Objectives Are SMART, Missions Are WISE

Far from staying at the corporate level, missions are increasingly playing a cross-organizational role in companies. Entire divisions, teams and individual workers are setting their own missions across a growing number of firms. Welcome to management by missions (MBM), in which objectives stop being an end in and of themselves and are put to the service of a greater purpose. As the authors argue, while objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound), missions are WISE (Wide, Inspirational, Service-oriented and Evaluable). This article explains each of these attributes and how they are being put into action in all types of companies around the world.