Mission, Vision, Strategy, Tactics, Operations
Introduction
Many business concepts have been taken wholesale from the military, few more obviously than this. The value in this “way of organizing organizations” is that it is standard across industries and companies, it provides clarity and alignment across the organization, and it provides a logical framework that allows each contributor to understand how they interact with the whole (providing individuals purpose).
What
Your company’s mission is its reason for being. In our industry that is typically a variation on “helping patients”. This is an enormous blessing, as few sectors have such noble goals! A vision statement describes the future and is aspirational. What could the company become if successful? Strategy is best defined as “a decision taken in the present to decline otherwise perfectly reasonable options in the future”. Why impose limits to your options? Clarity of purpose and direction. It is easy for a small team to be agile and pivot. A company with thousands of employees will have a much harder time. The small firm can be quite successful developing optionality (the opposite of strategy, from one perspective), while the larger organization is rudderless and will flounder without a clearly articulated strategy. Tactics are the set of significant, usually long-term activities undertaken to achieve strategic goals. Operations are the day-to-day execution of specific tasks within each of the tactical initiatives.
When
Finally, here’s a topic where there are many good answers. While the mission and vision are valuable to articulate early on, many companies don’t. Many companies also won’t spend much time on strategy until they reach a certain size and complexity, and that complexity needs to reduce. Tactics and operations are necessary to execute on any plan, and therefore must be part of the early evolution of any company.
Why
The value in this “way of organizing organizations” is that it is standard across industries and companies, it provide clarity and alignment across the organization, and it provides a logical framework that allows each contributor to understand how they 8 interact with the whole (providing individuals purpose).
Learning Goals
How to create a mission statement and vision. Basics re: strategy, tactics, and operations in therapeutics development.
Resources