Mission and Vision Statements - Main Differences

 Although mission and vision statements are quite often confused, they do serve complementary purposes. The main differences are :

• The vision statement addresses the question "what do we want to become?" whereas the mission statement deals with the question "what is our business?"
• Vision statements are focused on the very long run, whereas mission statements can focus on the medium or long term.
• Hence, mission statements are updated more frequently than vision statements.
• Vision statements do not have to be actual targets that must be realized (this is the purpose of setting mission statements). Instead, vision statements allow people to see what could be.
• The mission statement tends to outline or highlight the values of the business, i.e its beliefs and guiding principles. This sets the framework for how managers and employees behave on a day to day basis.