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In responding to the challenges of e-commerce and globalization, managers must
consider the organization’s mission and, correspondingly, the underlying strategy
that links its mission to actual activities. An organization’s mission statement
should (1) clearly state what the organization wants to accomplish and (2) express
how that organization uniquely meets its targeted customers’ needs with its products
and services. As indicated in the following News Note, a mission statement
should be an organizational road map.
The mission statement may, and most likely should, be modified over time.
Not adapting the mission statement probably means the organization is stagnating
and not facing the ever-changing business environment. For instance, Hibernia Corporation’s
mission statement in 1994 was “to be recognized by 1996 as the best
provider of financial services throughout Louisiana.” By 1997, the mission statement
was “By 1999, we will be recognized by our customers, employees, and
shareholders as the best financial services company in each of our markets.”11 Only
three years yet a dramatic difference: the corporation had engaged in multiple bank

merger opportunities outside Louisiana and was looking for more.
Translating the organization’s mission into the specific activities and resources
needed for achievement is called planning. The long-term, dynamic plan that in-

satisfaction
of customer needs or wants reflects strategy. Strategy can also be defined as:
the art of creating value. It provides the intellectual frameworks, conceptual
models, and governing ideas that allow a company’s managers to identify
opportunities for bringing value to customers and for delivering value at a profit.
In this respect, strategy is the way a company defines its business and links together
the only two resources that really matter in today’s economy: knowledge
and relationships or an organization’s competencies and its customers.12
An organization’s strategy tries to match its internal skills and resources to the
opportunities found in the external environment.13 Small organizations may have
a single strategy, while large organizations often have an overall entity strategy as
well as individual strategies for each business unit (such as a division). The business
units’ strategies should flow from the overall strategy to ensure that effective
and efficient resource allocations are made, an overriding corporate culture is developed,
and organizational direction is enhanced. For instance, at ABN AMRO,
the Netherlands Division strategy is to position the bank as a provider of integrated
banking and insurance products; the strategy for Central/Eastern Europe is strong
internal growth and selective acquisition; and the strategy for Asia/Pacific is to raise
the profitability of core corporate banking activities.
Exhibit 1–7 provides a checklist of questions that help indicate whether an organization
has a comprehensive strategy in place. Small businesses may need to
substitute “product lines” for “business segments” in answering the questions.