The mission is the very reason and justification
for the existence of a firm. Mission is always defined in terms of the
benefits the firm provides to its customers and not in terms of any
physical dimensions of the firm or its products.
A firm
exists and functions only in relation to the customer whose need (s) it
satisfies. For example if there were no guests to stay there would be
no hotels or if there are no tourists there would be no tour operator
or travel agency. Thus the starting point for defining the mission of
any business is its customer. Since the customer exists outside the
business, the mission must be defined from the outside. The firm must
ask the questions like "What is our business?" and "What should it be?"
However, the firm must seek-the answers to these questions from the
customer’s viewpoint.
The important thing is to identify
the no-so-obvious, but the perceived benefit or value which the
customer is actually seeking when buying the product. Correct
identification of the real benefit or value to the customer will help
the firm to answer the question "What is our business?"
A
travel agency may view its business as merely selling air tickets, but
the customers buying these may in reality be buying convenience, luxury
travel, status or any other value they perceive in air travel.
Further,
mission is always concerned with the future. "What should our business
be?" The mission should be so described that it remains valid for at
least some years to come. Sometimes the mission may be so intelligently
described, anticipating future opportunities so well, that the concept
may remain valid for even as long as 15 to 20 years. For example a tour
operation firm may define its mission as "bringing the tourists dreams
into reality."
However long a mission may remain valid
without any change, it must be noted that the concept of mission is
dynamic and not static. It must change over time with changes occurring
in the environment like changes in technology, social structure,
tourism trends, tastes, fashion, etc. A firm which wants to grow and
ensure its future must keep pace with these environmental changes and,
if need be, accordingly changes its definition of business. But the
critical factor which the firm must remember is that its future is
determined by the way it defined its business today. There can be many
descriptions of the business mission and there is no one right or
correct answers. The firm has to make a choice as to how it wants to
define what is its business. Making a choice is never easy. It involves
examining and evaluating the various alternatives available and finally
choosing one which is consistent with top management’s perception about
the benefits they are providing to the customers today and their
aspirations for the future. Thus, the mission has to seek a balance
between the present and the future, and avoid being defined too
narrowly or too broadly.
Too narrow a definition will
prevent a firm from availing many new and profitable opportunities that
may come its may. For example a firm involved in distributing films for
cinema theatres had defined its business as "seeking to fulfil the
entertainment needs of customers through distributing films to theatres
for exhibiting to actual customer". With the increasing popularity of
videos and the subsequent decrease in earnings from theatres this firm
was soon faced with prospect of dwindling business. On the other hand,
if the firm had defined its business as "fulfilling the entertainment
needs through distributing means of audio-cum-visual entertainment", it
could have undertaken the distribution of video films along with firms
and continued to grow. In this example, the key words are
'entertainment’, the specific need of the customers that the firm is
seeking to fulfil, and 'audio-cum-visual’, describing the type of
entertainment.
Suppose this same firm had, instead, defined
its business as "distributing means of entertainment". What would they
become? The field which the firm had identified is far too broad to be
meaningfully able to concentrate on any workable opportunity. Consider
that books, magazines, records, music cassettes also constitute means
of entertainment. For many people both indoor and outdoor games are a
way of entertainment. Should this firm then include hockey sticks,
badminton rackets footballs, and chess boards also?
The
scope of a firm’s business flows from its definition of mission but is
described in more specific rather than generic terms. Scope refers to
the choice of the specific products/services and markets in which a
firm wishes to operate. The definition of product/market scope has a
direct bearing on the subsequent decisions regarding choice of
objectives and strategy.
A shipping company may describe
its mission as fulfilling the transportation needs of its customers. It
may, if it so chooses, further qualify the scope by defining whether
the transportation is meant for goods (cargo) or for passengers or both.
GUD ONE!!!!!!