Reviewing Nike and Home Depot's Mission Statements

A mission statement is a short statement that highlights the purpose, identity and scope of the organization’s operations as well as the kind of product and service the organization provides to its primary customers and by extension to the other various market segmentation at large (Caruthers, 2013). A mission statement entails a brief description of an organization’s fundamental matters such as values, vision, philosophies and the competitive advantages of the business. Thus, the purpose of the mission statement of any business entity is to focus and direct the organization’s vision and communicate primarily to its target audience so as to give a shared understanding of the intended direction of the organization (Wallace, 2012). Therefore, this paper seeks to review and evaluate the Home Depot’s and Nike’s mission statements.

An effective mission statement is one which clearly define who its target audience or customers is and what services and products the organization intends to provide (Caruthers, 2013). Additionally, it should provide clear guidelines, principles and procedures for day-to-day operations of the business entity. Consequently, the Home Depot’s and Nike’s mission statement are effective with regards to clarity and precise definition of what products and services they provide to their customers. Thus, Nike’s mission statement meets the criteria outlined on the mission statements article as it defines clearly its intended services to their target audience, to inspire and innovate every athlete in the world (Carbasho, 2010).

Additionally, an effective mission statement should focus more on satisfying the needs of its customers rather than being focused on the product (Wallace, 2012). This is because, just like technologies, products too tend to become outdated over a specific period of time, but the consumer needs may last forever. As a result, a market oriented mission statement of the any organization must define the business entity in terms of satisfying basic consumer’s needs (Caruthers, 2013). Hence, the Home Depot’s mission statement meets the standard mission statement evaluation criteria as it explains the consumer needs and tries to satisfy them. The mission statement’s focus in providing the highest level of service and the broadest selection of products intends to satisfy the needs of their customers.

Also, the provision of competitive prices and carrying out the business operations guided by the Home Depot’s core values such as provision of excellent customer service and taking care of and respecting all people is driven at satisfying customer needs (The home depot: Annual report, 2014). Similarly, Nike’ mission statements focuses primarily on the needs of their target audience, to ensure that every athlete in the world is inspired (Carbasho, 2010).

An effective mission statement ought to be specific, short and sharply focused, and thus, vague mission statements lacks resonance and meaningful purpose (Caruthers, 2013). Consequently, generic mission statements are likely not to be remembered and often dismissed as too complex and hence posing difficulties to comprehend. Nonetheless, Nike’s mission statement meets the criteria as it is short, focused, memorable and can be easily understood. On the contrary, the Home Depot’s mission statement is rather longer as it contains specific workable guidelines. However, it’s a precise statement of Home Depot’s purpose and hence easily memorable and comprehensible.

The mission statement of the organization should be based on the distinctive competencies of the business (Wallace, 2012). A distinctive core competency is the comparatively superior resources of the organization that the business performs well in comparison to its competitors. Therefore, an effective mission statement should stay focused on specific traits regarding the product quality, customer service and target market segments (Caruthers, 2013). For instance, Nike’s mission statement is driven at inspiring and innovating of athletes, thus its distinctive core competency is inspiration and innovation of its customers. On the other hand, the distinctive competency of Home Depot’s mission statement is defined by its core values.

Moreover, an effective mission statement must be able to tell “who” its target audience are (Caruthers, 2013). A business entity should define the type of market segment it wishes to serve and consequently its target group audience. Essentially, customer groups are significant because they indicate the market segment to be served, the geographical domain to be covered and the type of consumers the organization is going after. Therefore, unlike the Home Depot’s mission statement which fails to tell clearly who their customers are as it is more general, the Nike’s mission statement is precise and unambiguous with regards to defining the market segment and target groups it wishes to serve. Nike wishes to serve every athlete in the world (Carbasho, 2010).

A suitable mission statement must be able to explain how the organization intends to serve its customers so as to ensure that it satisfies their needs (Wallace, 2012). Therefore, through its mission statement, an organization must define clearly the means and technology it will adopt so as to serve the target market segment and consequently satisfy the consumer’s needs (Caruthers, 2013). Thus, an effective mission statement incorporates who, what and how the business will be perceived and act more consumer and market-oriented.

Nevertheless, the mission statements of both the Home Depot and Nike have proved to be relevant and meets the mission statement evaluation criteria in terms of explaining how the respective companies intends to serve its customers, as well as satisfying consumer needs. Nike serves and ensures satisfactory of the needs of their target group audience by inspiring and innovating them (Carbasho, 2010). On the contrary, Home Depot ensures to serve their customers appropriately and satisfy their needs by providing of superior services and the broadest selection of a wide range of products at the most competitive prices. Also, the company’s fundamental principles and values contributes in ensuring satisfactory on consumer needs.

In conclusion, both the Home Depot and Nike’s mission statements have meet several aspects of standard mission statement evaluation criteria. Both mission statements are realistic, precise and easily understood, sharply focused and memorable, demonstrates distinctive core competencies and explains how both companies will serve and as well as try to satisfy consumer needs. Nonetheless, both statements failed to say how the company wants to be remembered. Additionally, unlike Nike, Home Depot’s mission statement failed to categorically tell who its customers are. However, both statements motivate and inspires employee commitment and hence effective.