Organizations exist to accomplish something for someone. Core values are the organization’s fundamental, passionate, and enduring principles that guide its conduct over time. The organization’s mission is a statement of its function in society, often identifying its customers, markets, products, and technologies. Organizational culture is a set of values, ideas, attitudes, and norms of behavior that is learned and shared among the members of an organization. To answer the question, “What business are we in?”

an organization defines its “business”—the clear, broad, underlying industry category or market sector of its offering. Finally, the organization’s goals (or objectives) are statements of an accomplishment of a task to be achieved, often by a specific time.