As technology continues to move fast and marketing becomes more complex, one of the biggest risks for growing businesses isn’t competition or technology, it’s a lack of clarity.
Clarity about why your business exists and the impact you want to make on your target market’s world beyond simply generating revenue and profit.
Without these two working together, businesses often get stuck with too many options, too many ideas and not enough direction.
That indecision drains energy, slows execution, and makes growth harder than it needs to be.
A clear mission and vision removes that friction to help teams make decisions faster, stay focused, and align effort in the same direction.
Recently, we sat down with Simon Kelly, CEO of Seriously Good Design for a conversation about mission and vision and why they matter.
Here’s the short version:
Your vision explains why your business exists and the change you’re trying to create.
If your business succeeded beyond expectations, what would be different because of it? How would the world be different if your business was to achieve all its goals?
Your mission is what you and your team are actively working towards right now.
A mission is specific, measurable, and achievable. It gives your team something concrete to rally around.
As an example, Elon Musk has said his vision is “to save humanity”. As part of that, his mission is “to colonise Mars”.
In this example, the vision is an overarching direction and target audience (save humanity), whereas a mission is a specific milestone that’s part of bringing that vision to life (colonise Mars).
When everyone knows where the business is going and why, momentum follows.
At SGD, we recently revisited our own mission and vision as part of our planning and saw this firsthand when running strategy workshops with clients.
The businesses that grow fastest aren’t doing more. They’re doing fewer things, with more clarity and commitment.
If you’re planning for the year ahead and want your team aligned, focused, and energised, this is a conversation worth having properly with your team:
We recorded the full discussion as a video, where we go deeper into:
- The difference between mission and vision
- How to avoid indecision and misalignment
- How to involve your team without creating chaos
- How we apply this thinking inside SGD and with clients
If you’d like help clarifying your vision, mission and creating a marketing roadmap for 2026, then check out our Digital Strategy Workshop.
