A good mission statement is a key tool for a successful, organized company. they statements provide direction for all individuals in an organization to help them in framing their decisions and guide them in determining policy. if a mission statement is done correctly and connected adequately to a firm's unique competencies (or competitive advantages), it should be very specific and then should not make sense hung on the wall of another organization. in short a good mission statement should be written with thought and purpose for the organization and should set that organization apart from others. let's test this concept... choose 3 firms that compete against each in some industry. they could be 3 retailers that sell competing items, 3 manufacturers that make similar type of products, or even 3 firms that compete in the same service industry. tell me the companies you have chosen. next visit the home page of those 3 firms and find their mission statements. keep in mind not all firms will use the phrase "mission statement", so you may have to search their web site and make your best guess at what you think their mission statement to be. also not all firms make their mission statement public knowledge, so if you are unable to find what you feel is a mission statement for one of your firms you either need to choose a different firm or a completely new set of 3 firms. write the 3 firms mission statements (or cut and paste them into your task). be sure you label each mission statement with the company's name so i know which is which. do you see anything that is consistent across all 3 of the mission statements (or even 2 of the 3)? tell me what is similar. does that make sense to you? do you agree with these similar items being mentioned in more than one of the mission statements? why or why not? finally do you see any important differences across all 3 of the mission statements? is there something that clearly defines the 3 different organizations? based on what you know about the companies, do you agree with the things that are different in their mission statements?