Mission, Vision, and Values of Ben and Jerry's

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Critically evaluate the mission, vision and values of a company that you are familiar with and propose alternative formulations of same The Mission, Vision and Values of a company play a Fundamental role in Strategy Formulation and Strategic planning. We will discuss throughout this assignment, how developing effective mission, vision and values can help shape, develop and guide a firms Strategic choices. They reflect the firm's fundamental core ideology. At the most basic level a mission statement can describe the firms overall purpose for being. It provides an inside to the present business scope and purpose of the firm that is "who we are, what we do, and why we are here". It explains the firm's very reason for existing. It will generally define the scope of the firm, the ends to which it wants to achieve and the means of doing so (its competitive advantage), which usually encompasses three dimensions, its customers/offering, geographic locations and vertical integration, its concerns for employees and other stakeholders. These should be clearly defined so as to guide management and employees in day to day decision making. Thus as Porter states that any strategic statement must begin with a definition of the ends that this strategy is designed to achieve, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there". The mission, vision statements and values of a company say how the business is Unique. How it set's itself apart from its rivals and thus how it can offer value to its customer base and thus sets the "tone" of the firm. As Michael Porter states it sets the " Strategy that delineates a territory in which a company seeks to be unique" . It should thus be specific enough to distinguish the company and give ... ... middle of paper ... ...nd day to day activities of the firm and translated by Ben and Jerry's to achieve their strategic objectives. As we can see Ben and Jerry's makes valuable use of expressing the essence of the values and vision through the use of short/vivid and inspiring slogans such as "caring capitalism"," lead with your values and make money too" which allows them to capture, reinforce and convey the message of the vision and values in easily remember able slogans. We can see that Ben and Jerry's strategic visions show us another effective element of Strategic Visions use in the Strategy formulation process, they are a valuable tool for management, as it helps to guide and illuminate the company's directional path and provides the management with guiding principles and reference points for making their decisions helping to lay out its strategic course " where we are going".

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