| Course | LEAD 4063 Strategic Planning and Implementation |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Mission, vision and values review |
| Length | 1,220 words, about 4 pages plus title and reference pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | American College of Education |
| Program | B.S. in Business Administration and Leadership |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for LEAD 4063 Module 1
Best Service at the Best Price Is Not a Mission: Rewriting the Direction Statements of a Tulsa HVAC Company
Student Name
American College of Education
LEAD4063: Strategic Planning and Implementation
Module 1 Assignment
Instructor Name
January 4, 2027
Introduction
As operations manager, I help run a family-owned heating, air conditioning and plumbing company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a composite firm described here as Redbud Comfort Services. The company was founded in 1979, employs 68 people, 34 of them field technicians and installers, and earned about $11.2 million in revenue last year. Its owner, the founder's daughter, is 63 and has received two purchase offers from investor-backed companies that are buying up local contractors. Before deciding whether to sell, grow or hand the business to the next generation, she asked for a five-year strategic plan. This paper, the first step, reviews the company's mission, vision and values and proposes replacements.
The Current Statements
The company's mission statement, printed on the back of every invoice since 2004, reads: "To provide the best service at the best price." There is no written vision. Five values hang in the break room: quality, integrity, teamwork, customer focus and respect. I asked twelve employees, chosen across departments, to tell me the mission without looking; four could. None could name more than two of the values. When I asked the service manager how the mission had affected a decision in the past year, the answer was that it had not. The statements are not wrong, but nothing in the business depends on them.
What Direction Statements Can Do
Research gives a modest picture. Pooling twenty years of published results, Desmidt et al. (2011) saw firms with a mission statement earn slightly better financial results on average, though the size of that edge shifted with the way each study defined a mission and counted performance. An earlier study of large Canadian firms by Bart and Baetz (1998) suggested that simply having a mission statement did not set better performers apart; what mattered more was its content and whether the company's systems and behavior were aligned with it. Campbell and Yeung (1991) argued that a mission works when it links purpose, strategy, values and specific standards of behavior, and when employees personally share the values. The lesson is that statements help only when they are used to make decisions.
A Four-Part Test
Using that research, I tested each statement with four questions. Is it specific to this company, or could any contractor in the country print it? Does it say whom the company serves and what it offers them? Can it guide a real choice, such as which jobs to take or how to price them? Do employees recognize it as true of the company at its best? The current mission fails the first three questions. Best service and best price pull against each other, and in practice the company competes on response time and trust, not on being cheapest. The values pass the fourth question but fail the third, because none is defined in terms of behavior.
How the New Statements Were Drafted
Statements written by one manager would repeat the old problem, so I ran two ninety-minute sessions in October, one with technicians and installers and one with office, dispatch and sales staff. Each group answered three questions: what customers thank us for, what we refuse to do even when it would make money, and what the company should look like when today's apprentices are senior technicians. Customers, according to both groups, thank the company for showing up when promised, explaining the problem before charging and not pushing a new system when a repair will do. Both groups also named the apprenticeship program, which has trained eleven of the current technicians, as the thing they were proudest of.
Proposed Mission
The proposed mission reads: "We keep homes and small businesses in northeastern Oklahoma comfortable and safe by showing up when we say we will, fixing what can be fixed, and telling customers the truth about what they need." It names the customers and the region, which rules out large commercial new construction, a market the company has drifted into twice at a loss. It names the core promise, reliability, and a practice, repair before replacement, that sets the company apart from competitors paid on equipment sales. It can guide pricing, because it commits the company to honest recommendations rather than the lowest price.
Proposed Vision
The proposed vision, for 2031, reads: "Northeastern Oklahoma's most trusted home comfort company and the place where the region's best technicians learn the trade." It has two parts on purpose. The first describes the position the company wants with customers, measured by repeat business and reviews. The second describes its position in the labor market, which is the real constraint on growth. A vision that ignored technicians would describe a future the company cannot staff. The vision also quietly answers the ownership question: whatever form the company takes, the plan will assume it stays independent and locally run.
Proposed Values
The five old values are replaced with four, each written as a behavior. On time or we call: no customer waits without a phone call explaining why. Repair first: technicians present a repair option whenever a safe one exists, and commission plans will not punish that. Teach what you know: every senior technician mentors at least one apprentice each year. Leave it cleaner: every job site and every customer conversation ends in better shape than it began. Each value can be observed, and each can be checked in customer surveys, job records and mentoring logs.
