#TheStrategicProcess #CompetitiveAdvantage

A company has different types of processes but I would highlight basically three:

1.) Strategic Processes are those intended to define and control the organisation's goals, policies and strategies. Also we call them Management Processes.

2.)   Operational Processes are these which are able to generate the product or the service being delivered to the customer. Are those that generate and deliver value to the customer.

3.)   Support Processes are those that cover and allow the necessary activities for the proper functioning of the Operational and Management Processes. We can highlight the processes for Finance, Control, Human Resources, Information Technology, etc.

What is important is to note that the origin of all processes should be the requirements set by the customers and the end of the process should be implemented in compliance with customer's expectations. Michael Porter introduced a tool called "Value Chain Analysis" where the sequence of the processes that enable to deliver products and services generated by a company to customers is identified. This tool can help companies to identify activities within the processes that we can make different or in a different manner as our competitors do. In this way, we will identify sustainable competitive advantages that allow us to define a Differential Competitive Strategy that makes our company more competitive. The processes in a company should be simple, designed with and for customers and this is the way and the shortest path for success and reward in a satisfactory manner for the shareholders.

A company that defines its strategy based on winning markets with very competitive prices should attend and maximise the industrialisation of its entire value chain, from product design, process and product industrialisation, production, logistics chain service, promotional marketing, sales strategy process up to the distribution of the products. The entire value chain must be refined and the costs adjusted to the maximum for the company to implement a competitive pricing strategy. On the opposite, a company that defines its strategy based on products and services with high added value and determine to follow all the technological changes in the industry, should primarily attend to the process of technological and product innovation, continuous training of its employees, development of patents, etc.

Both companies have very different concepts, different missions, processes and also fully differentiated employees. Any beginning of changing in corporate strategy and of #TheStrategicProcess development (SPd) will have to be addressed from a different perspective that will be analysed in our blog.

#TheStrategicProcess #Corporate Mission

The Mission statement is a short text that defines for the company the reason to be. The Mission must describe the fundamental purpose of the organisation and, particularly, that which gives or offers to customers. In the case of public sector or non-profit organisations will be what is offered to citizens and beneficiaries. 

According to Professor Fredmund Malik's book of Management ("Das A und O des Handwerks") the primary purpose of any institution, company or business is to convert resources (knowledge) in achievement, use or performance for customers. Thus, as Professor Malik considers, the three basic elements of a Business Mission or Corporate Mission must answer the following three questions:

1) What are the market needs? Or to put it in another way: Why and for what the customers pay us?

2) Where lies our superiority or supremacy? Or to put in another way: What we do better than others?

3) How our strength comes from? Or expressed in another way: What we believe?

Normally the Corporate Mission is defined by the Board of Directors interacting with the top management of the company.

Ultimately the Mission defines the business to which the company is engaged, the needs covered with its products and services, the market in which the activity is developed and the public image it wants to reflect as a company or organisation being all the answers to the question: why the company or the organisation exists?

Here are three more examples to illustrate this:

KPMG Enterprise Mission: "Transforming knowledge into value for the benefit of our customers, our people and the capital markets"

Ford Company Mission: "We are a global, diverse family with a proud, confident and passionate heritage to provide exceptional products and services."

Disney Company Mission: "We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages anywhere"

Do you know the Mission of your institution, company or business? Would you know how to define it? Personally I think it is a fundamental exercise that must be undertaken. Sometimes it is highly interesting to define also your personal Vision and Mission  to know oneself and to contribute more to the family, to our immediate environment, to our company and consequently to the whole society. In the end we are what we want to be.

#TheStrategicProcess #VisionMission

What is first the Vision or the Mission? 

In my understanding there are two concepts that are closely linked. A person may have a Vision to start a new business and then asking him if his mission is the adequate that means, if he is ready or if he has the skills required to meet the proposed Vision. 

Obviously he could not be prepared but be willed to do so and therefore the time factor in defining the Vision is so important. Serving readers in the Spanish version, it is possibly that the Spanish word "Misión" confuses all of us, because according to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE), the most used definition is: "Power given to someone going to play a role". However, if we translate the English word "mission" we find "work, task" as closer to what we want to define. Here's an example: What works, what task is carried out by this company? "The Mission (work, task) of this company is to inform consumers of their rights" so what the company does and for what this company is prepared to is to inform about the rights to consumers. 

If we use the Wikipedia: "A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company, organization or person; its reason for existing; a written declaration of an organization's core purpose and focus that normally remains unchanged over time", and:

"A mission is different from a vision in that the former is the cause and the latter is the effect; a mission is something to be accomplished whereas a vision is something to be pursued for that accomplishment. Also called company mission, corporate mission, or corporate purpose ".

"A vision statement says what the organization wishes to be like in some years’ time. It’s usually drawn up by senior management, in an effort to take the thinking beyond day-to-day activity in a clear, memorable way". (Graham Kenny)

There’s also the mission, which describes what business the organization is in (and what it isn't) both now and projecting into the future" (Graham Kenny)

Usually the concepts of Vision and Mission appear when businesses, companies or entities of different nature intend to start with #TheStrategicProcess development (SPd) either because they want to start with a new strategy or change, improve the existing one. Therefore a business, a company or an organisation already have an existence and a Mission (work, task) defined. 

Here are some other examples of Vision and Mission or Mission and Vision:

"Our Mission is to manufacture high quality electrical components for markets in machinery and equipment manufacturers. Our Vision is to be one of the three world leaders in our industry reaching a total of 500 Mill. Euros in 2020”

"Our Vision is to be leaders in strategic training for small and medium businesses reaching a figure of 5 Mill. Euros in 2020. Therefore our Mission in "distance learning method" will be developed with the necessary skills for a "customised distance learning method" "