Vision vs. Mission Statement

Mission statements and Vision statements are often confused, mixed or blended, so full understanding and knowing differences and comparisons are important for businesses who take strategic planning very seriously.
It is not hard to see why a lot of people confuse a mission statement and a vision statement, although both statements serve a different purpose for a company.
Although it may not seem very important to know the difference between the two types of statements, it is very important to businesses. This is because it is common for businesses to ground their strategic plans in clear vision and mission statements. Both statements play a big factor in the strategic planning of a business. A study carried out by Bain & Company showed that companies which had clearly outlined vision and mission statements outperformed other businesses that did not have clear vision and mission statements.
Sample of confusion
Even famous managers confuse organisation's vision and mission, as did Jack Welch in his book "Winning" where he passionately explained importance of mission and then puts an example (page 15: Take our mission at GE as an example. From 1981 through 1995, we said we were going to be "the most competitive enterprise in the world" by being No. 1 or No. 2 in every market). While in fact it is an ambitious vision of the company, not mission. Mission of GE was and is serving society through technologies.
Purpose differences
Mission statement's and Vision statement's fill different purposes.
A mission statement describes an organization's purpose and answers the questions "What business are we in?" and "What is our business for?"
A vision statement provides strategic direction and describes what the owner or founder wants the company to achieve in the future.
Cause and effect
There are two perspectives: from planners eye and from doers eye.
Looking from planners perspective vision is cause and mission is effect. Vision gives motivation and energy for actions done through mission.
Looking from doers perspective mission is cause and vision is effect. A vision is something to be accomplished whereas a mission is something to be done for that accomplishment. A mission statement is all about how an organisation will get to where they want to be and makes the purposes and objectives clear, whereas a vision statement is outlining where the organisation wants to be in the future.
Difference in timing
Mission statements are more concerned about the current times and tend to answer questions about what the business does or what makes them stand out compared to the competition, whilst vision statements are solely focused on where the organisation sees themselves in the future and where they aim to be.
Both statements may be adapted later into the organisation's life, however it is important to keep the core of the statement there such as core values, customer needs and vision.

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