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What are the most important factors for a firm competing in a global market?


·       Select three key ideas or facts from the article which you believe are most important for a firm competing in a global market. Why are they the most important to the process?
1.     Mission and vision are really significant thing

I am convinced that mission and vision are the strategic tools, not just formal phrases. According to Ketchen and Short, “vision is what the organization hopes to become in the future”; “mission is the reasons for an organization’s existence” (Ketchen, Short, 2012, p. 43). If an organization perceives such a meaningful thing as its future as a formality, what future will happen then? In my opinion, vision and mission must be stated even before an organization started its functioning, this process should be simultaneous with the business planning, because someone, who does not know where he or she goes and why, who does not have a plan, will reach nowhere. I can give you my personal example, I am the owner of the shop of Korean cosmetics. I have a defined conception and strategy and I follow it. I have one competitor, who is positioning herself as a Korean cosmetics shop, but she has no strategy and her shop has nothing special because of that. Therefore, she has not got a lot of customers. A few days ago, I have seen her ad on Instagram, and it said that she started to sell Belarusian cosmetics. How can you allow yourself to do that, if your own door banner says, “Korean cosmetics”? She defined herself for customers and now she is breaking her strategy, was it strategy then?

2.     Mission is different from vision

This is a special topic because I am sure in any field, there are several tricky similar definitions that always confuse everyone. I believe that the true professional must clarify the difference between mission and vision once and for all. I think that the difference is related to the time-bound. Vision is something that looks deep into the future. You can define it just once and follow it. Whereas, the mission must fit your business at any step. Therefore, the mission can be changed or made more precise while you are acting, but the vision is something that defines your actions, your main statement, something where you go to. According to Craig Woodman, “A vision defines what is success to a company or organization at any particular time. It can define what an organization is supposed to look like and the values that the company finds important. A vision gives a clear overview of the direction that the company is moving and how it will get there. It provides the overall reason for people to go to work and do what they do every day. Mission objectives are more clearly defined than a vision. While not as specific as goals, which have a date for completion and a specified outcome, they represent the specific paths that an organization will take to meet its vision.” (Woodman, n.d., para 2, 3).

3.     Target audience of mission and vision is a far more widely, than the customers

According to Laura Lake, “A target audience is the demographic of people most likely to be interested in your product or service” (Lake, 2019, para 2). I think a lot of entrepreneurs make the same mistakes: define the target audience too widely in customers, and ignore other sections of the audience, such as employee, stakeholders, investors, partners, etc. I am convinced it is the wrong way to reckon that your customer target audience is “all women from 15 to 65”. You can always define your customers narrower, and then you can be more responsive to that audience, because of the bigger amount of people, the harder to satisfy all of them. Experts from Forbes suggest 6 steps to identify the target audience:
1.     Do As Much Pre-Market Research As You Can;
2.     Test And Learn With Google And Facebook Advertising;
3.     Test New Products With Loyal Customers First;
4.     Pay Attention To SEO And Analytics;
5.     Create A Customer Avatar;
6.     Look For Trends In Client Requests (Expert panel of Forbes, 2010).
Through these steps, you can identify your customer audience properly.
One more thing is the target audience is not just customers. Your mission and vision must be also oriented to employee, stakeholders, investors, partners, or everyone else, who is interested in your company. It is really important, because, as I told above, mission and vision define the direction of your company to everyone, who read it. Customers should understand from your vision what are you doing, employees should see what for they work, affiliated persons need to realize why they invested their money, partners should comprehend how they can contribute to your company.
What role does a strong leader play in the formulation vision and mission statements?
According to Zuzana Papulova, about 45% of visions and missions stated by the founder (Papulova, 2014). It is almost a half. I believe that when a person launches a business, he or she has a certain reason for it because if you do it “just for fun” it is probably will lead you nowhere. Therefore, I think that no one can state the mission and vision of the company better, than the founder. Zuzana Papulova also suggests several more ways to define mission and vision, such as teamwork, but at the end of all, the final decision is up to founder, I guess. As per me, I would never charge my employees to state mission and vision, because even if they love their job, I am sure, no one strives to make my shop successful as much as me.
Analyze whether internal (company culture, firm’s resources, etc.) or external (government regulations, competition, etc.) are the most relevant to a global firm’s vision and mission statements.
I think the statement that internal or external are most relevant to a global firm’s vision and mission is erroneous in general. It is extremely important that everyone, who reads the statements must feel your call. It is not so important whether your company is domestic, or global, the rule is mandatory. However, I think that if you have a global company, you should understand that your mission and vision must be far more large-scale. It is easier to state the mission and vision for a domestic company because you are a part of domestic culture, you can feel what people need and how to inspire them, but how to inspire someone, who is from cardinal other culture? This is a different sense of humour, play on words, language, expressions, everything of it is different. These differences create some complications. From this point of view, some help from a representative of a foreign culture will not be superfluous. “A mission or vision statement is nothing but a collection of words. The choice of words and tone used is what forms the actual communication. Communication comes from inside you” (Martin, 2018, para 2). Just think about, how can you inspire someone (a customer, a candidate, of future stakeholder) from the opposite side of the planet? How can you make them feel the same as you? I think your vision and mission, first of all, must inspire you. If it is not, it is wrong statements.
Conclusion
Vision and mission are a significant part of the company strategy. It requires diligently work because it will guide your business all the time. Mission and vision are different things, you have to clarify it for yourself. Vision is future, the mission is present. The target audience is far wider than just customers, you have to take it into account, especially your company is global.









References

Ketchen, D & Short, J. (2012) Strategic Management: Evaluation and Execution. 
Woodman, C. (N.d.). The Differences Between Vision and Mission Objectives. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/differences-between-vision-mission-objectives-25448.html
Lake, L. (May 31, 2019). What Is Your 'Target Audience' in Marketing? Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-a-target-audience-2295567
Expert panel of Forbes. (Feb 15, 2019). Six Ways To Identify And Target The Ideal Audience For Your New Product. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2019/02/15/six-ways-to-identify-the-ideal-audience-for-your-new-product/#1bb95343f34a
Papulova, Z. (Feb 1, 2014). Тhe Significance of Vision and Mission Development for Enterprises in Slovak Republic.
Martin. (July 26, 2018). 12 Truly Inspiring Company Vision and Mission Statement Examples. Retrieved from https://www.cleverism.com/mission-statement-examples/



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