Management by Missions: How to Make the Mission a Part of Management

Abstract

Management by Objectives has certain limitations that are not easily overcome simply by including non-financial objectives or by promoting a system of values imported from outside the management system. What is needed, therefore, is a new management system capable of enriching and making sense of the objectives. Management by Missions (MBM) rises above the limitations of MBO and, at the same time, takes into account other innovative proposals put forward in recent years such as Management by Competencies or Balanced Scorecard. MBM is based on the idea of distributing the corporate mission to all levels of the company. Each mission shares in the higher-level missions, so that ultimately everyone has a stake in the corporate mission. The corporate mission is then made operational through objectives. Objectives have no value in themselves but only as a means to fulfill the mission. This new management philosophy is much richer and better able to persuade people to identify with the company they work for and so ensure superior performance at all levels of the organization.