Difference between Mission and Vision

Mission and vision are important within organizations.

Mission and vision are both part of the strategic planning process of a business or company. Many organizations use these two statements to summarize their goals and objectives. The alignment of the mission and vision statements are important for the success of the strategic plans. Both of these serve different purposes. They have some things in common but many other are different. Let us find out more about mission and vision.

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Mission is a short statement about the company's goals in a short term. It helps to identify the fundamental purpose and the identity of a company . It provides the overall purpose of the organization. It is usually a short statement that is understandable. The mission statement is changeable and mutable according to the requirements. It indicates purpose and value of the institution.

Vision

Vision is the mental image of what you want your business or a certain project to look like in the future. Vision is created thinking about the future and foresee the desired incoming events and challenges. The vision statement is a goal that is ultimately to be reached and it does not get affected or is used by the daily operations. Vision statement is to describe a bright future and giving hope while striving to reach the ultimate goals. It should be realistic but can also be ambitious. It answers the question "where do we aim to be?".

	Mission	Vision
Definition	A short statement describing why something exits and what are its goals.	A mental image of future events and how the mission is going to affect positively while completing the goals.
Time lapse	Mission goals are usually short termed, starting on the present day and aimed to still be standing within the next 2-3 years.	Vision is linked to the success of an institution for a whole 5-10 years of time interval.
Goals	Goals of mission are present on the daily basis.	Goals are long lived and have long lasting effects.
Change	Mission statement can be changed according to the requirements.	Vision is the foreseeing of the events in future and there is a minimum change in it.
Question	Mission answers the question "What do we do?"	Mission answers the questions "Where do we aim to be?"

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