The Significance of Vision and Mission Development for Enterprises in Slovak Republic

Vision and mission are often considered as an essential part of strategic management. There is probably not a strategic management book that does not mention or explain the importance of these two elements. In history we can find beautiful examples of great visions of e.g. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Henry Ford that stay behind companies’ success. Based on these examples we often try to analyze how successful vision and mission statements should be created and defined. But there are still some people that remain skeptical on this subject. They see these statements only as formal documents or just another “marketing tool,” not a strategic one. There is also often confusion also with distinguishing vision and mission. The goal of this paper is to investigate the role, the attitude and significance of vision and mission statements for enterprises in current environment. It will discuss the experiences and approaches to vision and mission development in the Slovak Republic based on research from 2012. The research was based on gathering of information by questionnaires and structured interviews in companies operating in Slovak Republic from various sectors and on quantitative analysis.