| Course | MGT 570 Advanced Strategic Management |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | MBA strategic purpose paper |
| Length | About 1,087 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Master of Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGT 570 Module 1
More Than Renting Sign Space: Defining Purpose and Mission for a Regional Outdoor Advertising Company
Student Name
Master of Business Administration, Aspen University
MGT 570: Advanced Strategic Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
More Than Renting Sign Space: Defining Purpose and Mission for a Regional Outdoor Advertising Company
Natural State Outdoor, a composite family-owned company based in Little Rock, Arkansas, owns and leases 1,400 billboard faces along highways and city streets in Arkansas, Oklahoma and southern Missouri. It earns about $58 million a year renting space to car dealers, personal injury lawyers, restaurants, hospitals, casinos and national brands. Two national outdoor companies have bought rivals in its markets, and digital boards, which can rotate several advertisers on one face, are changing the economics of the industry. The company's mission, written fifteen years ago, reads: "To provide quality outdoor advertising space at competitive rates." The new president, the founder's daughter, believes the statement no longer guides anything. This paper rewrites it.
Core Ideology and Envisioned Future
Collins and Porras (1996) argued that companies that endure distinguish between what should never change and what should change. Core ideology, consisting of the values a company will not trade away and the reason it exists beyond profit, stays constant. The envisioned future, a bold long-term goal and a vivid description of achieving it, guides change. Strategies, practices and goals should change as conditions do; core ideology should not. The current mission confuses the two: "competitive rates" is a tactic, not a purpose.
Do Missions Matter?
Bart et al. (2001) surveyed managers at large firms and modeled how mission statements affect performance. Missions did not act directly on financial results. They worked through employees: mission content and how far the company had brought its systems into line with the mission influenced employees' behavior and their satisfaction with the mission, which in turn related to financial performance. The process of developing the mission, including involvement, also mattered. A statement written by the owners alone and never used would have little effect, however well worded.
The Economics of Purpose
Economists have also asked why firms adopt a purpose beyond profit (Henderson & Van den Steen, 2015). A credible purpose allows a firm to attract employees who care about it and to motivate them at lower cost, because doing purposeful work is itself rewarding; it can also strengthen reputation. The benefit depends on credibility: a purpose contradicted by decisions destroys the value it was meant to create.
Why the Old Statement Failed
The fifteen-year-old mission had three weaknesses. It described a product, advertising space, rather than a reason for existing. It gave no guidance when choices conflicted, for example between a large national contract and many small local ones. And it had never been used: none of the managers interviewed could recite it, and it appeared nowhere except the company's website footer. Bart, Bontis and Taggar's findings explain why such a statement has no effect on performance: it touches neither employees' behavior nor the systems that shape it.
The Industry Pressure Behind the Question
The question of purpose is not academic. As national companies consolidate, they compete on price and sell large packages across many markets, which favors national advertisers. A regional company that tries to match them on those terms will lose. A purpose rooted in local businesses and communities points to a different basis for competing, one that national firms find harder to copy because it depends on relationships in each town.
Drafting the New Statement
The president held four workshops with sales staff, sign crews and office staff. Sales staff said the work they enjoyed most was helping small businesses, a new restaurant or a family-owned plumber, get noticed by people driving past every day. Crews took pride in boards that announced local events and missing-person alerts.
| Element | Old statement | New statement |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | None stated | Help local businesses and communities be seen by the people around them |
| Core values | None stated | Honest pricing; safe crews; local first; good neighbors on the roadside |
| Mission | Quality advertising space at competitive rates | Give every business in our markets, large or small, an affordable way to reach the people who drive past |
| Envisioned future | None | By 2032, the first call for any local business in our three states that wants to be seen |
How Employees Shaped It
Bart, Bontis and Taggar found that the process of developing a mission affects its influence. The four workshops gave sales staff and crews a voice, and several phrases in the final statement came directly from them, including "the people who drive past." A crew lead suggested "good neighbors on the roadside" after describing how residents thanked his team for removing a damaged board quickly after a storm.
Testing the Purpose Against Decisions
Three pending decisions show whether the purpose guides behavior. First, a national casino chain has offered a three-year contract for 120 of the best highway faces, crowding out dozens of local advertisers; the purpose argues for a smaller contract that leaves space for local businesses. Second, converting faces to digital allows small businesses to buy affordable short slots, which fits the mission directly. Third, a community message program donating unsold digital time to nonprofits fits the core values and costs little.
What the Purpose Rules Out
A purpose that rules nothing out guides nothing. This one rules out several things the company has considered: selling the most visible highway faces exclusively to a single national advertiser for long terms, raising rates on small businesses to match national price levels and accepting advertising that conflicts with the core value of being a good neighbor, such as ads the company would not want beside a school. Each exclusion has a cost, which is how the leadership team will know the purpose is real.