Objections and Risks
Not everyone welcomed the draft. The sales manager worried that a repair-first value would cut replacement revenue, which supplies more than half of the company's sales. The answer is that a repair the customer trusts tends to bring the replacement job to us later, and maintenance members already replace their systems with Redbud at a high rate. A second concern came from senior technicians, who asked whether mentoring would be paid. It will be, through a monthly stipend for each active apprentice. The larger risk is that the statements become another poster. To guard against that, the owner will review them with all staff at the January company meeting, and each department will name one practice it will change because of them.
Putting the Statements to Work
The statements will matter only if they appear in decisions. The mission will be printed on invoices, but it will also be used as a screen for new service lines, which must fit residential and small business customers in the region. The values will become four of the six questions in technician interviews and part of each employee's annual review. The commission plan will be revised so technicians are not paid more for replacements than for repairs that solve the problem. And every goal in the strategic plan that follows in this course will be checked against the mission and vision before it is adopted.
Conclusion
Redbud's current mission and values are pleasant but unused. Research suggests that statements add value only when they are specific and tied to the company's systems, and a four-part test shows where the old ones fall short. The new mission, vision and values, drafted with employees, name the customers, the promise, the practices and the people the company depends on. Module 2 will test them against an analysis of the company's environment.
References
Bart, C. K., & Baetz, M. C. (1998). The relationship between mission statements and firm performance: An exploratory study. Journal of Management Studies, 35(6), 823-853. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00121
Campbell, A., & Yeung, S. (1991). Creating a sense of mission. Long Range Planning, 24(4), 10-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(91)90002-6
Desmidt, S., Prinzie, A., & Decramer, A. (2011). Looking for the value of mission statements: A meta-analysis of 20 years of research. Management Decision, 49(3), 468-483. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741111120806
The LEAD 4063 Module 1 assignment instructions
The first module of LEAD 4063 typically asks you to examine the mission, vision and values of an organization you know and judge whether they give it real direction. Expect to quote the current statements, assess them against criteria from the readings and explain what they do or fail to do in daily decisions. Most prompts then ask for revised or new statements with a rationale. Some sections want evidence about how employees or stakeholders see the statements. Show how the statements will connect to the strategic plan you build in later modules. Use one organization for the whole course, and cite research on mission and vision in APA.
How the LEAD 4063 Module 1 example is put together
An informal recall test with twelve employees begins the sample, showing that only four could state the mission. Research follows: a meta-analysis finding a small link to performance, a Canadian study pointing to content and alignment and a model linking purpose, strategy, values and behavior standards. Four test questions are set out and applied before anything is rewritten. The new statements come from two staff sessions whose answers are reported. The mission names customers, region and a repair-first promise, the vision adds a labor market goal and each value is written as an observable behavior. A closing section ties the statements to invoices, interviews, reviews and commission rules.
Reading the LEAD 4063 Module 1 rubric
Faculty marking this opening module look for honest critique backed by criteria. Credit grows when the current statements are quoted and tested rather than praised, and when research explains why direction statements matter. Revised statements should be specific to the organization, name whom it serves and be usable in real decisions. Involving stakeholders in drafting and explaining how the statements will be used in hiring, pay or planning usually lifts the grade. A clear link forward to the environmental analysis and goals of later modules shows planning maturity. Generic slogans, statements no one could disagree with and missing citations tend to lose points, and APA 7 format is checked. Answering likely objections to the new statements is a further plus.
Common LEAD 4063 Module 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Mission and vision papers look simple, but many drafts end up with new statements just as generic as the old ones. If your organization's statements are vague, you are unsure what criteria to judge them by, or your rewrite could fit any company, we can help. If you describe the organization, quote its current statements and tell us what it truly does well, alongside your prompt, our writer can prepare a review that tests the old statements and proposes new ones tied to real decisions. Businesses, nonprofits, schools and public agencies all work for this task. Mission rewrites like this one take us about two days.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official American College of Education document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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LEAD 4063 Module 1 questions, answered
What does LEAD4063 Module 1 usually ask for?
Module 1 of LEAD4063 typically has you review an organization's mission, vision and values, judge how well they guide decisions and propose stronger versions to anchor a strategic plan.
What is the difference between a mission and a vision statement?
A mission describes what the organization does now and for whom; a vision describes the position it wants to reach at a set point in the future.
Do mission statements improve company performance?
Studies find at most a modest link. The benefit seems to depend on specific content and on aligning hiring, pay and decisions with the statement, not on having one.
Where can I find a free LEAD 4063 Module 1 sample paper?
Here, in full: a Tulsa heating and plumbing firm's slogan-style mission is tested against four questions and rewritten with staff into a regional mission, a 2031 vision and four behavior-based values.
How do I write values that people actually use?
Phrase each one as something a person does, such as calling a customer before being late, so it can be observed, hired for and reviewed.