Last week we created your business’ Mission Statement describing “Why” your entity exists!
This week it is time to take a step forward and imagine the big-picture “Vision” of “What” the entity will be in 3, 5 or 10 years time. The vision needs to be descriptive and provide clarity of focus, setting priorities and the direction of the entity in a compelling statement for all employees.
This is the creative, yet serious piece of the strategic process, and it is usually best undertaken as a brainstorming exercise. Don’t worry about the practicalities of “how” to achieve your vision at this stage. Just let your mind imagine “what” your business can be. The importance of this stage is not only creating the final version Vision Statement itself, but also the process of building the vision with your team.
Try starting the brainstorming process with the phrase “We will…” Consider such things as what do you want to be in terms of the market segments you operate in, your geographic reach, sales projections, headcount size, financial position, what problem you want to solve or what success will look like. Focus on things that really strike a cord with you and put them in a ‘wish list’. It will take many drafts before a final concise version of your Vision Statement is crafted from this wish-list. Keep it simple, and limit the final version to a single sentence or a few concise paragraphs.
A couple of company Vision Statements follow as examples:-
“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” – Amazon
“Become number one or two in every market we serve and revolutionize this company to have the strengths of a big company combined with the leanness and agility of a small company.” – General Electric GE
Use this week to develop, review or modify your Vision Statement to ensure you are working towards your medium to long term vision and building a sound foundation for business success.
