Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/111663
More About Missions always maintained close ties with the government. But adding the school of government made it imperative for the business school to revisit its mission statement to spell out its new emphasis. The revised statement reads: ���Victoria Business School creates and shares knowledge of governance and management of resources in the public and private sectors to develop capability and provide our stakeholders with a global perspective.��� Buckle feels it was particularly necessary to highlight governance. ���Our reworded mission statement re���ects the shift in emphasis that���s taking place around the world about the awareness of the importance of good governance,��� he notes. Whether the mission statement has been in place for ten years or has recently been completely rewritten, Ramanantsoa of HEC advises paying attention to how the statement currently is received by stakeholders. When people stop reacting positively to the mission statement, he warns, ���that means something is wrong.��� And it might be time to revisit the school���s strategy and its mission. 10 But don���t make changes lightly. ���By de���nition, the mission statement is not something that should be changed every six months,��� says Ramanantsoa. In fact, once you���ve crafted the statement that suits your school, commit to it. At Virginia Tech, according to Sorensen, ���It���s become part of our DNA.��� 24 March/April 2013 BizEd ��� ���CraftingaStatementofIntent, ���adetaileddescriptionofAudenci a Nantes���journeytowritinganewmis sionstatement,appearsonpage6 2 oftheJanuary/February2010issu eofBizEd. ��� ThemissionstatementfortheVict oriaBusinessSchoolcanbefoun dat www.victoria.ac.nz/vbs/about/miss ion. ��� ThemissionstatementforthePam plinCollegeofBusinessappearsat www.pamplin.vt.edu/general.php?pa ge=info-mission. ��� ThemissionstatementforHECP arisisavailableatwww.hec.edu/ About-H EC/About-H EC-Paris/Missio n-Values. Says Buckle of Victoria Business School, ���If the environment changes or the makeup of the business school changes or the university���s objectives for the business school change, we would revisit the mission statement and ask if it���s still appropriate. Otherwise, I���d imagine that this one is suf���ciently robust to prevail for quite a few years.��� Mission in Action As schools pursuing AACSB accreditation seek to create or re���ne their mission statements, they might ���nd themselves ���rst taking a hard look at their schools and what de���nes them. ���Writing a mission statement can help a school more fully understand exactly what differentiates it from its peers���but ���guring that out is sometimes the hard part,��� Sorensen notes. ���Schools need to determine their strengths and weaknesses, as well as what they really want to be good at. They need to determine who their constituency is and what part of the business community they���re working with. Then they develop a mission statement that captures those values.��� When Sorensen visits a school as part of a peer review team, he purposely looks at its mission statement, its governance, and its utilization of resources. ���I���ll tell a school when it has an undifferentiated mission statement. That usually happens when the school just presents a lot of verbiage without a critical analysis of its strengths,��� he says. ���This gives administrators a chance to rewrite the mission statement���to make it re���ect the strengths of their school���even before the accreditation visit.��� Buckle acknowledges that both the mission statement and the strategic plan have assumed more importance at Victoria Business School as it has pursued accreditation. ���The accreditation process helped us learn about what other business schools do. It also helped us learn about the importance of putting together a coherent plan and good management structures. We developed a better understanding of the role a strategic plan can have.��� Schools seeking accreditation must think more deeply about how well they are meeting their own stated goals, Buckle observes. He adds, ���I think the mission statement is much more central to the way we operate and the way we decide on priorities than it was ten years ago.��� A mission statement should be a short, coherent description of what a school is, does, and stands for. For schools pursuing accreditation, that simple declaration is an expression of everything they are and wish to be. Even for schools that are not seeking such a credential, a mission statement can help them analyze what makes them unique and where they ���t in the larger world of business education.