I have a vision…
A couple of days ago I came across this vision from iStone. And it’s amazing how quickly I turned off as soon as I saw the word vision.
The vision of iStone is to become the customers’ obvious partner concerning everything that involves their business system. We want all our customers to be highly satisfied with our products and services. In order to achieve this we offer a cooperate agreement.
My reaction - glazing of the eyes, idling of the brain - leads me to believe that one of the biggest issues with vision texts is how they are presented. Visions are sterile things and we’ve become immune to them. To catch a reader’s attention, the vision has to be rephrased and represented in a compelling way. Instead of starting a sentence with Our vision, it would be better to kick off with something like:
We want to see…
For us, the future is…
We can see a time when…
But this still won’t work if the vision isn’t…well…visionary. Wouldn’t it be nice if a vision created an amazing future picture of the world that taps into the reader’s imagination? I would read, and care about, the iStone’s vision if it said:
Imagine a world where business systems run automatically, doing all the administration tasks for you so you have time to concentrate on the work you love.
But of course, vision still need to be presented internally. To do that, you could simply start We work towards creating a world where…
Perhaps a pharma company could phrase a vision something like this:
We want to live in a world where intestinal pain is a thing of the past; where everyone has access to affordable medicine that treats intestinal illness instantly.
(Internally, this could be presented as: Our goal is to create affordable medicine that…)
I guess I have a vision: Think of a future where company vision statements are truly exciting statements of the possible future of our world.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I think lots of companies miss a trick here. I sometimes wonder if the “Vision Statement” is treated as an academic exercise - something that has to be done because we learned it at business school. But isn’t the vision part of the brand? Shouldn’t it be communicated in a way that appeals and inspires stakeholders to get involved?
I find it interesting that many of the world’s leading brands don’t have specific vision and mission statements on their websites. But even so, because their visions are integrated into their messaging, it’s easy to see what their visions are after reading just a few pages.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Very true, David. Working in one company, I was relieved to discover that they had a vision and mission but never wrote them out in full. You can see the concept and phrasing repeated in many of the companies communications, but it’s always twisted and tweaked in order to suit the medium.
I just came across this great presentation of a mission on the Southwest Airlines website.
“Did you read the Mission Statement to the left? You’ll notice that neither part says anything about flying airplanes, making a profit, or even making a return to Shareholders. These omissions were deliberate. It seems redundant to tell you that as an airline we fly aircraft, and you already know that every Company is in business to earn a profit and provide return to its financial backers. Instead, we use our Mission Statement to explain how we will accomplish these business goals.”
Now, that made me want to read it.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
That’s very nicely done. And at the same time, Southwest Airlines manages to communicate that airplanes, profits and shareholder value ARE still important.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
There are some other strong voices challenging the way visions and missions are communicated. In a series of articles about the role of government on the Internet, Gerry McGovern writes:
“Nobody cares about the vision and the mission statement. The Web is about putting a vision into action, not talking about it.”