While a mission statement, and a vision statement are both critical to the way a company operates, they are significantly different in the way they represent the company. A mission statement reflects the current way the company conducts business, and the vision statement is a reflection of how the company will appear in the future. A mission statement is an explanation of the company’s primary objectives and its overall intention. The mission statement should support the vision statement and provides purpose and direction to the company’s employees, customers, vendors and other stakeholders. (SHRM, 2012). In order to be effective, a mission statement must: define the present state of the company; answer what the company does, who