are documented that allows for your desires to come about.
Once you have determined, detailed and documented your personal vision you will be far better situated to see your business vision clearly in a way which will ensure that your these two respective visions are congruent.
Your Business Vision – Starting With The End In Mind
We have all heard the statement ‘start with the end in mind’. This is the very essence of developing a vision, as it demands that we understand in detail the outcome that we are aspiring to achieve. We need to define our destination.
When setting about the task of determining your business vision it is best to start brainstorming and capture everything that comes to mind in terms of ‘what we want to be’. Pretend that you have already achieved your vision and see with clarity the specific details that make the vision and capture these details in documentation. The more specific and clear you are in this process the better.
Try answering the following questions to provide some shape and form to your vision:
What does the business look like?
What is its size (revenue, profit, staff, geography)?
What is the business known for?
How do we measure our success?
Why are we important?
What don’t we do?
What is the working culture? (how do employees feels about the business?)
What solutions do we provide to solve what problems for our customers?
What is my role? (owner’s roles?)
What do customers, employees, industry peers and the community say about the business?
The better you can answer the questions above the greater clarity you have for your business vision. By definition, your vision must be five years out or beyond and must be a stretch that represents real growth and evolution and serves all stakeholders.
In many ways, your vision of who you will become is one of your greatest assets. This is so because it defines how you identify yourself as a business; your business identity. How you see yourself will determine your conduct, your alliances and the level of game that you play as an organisation, it will contribute to your mission and will determine your values.
Once you have clarified your vision and it has becomes real, its value also becomes tangible in the sense that you can actually trade on it. For example, in recruiting the best staff, in negotiating with preferred suppliers and vendors and even in acquiring key customers a vision, which resonates, can have a positive impact that starts the relationship off on the right foot.
Clarity Brings Focus and bringing detail to your vision is the key factor behind being able to identify strategic objectives so developing a full and coloured vision is critical in ultimately developing action plans to step your way to success. You vision identifies what success means.
Vision Statements
A vision statement is just the tip of the iceberg breaching the ocean of possibility as it often represents a far greater and deeper vision than can be expressed in a condensed statement, which is typically a paragraph long. Many business owners misunderstand and underestimate the significance of a vision statement as ‘just words’ when these particular words represent the desired future and destination for the organisation in question.
A company’s vision statement should play a central role in driving the business forward from both the internal perspective of uniting and focusing those who are charged with the responsibility of delivering in the company’s name and the external perspective of boldly stating to the world at large what the ultimate objective is.
However, the true power of a vision is not so much in the wording itself, but in how much your vision truly reflects the aspirations of your organisations stakeholders (owners, employees, client’s) and how much it is embodies in your whole organisation. This means that the vision needs to be shared and owned by those who are responsible for delivering it, your employees. Share your vision statement with every new employee and ensure that it resides in a prominent place where existing employees can be reminded of it. It is one of the best ways of having staff ‘sing from the same song sheet’ in recognising that they are all working for a common cause.
Here are some examples of vision statements:
“Democratise the automobile”… Ford in the early 1900’s
“To become the world’s leading Consumer Company for automotive products and services”… Ford more recently
“A personal computer in every home running Microsoft software”… Microsoft
“To be the number one athletic company in the world”… Nike today
“Crush Adidas”… Nike in the 1960’s
It must be said that some people easily often confuse ‘Mission’ statements with a ‘Vision’ statements. For example when conducting research I founds that many websites out there claim that Nike’s vision is: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the World”, however this is clearly a ‘Mission’. Always remember that a vision statement is by definition something that you want to become, something you want to achieve, an alluring picture of a beautiful future – whereas a Mission statement is about why an organisation exists, defining its purpose (we will talk more about this soon).
When your vision becomes clear and a greater focus than your past, your future becomes more valuable than your past and great things begin to happen. Make the time to focus on your vision, create it into a detailed picture, and savour all the details. Do this and you will be rewarded a hundred fold more, than simply doing the work that your business does.
Mission
As referred to briefly above ‘Mission’ is all about explaining the ‘purpose’ for the business and defines ‘why we exist’. Unlike ‘Vision’ which is focused on the future look, shape and feel of an organisation, ‘Mission’ defines what a business is here to ‘do’ in the here and now.
In defining your company’s ‘Mission’, you should be answering the following questions:
Why does the business exist?
Who is our customer?
What are we committed to providing to our customers?
What promises are we making to customers?
What is our Unique Selling Proposition?
What wants, needs, desires, pains and problems do our products / services solve?
Mission statements are typically a paragraph long and certainly no longer than a page. They require time, thought and planning to really get to the heart of why the company exists. Most people discover that the process of developing the mission statement is as beneficial as the final statement itself. Going through the process will assist you is specifying the reason for what you are doing and clarify the motivations behind your business.
Some Tips For Developing Your Mission Statement
Involve those connected to your business. It helps to get the views of other people in seeing the strengths, weaknesses, and pitfalls you might miss. Make sure that you choose positive, supportive people who want to see you succeed.
Set aside time to develop your Mission statement. Even though the statement itself does not consist of many words, there is depth behind it, which requires exploration. It takes time to capture in words the organization’s heart and soul, which acts as a reference point to everyone, involved in the business.
Brainstorm. Throw down everything irrespective