Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/111663
Great mission statements can���t be bland and interchangeable. They must describe what makes a school unique and serve to re���ect its overarching strategic goals. Be prepared to revise the mission statement Consider the needs of your community. BY SHARON SHINN A IVE RADI US I MAG ES/G LOW I MAG ES Identify your strengths. t a recent meeting of more than 60 business school deans, Virginia Tech���s Richard Sorensen issued a challenge. The dean of the Pamplin College of Business in Blacksburg asked, ���If you all printed out your mission statements and tacked them to a wall, could you pick out which one is yours?��� While the participants didn���t actually carry out the exercise, it���s a valid question. As Sorensen notes, ���There are very good schools that have only slightly differentiated mission statements.��� Mission statements have always been important to help schools tell their stories of who they are and what they offer. But they���ve become even more critical for colleges seeking accreditation from AACSB International, because AACSB���s accreditation process is based on how well schools are carrying out their own stated missions. So how does a school craft a brief, thoughtful mission statement that accurately expresses its strategy, its goals, and its unique place on the b-school continuum? And once the statement is written, how do administrators use it in the day-to-day life of the institution? In the following pages, deans from three business schools describe how they arrived at their well-thought-out mission statements and how they implement them in their overall strategies. BizEd March/April 2013 19