Mission statements are crucial for an organization to help provide the employees and consumers with a general idea of the values and activities that the organization will engage in.  Mission statements can be product-oriented, service-oriented or market-oriented and can vary in size from one brief sentence to several paragraphs.  The goal of the mission statement is not to provide a detailed explanation of how the company will achieve its goals, but rather just a statement that provides customers and employees a general direction of why the company exists and what it wants to do.  In looking to create a mission statement for my company, it was important to examine Microsoft due to their large size and interesting format.

Microsoft is a publicly-traded company that provides technology and other products to its consumers in order to improve the way people do things.  Specifically, the mission statement for Microsoft is as follows: “At Microsoft, we work to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.  This is our mission.  Everything we do reflects this mission and the values that make it possible” (Samples-Help.org, 2006, par. 1).  This mission statement is short and to the point as it describes the purpose for the company even existing and what Microsoft attempts to accomplish through its corporate activities.  Microsoft has utilized a service-oriented mission statement because it never once states a specific market or product that it produces for the customer.  Instead, the company exists solely to help people and businesses internationally realize their full potential.

Furthermore, Microsoft has implemented a statement of values to accompany the mission statement, and it explains what traits and behaviors the company has determined are important in order to achieve the mission and goals of the company.  Microsoft’s value statement describes the following:

“As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect. We are committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality” (Microsoft.com, 2009).

Although it is not crucial to have a statement of values to accompany the mission statement, it can be very important to providing employees with a general concept of what they view as valued characteristics and traits.  The difficult task can be rewarding employees that show these traits in a uniform manner so as not to upset the rest of the staff if they become overlooked.  Nevertheless, these two statements are important for us to consider creating our own mission statement for the new company.

Our company should also have a service-oriented mission statement that provides a general idea of why the company exists and what we would like to accomplish.  “The mission of our company is to improve the lives of our customers and communities.  Our projects and business activities will always seek to better the world around us.”  This statement does not declare what products our company will specifically produce, but it helps guide the managerial staff and employees in their daily activities.  We may also include a statement of values to accompany this mission statement that could suggest that our company will reward employees that show traits of honesty, diligence, trust, hard work, and respect towards customers and each other.  This mission statement is the beginning of a wonderful start for our new company and should be very helpful in establishing a detailed business plan that accomplishes our goals.