Visa’s mission, vision, and purpose direct the business in the global payment card services industry. The company’s mission statement and vision statement set goals based on the business purpose in providing beneficial products for people to pay and be paid. Visa’s mission statement sets the business objectives in developing the company’s services. On the other hand, leadership in the international payment card service market is established as a long-term aim in Visa’s vision statement. Current operations and competitive positioning accurately reflect goals set in the company’s mission, vision, and purpose.
Purpose Statement. Visa’s purpose is “to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.” This purpose leads to core values and business goals for Visa’s mission statement and vision statement.
Visa’s Mission Statement
Visa’s mission is “to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive.” The following components form Visa’s mission statement:
- Connecting the world
- Most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network
- Enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive
Connecting the world is a primary component of Visa’s mission statement. This component is also a goal that sets the company’s business objectives. For example, the distribution strategy in Visa’s marketing mix (4P) supports worldwide coverage to satisfy this mission statement.
Visa’s mission statement also characterizes the company’s payments network as innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure. These characteristics are goals for the company’s operations and business development. For instance, a long-term strategic aim based on this corporate mission statement is to continuously improve the network security of Visa Inc.
Visa’s mission includes enabling individuals, businesses, and economies. The enabling aspect addresses the needs of major stakeholders in the company’s payment card services. As a result, this mission statement guides the specifications for Visa’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs for stakeholders.
This mission supports Visa’s purpose statement. For example, the mission’s “enabling” component agrees with the purpose’s aim of uplifting everyone, everywhere. Also, both the mission statement and the purpose statement specify the nature of the company as a payment service business.
Visa’s Vision Statement
Visa’s vision is “to be the best way to pay and be paid for everyone, everywhere.” The following components are in Visa’s vision statement:
- Best way to pay and be paid
- For everyone
- Everywhere
Visa’s vision statement includes the long-term goal of being the best. This means that leadership in the industry is part of the company’s long-term vision. Visa’s business strengths are essential to achieving this goal of leadership in the payment card services industry.
This vision states that everyone is a target customer of Visa Inc. With the goal of providing payment card services to everyone, the company develops its business organization and resources to support payment transactions of various types and sizes around the world. Visa invests in innovative processes to ensure that it can support such various transactions, based on this corporate vision statement.
The “everywhere” component of Visa’s vision statement sets the company’s international operations. With a global target market, this vision statement guides strategic objectives based on trends relevant to the international payment card market. For example, economic factors affect target customers’ use of payment cards and, thus, the company’s payment network.
This vision represents the long-term strategic implementation of Visa’s purpose statement. For example, “everyone, everywhere” are in both the vision statement and the purpose statement. Also, this vision statement focuses on payment transactions, which is also a business focus included in the company’s purpose.
Strategic Goals based on Visa’s Mission and Vision
Visa’s mission statement and vision statement define options for the company’s business strategies. For example, Visa’s generic competitive strategy and intensive growth strategies implement cost leadership and market penetration, respectively. These strategies ensure that the company maintains profitable payment card services that reach everyone, everywhere.
The excellence and industry leadership implied in Visa’s vision statement and mission statement put the company in competition with other multinational payment card service firms, such as MasterCard and American Express. Similarly, the “everyone” and “everywhere” specification in Visa’s mission and vision means that the company competes with other firms in the international market. These conditions relate to challenges in the competitive environment.
The mission, vision, and purpose affect Visa’s organizational culture (company culture). For example, the traits of the company’s work culture address the uplifting aspect of the business purpose, the enabling factor in the mission statement, and the excellence factor in the vision statement. Visa’s vision statement and mission statement influence the basis for the company’s goals and objectives in human resource management.
An Assessment of Visa’s Vision and Mission
Visa’s mission statement is specific regarding the nature of the business and the characteristics of the company’s products. This mission statement also includes a description of what the company aims to achieve in terms of the benefit of enabling stakeholders. Visa’s purpose statement is supported through the details of this mission statement, such as targeting the global market. The details of this mission are satisfactory in stating what the company does and offers to its target customers in the payment card service industry.
Visa’s vision statement is satisfactory in terms of providing long-term strategic direction for the company. For example, the company aims to lead the industry by being the best, based on this vision statement. This vision and Visa’s purpose statement both indicate the goal of being the best. The details of this vision statement are simple but specific and applicable to the long-term future of the business. However, modifying the vision statement to include a general description of a long-term strategy can improve its clarity for implementation in the company’s business operations in the global payment card services industry.
References
- Aljebrini, A., Dogruyol, K., & Ahmaro, I. Y. (2025). How strategic planning enhances ESG: Evidence from mission statements. Sustainability, 17(2), 595.
- Shy, O., & Stavins, J. (2024). Who is paying all these fees? An empirical analysis of bank account and credit card fees. Journal of Economics and Business, 129, 106157.
- Visa Inc. Fact Sheet.
- Visa Inc. Form 10-K.
- Visa Inc. Green Bond Report.