This past week we talked about one's personal mission and vision, which are apparently (much to my surprise) two completely different things. While they do share similarities, a mission statement and a vision statement are not supposed to be the same thing. For example, fast food giant McDonalds' mission statement is "to be our customers' favorite place and way to eat", whereas their vision is "to be the world's best quick-service restaurant experience". Personally I find the combination of both to be redundant because I would think that they are similar to the point of being exactly that, especially in this case.
At first glance, the difference between mission and vision appears to be distinct. According to the Mission Statement and Vision Statement papers from class, the mission represents an organization's core values, whereas the vision is where the organization expects to be in the future. This is reasonable enough, but I think that the mission statement should actually include the vision, rendering the latter redundant. For starters, by definition, reaching a certain milestone in the future is a mission. I was president of my high school's Chinese Culture Club for two years, and our (unwritten) mission was to actively pursue new member recruitment while engaging existing members in enriching activities, because we wanted to expand our club to include as many people as possible. Thus, we summed up mission and vision nicely because it shows what that club is about while looking to and planning for the future. In addition, we envisioned a club with many members encompassing a significant portion of the school, in which everyone participated in educational and fun activities. As a result, it became our mission to develop so that we could realize this vision. Doesn't separating the two instead of combining them seem a little pointless when they go so well together?
Continuing with the first example, McDonalds' defined mission and vision statements could also be combined into one, more efficient sentence. Their vision is to be the best fast food restaurant in the world; wouldn't you think that if they were the best, they would be customers' favorite? This is self explanatory to me, and it's covered separately in their mission statement. In fact, the only difference between the two is that their mission is also to be their customers' favorite way to eat. I would not think that most peoples' favorite way to eat is fast food, and that is an entirely different argument. However, without it the mission and vision could be combined into one.
I understand what the mission and vision is, and by definition they seem distinct. However, in practice I feel like they could be combined into a more efficient sentence since I would reason that each should include the other. The two separate statements are redundant and slightly confusing as well.