A Bold Goal With a Date
Collins and Porras recommend pairing an enduring purpose with a bold goal that takes ten to thirty years. Natural State's goal, to be the first call for any local business in its three states that wants to be seen, is ambitious for a company that now serves mostly larger advertisers. It can be measured by the share of revenue from businesses with fewer than fifty employees, now about 22%, which the leadership team aims to raise to half by 2032.
Using the Statement
The purpose will appear in hiring interviews, in the annual plan and in quarterly reviews, where leaders will ask which decisions it shaped.
Conclusion
Collins and Porras's framework separates the company's enduring purpose from its changing goals, Bart, Bontis and Taggar show that missions work through employees and Henderson and Van den Steen explain why purpose must be credible. The new statement passes the test of guiding real decisions.
References
Bart, C. K., Bontis, N., & Taggar, S. (2001). A model of the impact of mission statements on firm performance. Management Decision, 39(1), 19-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005404
Collins, J. C., & Porras, J. I. (1996). Building your company's vision. Harvard Business Review, 74(5), 65-77.
Henderson, R., & Van den Steen, E. (2015). Why do firms have "purpose"? The firm's role as a carrier of identity and reputation. American Economic Review, 105(5), 326-330. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20151072
MGT 570 Module 1 instructions, in plain terms
MGT 570 opens with purpose: what an organization exists to do, what it values and where it is going, and whether those statements actually guide decisions. A first-module paper here often examines and rewrites one organization's mission using strategy research. Your classroom's Module 1 prompt governs; this example works with one advertising company. Describe the organization and its current statement, and how it is used today. Explain research on purpose, mission and vision, including whether they affect performance. Draft a revised statement that separates enduring purpose from goals. Compare the old and new versions. Test the new statement against real decisions to show whether it guides behavior.
Inside the MGT 570 Module 1 example
The paper opens with Natural State Outdoor, a family company with $58 million in revenue that rents billboard space to local businesses and national brands. Its mission reads: "To provide quality outdoor advertising space at competitive rates." Collins and Porras's Harvard Business Review article distinguishes core values and core purpose, which endure, from an envisioned future with a bold goal. Bart, Bontis and Taggar's Management Decision study linked mission content and process to employee behavior and satisfaction, and through them to financial results. Henderson and Van den Steen's American Economic Review article argued that purpose helps firms attract employees who value it. A table compares statements; the new purpose is helping local businesses be seen by their communities. The test shows it would favor digital boards for small advertisers and a community message program over a national contract that crowds out local clients.
Reading the MGT 570 Module 1 grading rubric
A purpose statement is worth writing only if it changes choices, so this kind of paper is weighed on three things: research that keeps lasting purpose apart from shifting goals, a draft concrete enough to steer decisions and a test against choices the company actually faces. This example uses Collins and Porras's framework to separate core ideology from envisioned future. Bart, Bontis and Taggar's research explains why the process of creating the statement matters as much as its words. Henderson and Van den Steen supply an economic rationale for purpose. The decision test turns the statement from words on a wall into a strategic tool.
Common MGT 570 Module 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Mission papers often produce polished statements that could belong to any company. Make the purpose specific enough that it would change a real decision. Another weakness is mixing enduring purpose with short-term goals; separate them. Use research on whether missions affect performance, and on how they should be developed. Involve employees in the process. Test the statement against actual decisions the organization faces. Finally, explain how the statement will be used, in hiring, planning and reviews, so it does not become decoration. Say what the purpose rules out.
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 Aspen University 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.
More MGT 570 and Master of Business Administration sample papers
- MGT 570 Module 2: The External Environment and Uncertainty
- MGT 570 Module 3: Internal Resources and Capabilities
- MGT 570 Module 4: Business-Level Strategy
- MGT 570 Module 5: Corporate-Level Strategy
- MGT 570 Module 6: Information Technology and Digital Strategy
- MGT 570 Module 7: Aligning the Organization With a Balanced Scorecard
- MGT 570 Module 8: A Comprehensive Strategic Plan
- MGT 646 Module 8: Monitoring and Launch Readiness
- MGT 647 Module 6: Scaling Agile
- MGT 645 Module 1: Projects, Value and the Performance Domains
- MGT 530 Module 1: Leadership and Its Major Theories
MGT 570 Module 1 questions, answered
What does MGT 570 Module 1 usually ask for?
Aspen's MGT 570 begins with defining an organization's purpose, so an MBA paper examining and revising a mission statement with research is typical. Read your classroom prompt.
What is core ideology?
Collins and Porras's term for an organization's enduring core values and core purpose, which stay constant while strategies change.
Do mission statements affect performance?
Bart, Bontis and Taggar found mission statements influence performance indirectly, through their effect on employee behavior and commitment.
Where can I find a free MGT 570 Module 1 sample paper?
The example above rewrites an outdoor advertising company's purpose and mission and tests the new statement against three real decisions.
Why should a firm have a purpose beyond profit?
Henderson and Van den Steen argue that a credible purpose can attract and motivate employees who share it, supporting performance.