Vision, Mission and KPIs

When thinking of starting any business process re-engineering activities, or if we are considering getting ISO Certified, we need to think about the vision, mission and KPIs for the organization. It is said that “if you don;t have a destination, you can never get lost”, and naturally the inverse also applies.

Therefore, before starting any major improvement works within an organization, it is important to clearly articulate where do we want to arrive with these activities. Where does the business owner want to take their organization? Through the vision, mission and KPIs we will be able to have a clear picture of where the business should be in a few years time.

Vision

The vision of the organization relates to where the leaders of the company intend to take the company in the long term. Through the vision, we can clearly communicate the ‘Why’ behind our organization – where do we want to go. For example for Microsoft, in its early days, the vision statement was “a computer on every desk and in every home”. This statement by Microsoft sounds bold – because it is. And so should your vision statement be. For example, let’s take a marketing agency based in Malta – their vision statement might be “to become the go-to lead generation partner for the most notable organizations in Malta”.

The vision is a dream. The dream that we will all be working towards. It is important to keep in mind that the vision of the organization and the vision of the leaders of the organisation would be inherently different. The one for the organization would reflect where the organisation will be going in the long term, whilst that of the owners, would be more personal goals – where does the business owner see himself in 10 years’ time. How does he intend to be spending his time.

Mission

The mission statement (oreflects what we will be doing as an organisation to reach our vision. Through the mission statement, the organisation can define what they stand for. In the mission statement, we will delve slightly deeper into the overall strategy that we will be using to reach our vision.

The values which the organization wants to instil within its practices and workforce go hand in hand with the mission. There are many ways in which a vision can be met – but not all are sensible, ethical or legal. For example, to have a PC in every house, Microsoft could have decided to simply give their products for free – but that wouldn’t be sensible. There would be surely no value to the shareholders with that strategy.

And therefore, in the mission statement we will also articulate who the key stakeholders are – and what is our commitment to them.

KPIs

KPIs (key performance indicators) are the main metrics that we use to measure progress in our business. Customer feedback and other quality objectives could be considered as KPIs. I like using the system of OKRs. OKRs stands for Objectives and key results and is an excellent method for chunking down large goals into smaller, more manageable results.

Let’s take the example of sales. Say we want to increase our revenue by 35%, the OKR system would be as follows:

• Increase sales by 35% in 2021 (SMART objective)
  • Develop 3 new products
  • Increase sales to existing clients by 45%
  • Launch an email marketing campaign targeting SMEs
  • Recruit 1 more salesperson
  • Implement a CRM system

As can be seen from the above, the main objective is to increase the sales by 35%, however, we have identified (a maximum of) 5 key results that will be implemented.

Projects and tasks

Now still, when coming up with the key results, might still leave us with a rather chunky action to tackle. By taking each of these key results as a separate project, we will be able to further chunk down the project into manageable tasks.

Let’s take the example of recruit 1 new sales person. In such a case, the following actions might be taken:

1. Create the job description for the new salesperson to recruit – sales manager
2. Promote the vacancy through own social media – marketing department
3. Communicate with recruitment agencies to get qualified candidates – HR manager
4. Perform screening interviews to identify the most suitable candidates for the job – HR Manager
5. Perform a second interview with the best candidates – managing director + sales manager
6. Draft the employment contract – HR manager
7. Select the most suitable candidate – sales manager
8. Negotiate the wage and other employment benefits with the selected employee – sales manager
9. Sign the contract with the employee – HR manager
10. Create a training plan for the employee to ensure successful on-boarding – Sales manager

The above 10 points will ensure that the recruitment of the new sales person is a successful project and that ll activities required are defined an implemented. This will also help us to identify the resources (time and money) required to complete this key result.

Naturally, this key result is one of the 5 key results that we will be monitoring to reach the Objective (of increasing sales) that we had defined.

Conclusion on Vision, Mission and KPIs

Any company, even those who are not looking for ISO 9001 certification in Malta, must consider their Vision, Mission and KPIs. This will ensure that everyone is working towards the same objective of the company.