make money without borders the new normal. For everyone.
• Vision: Getting there isn't easy and we haven't figured it all out yet. But together, we can do it.
• Why it’s efficient: The mission of Wise (previously known as Wisetransfer), is bold, revolutionary and disruptive. The visions is a bit uncommon, however very well articulated for an relatively young organization that trusts its workforce, and has established itself as a fintech leader.

Paypal

• Mission: Our mission is to democratize financial services to ensure that everyone, regardless of background or economic standing, has access to affordable, convenient, and secure products and services to take control of their financial lives.
• Vision: We believe access to affordable and convenient financial services should be a right for all rather than a privilege for the few. To achieve this, we are aligned across the company around one central vision: to make the movement and management of money as simple, secure, and affordable as possible. As we democratize financial services, we can enable the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of millions of people around the world.
• Why it’s efficient: PayPal - one of the digital payment champions for more than 20 years, has a very well-articulated mission and vision statement that focuses on creating a movement that is inclusive, affordable, and democratized for a wide range of communities.

Business suport and consulting companies

Accenture

• Mission: Accenture solves our clients' toughest challenges by providing unmatched services in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. We partner with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500, driving innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. With expertise across more than 40 industries and all business functions, we deliver transformational outcomes for a demanding new digital world.
• Vision: To become one of the world's leading company, bringing innovations to improve the way the world works and lives
• Why it’s efficient: The multinational management consulting business has a simple mission statement to help its clients create their future. The combination of keywords highlights its evolution and also the opportunities they bring to its clients over time. The clear focus on growth and development is also well-stated as a key goal that the leading advisory firm aims for.

Healthcare and pharmaceuticals

Merck

• Mission: It all comes back to saving and improving lives. We are all inventors here, no matter the role or title. We rise to any challenge in pursuit of better health outcomes. Everything we do, in and out of the laboratory, is based on our deep appreciation for life. That's the reason we come together across the business with one goal - to help save and improve lives.
• Vision:Merck will be a formidable force for good in the world.
• Why it’s efficient: Merck mission and vision ave excellently articulated for multinational pharmaceutical company. These statements are well aligned with the culture, ambition and overall goals of the enterprise.

Education

Fredericton Montessori Academy

• Mission: To create a happy nurturing environment within a Montessori program. We are dedicated to empowering children to reach their fullest potential, regardless of ability levels and learning styles.
• Vision: To guide our children to become confident, creative, and compassionate life-long learners that become driven to contribute to their local and global communities.
• Why it’s efficient: As a educational leader in Montessory education, the academy has a very clear, well articulated, statement that highlights the direction and ambition that is aiming for.

Energy companies

ExxonMobil

• Mission: To being the world's premier petroleum and petrochemical company.
• Vision: To safely and responsibly meet the world's growing needs for energy and high-quality chemical products.
• Why it’s efficient: Exxon is number two energy company according to market cap. Their aim to be number 1 is viable over the long turn. It's vision is a good path towards achieving the mission.

Retail sector

Ikea

• Mission: To offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.
• Vision: To create a better everyday life for many people.
• Why it’s efficient: The mission focuses on the affordable prices and the functionality of Ikea’s products. The vision is a very noble idea: creating a better life for its customers.

Nordstrom

• Mission: In our store or online, wherever new opportunities arise- Nordstrom works relentlessly to give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.
• Vision: To serve our customers better, to always be relevant in their lives and to form lifelong relationships.
• Why it’s efficient: You will probably not see a company that is more customer centric in it's culture than the online fashion retailer Nordstrom.

Gaming companies

Roblox

• Mission: Roblox's mission is to build a human co-experience platform that enables billions of users to come together to play, learn, communicate, explore and expand their friendships.
• Vision: Roblox's vision is to reimagine the way people come together.
• Why it’s efficient: In a very competitive space with lots of companies that push the limits when it comes to online gaming, Roblox detaches itself as a new way to connect and have new experiences.

Mission and vision statement examples for clothing and fashion business

Clothing and fashion businesses need to reflect on why they exist, why they choose this sector over others, and how they differ from others in the industry. This is why missions and vision statements are relevant, help guide future decisions, and make their employees more grounded in hiring/sales/product/marketing, and management options. With few sentences, they provide a set of guidelines towards where the company is going and what the alleys are for reaching the objectives.

Nike

• Mission: To do everything possible to expand human potential. We do that by creating groundbreaking sports innovations, by making our products more sustainable, by building a creative and diverse global team, and by making a positive impact in the communities where we live and work.
• Vision: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
• Why it’s efficient: Nike has a very inclusive mission and focuses on three elements: human potential, sustainability, and incredible sports innovation. The vision is short and on point.

Patagonia

• Mission: We're in business to save our home planet.
  This is the updated version of the mission statement. The previous one was to Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
• Vision: We prefer the human scale to the corporate, vagabonding to tourism, and the quirky to the toned-down and flattened out.
• Why it’s efficient: Patagonia is different than other clothing companies. Since the beginning, it has focused on being environmentally friendly, highlighting how the business impacts the world. Moreover, there is a relevant financial aspect: their core goal is not to generate the most revenue. The company's ethos was built over time by its founder Yvon Chouinard, on caring about its people and nature.

Lululemon

• Mission: To elevate the world by unleashing the full potential within every one of us.
• Vision: Be the experimental brand that ignites a community of people living the sweat life through sweat, grow and connect.
• Why it’s efficient: Lululemons both mission and vision statement is very authentic to this activewear brand. The company's quality products connect to health, wellness, and an active lifestyle, and the statements mentioned above represent the promise of the brand to its customers.

Prada

• Mission: We offer an unconventional dialogue and interpretation of the contemporary, as expression of our way of doing business for planet, people and culture.
• Vision: Be drivers of change.
• Why it’s efficient: Italian fashion brand Prada, is a great interpretation of luxury, elegange and creative innovation in the clothing business. Such statements make Prada distinctive, support their brand aims and establishes a new perspective in the complex world of fashion.

Burberry

• Mission: Burberry's mission of the company is to maintain the integrity and vitality of its brand, at the same time, continue to develop the business, which remains relevant to ever-evolving markets and consumer tastes.
• Vision: Our vision is to be the leading British luxury brand, delivering sustainable, high-quality growth and value for our stakeholders.
• Why it’s efficient: The luxury brand is recognized internationally as a leader in the high-end fashion industry. By dedicating itself to nurturing a brand that creates sustainable, high-quality products for demanding clientele, Burberry remains a long-term successful icon in the competitive fashion industry.

Versace

• Mission: Versace will pursue its sales goals on national and international markets through the offer of fashion, luxury, and high-quality products at competitive conditions and in compliance with laws designed to protect competition.
• Vision: To make women and men feel beautiful and empowered, the House of Versace is an established fashion force that continues to inspire both trends and people.
• Why it’s efficient: Within the fashion and luxury industry, Versace positions itself as a leader that inspires, creates trends, and sets the tone for creativity, quality, and personal expression.

Conclusion

Indeed, by now, you are convinced your company needs a mission and vision statement. Make sure these two essential elements of your business are clear, coherent, and can be easily communicated to the world. It’s essential to know who you are and where you’re going. Align these two statements with your company's core values. Transmit and reinforce constantly these messages and attitudes with your coworkers and clients. Over the year, your company culture will be more powerful and become a magnet for talent and customers.