At the heart of every successful enterprise is a system driven by the desire to achieve its goals. These goals progress in complexity and outlook until they take the shape of the big picture. And every effort and strategy is designed to support the actualization of these goals.
The VMOST analysis suggests the components that must align for every business to achieve its biggest goals. This article discusses the VMOST analysis and how these components contribute to the growth of any enterprise.
What is it?
The VMOST Analysis is a tool that connects businesses with the resources and support needed to achieve their goals. It provides a framework for an organization to define, detail, and realize its targets.
"VMOST" is an acronym for the components—Vision, Mission, Objective, Strategy, and Tactics. These five components define a business's projections of itself and what impact it purposes to make. They also define the actions and the system it adopts to facilitate these projections and achieve its goals.
To help you understand the VMOST analysis better, we'll describe each component of the framework.
Vision
An organization's vision captures its future projections. It paints a clear picture of what it plans to become later.
Mission
An organization's mission describes an overall target/s it strives towards achieving. It is defined by a goal or a set of goals which, when achieved, will drive it within reach of actualizing its vision.
Objectives
Objectives include those targets, objects, and activities that are earmarked for completion as part of a larger goal. It has the element of quality and quantity.
Strategy
Strategy refers to the plans, procedures, and methods an organization adopts to achieve its objectives and meet its goals.
Tactics
An organization's tactics include those definitive measures, techniques, and provisions deployed to execute its strategy.
When do we use it?
Below are some of the most important reasons organizations adopt the VMOST framework.
For Strategy Development
The VMOST framework provides a template for companies to create an organizational strategy. It can influence their choice of policies, processes, and operations.
For Goal Setting
A VMOST framework defines the goals in clear and easily measurable terms. It can also define the clearest pathway to achieving these goals.
For Project Management
When your team members have a set of objectives, tactics, and overall vision to guide them, they can make progress easier. You can manage your resources better and direct staff efforts more efficiently.
For Performance Evaluation
Measuring your team's performance by examining their key deliverables is easier. You can find gaps by comparing what is on the ground with what is expected or projected.
What business questions is it helping us to answer?
The VMOST framework serves several purposes in an organization. These purposes can be found in the answers to the following questions:
What is the big picture?
A company's vision and mission statement give it soul, source, and driving force. It provides a timely reminder of what the grander scheme is.
What do you set out to achieve
Every organization has certain goals and objectives it intends to achieve. These goals provide clarity and direction to all stakeholders in the process.
How Can You Achieve these goals and objectives?
Once you've outlined your goals, the next step is to plan toward achieving them. A VMOST framework can identify the resources crucial to achieving your company's goals.
How Can you Support these goals and objectives?
For a business to succeed, it has to create the right structure and system to support its goals. It has to develop effective strategies and tactics around its goals. And then, it has to streamline its operations to fit these goals.
How do we use it?
To undertake a VMOST analysis, an organization must define and develop all the framework elements in relation to itself. Below are a few steps it can take to achieve this.
Prepare and Research
Carry out sufficient investigation about the organization's setup. Enlist the help of resource persons who understand the internal and external factors affecting your work environment. Then, you can proceed to the next "fact-finding" stage.
Development
Once you have done the research, you can conduct the following steps:
Step 1: Develop a Vision Statement
Step 2: Develop a Mission Statement
Step 3: Develop your Objectives
Step 4: Develop your Strategies
Step 5: Develop your Tactics
Step 6: Review The Framework
Review and Refine
By now, you've developed all the elements of the VMOST framework peculiar to your organization. Go over the framework and ensure that it ticks all the right boxes.
Adopt a bottom-up approach to analyzing the VMOST framework. Check if your tactics add up to achieving the vision.
Consider the VMOST framework as a chain of interlinked components. If one component is ineffective or incomplete, the flow is broken, and the chain is weaker.
Once you can guarantee that your VMOST components are well-defined and blended into each other, your work is almost done.
You can now introduce everyone in the organization to it. Make it a rallying point in the workplace and ensure that it guides everything that is done in the future.
Practical example
A bank uses the VMOST analysis to streamline its operations.
Vision:
To become the no-one bank in the country and absorb its large unbanked population.
Mission:
To provide banking services to 2 million residents in the next ten years.
Objectives:
Install branches and ATMs in every city
Register at least 150,000 new account holders every month
Have a 25% Year-end profit margin
Strategy:
Focus on Customer Satisfaction.
Tactics
Provide interest on savings.
Embark on community outreach programs.
Provide quarterly promotional offers for new and existing customers.
Advantages
It is a straightforward strategic planning approach. The VMOST framework uses simple and well-defined objects. These objects can easily be communicated to team members and staff across all levels.
It makes for easy communication of strategy. By defining all the elements of the VMOST framework in clear terms, an organization can develop its strategy.
It provides a sense of direction. A well-defined VMOST framework makes it easy to rally staff efforts in a particular direction. It becomes easier to achieve collective goals and meet targets.
It Creates a Unity of Purpose. A great VMOST framework can get your team members on the same page. This way, they can work with one mind towards achieving any set objective.
Disadvantages
No Guarantee of Successful Implementation. There's no guarantee that a VMOST framework will be well understood and put to use in its intended form.
It is difficult to make all the necessary considerations in its formulation. It is difficult to consider all factors and persons in creating the VMOST framework. If key resources and operations are not captured in it, it may become a problem.
The danger of creating over expectations. If your company has lofty ambitions without having the resources to achieve them, it'll not be easy to stay true to its VMOST framework. This may create undue pressure on workers and cause them discomfort.
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(Alumni of McKinsey, BCG, LBS, MIT, and Executive Office of the President)
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