The vision of the company is a topic raised mainly during lectures of famous visionaries and billionaires. And yet it can also help in the daily functioning of a small or even a debuting company.
What will you learn from the article?
In this text, we'll explore what exactly corporate vision is, how important it is to business strategy, and why managing with vision can be crucial to long-term success. We will also present tips on how to create an effective company vision and methods that will help to properly formulate and specify it.
The following text will help you better understand the following:
The company's vision must include a holistic viewwith: what the company wants to be in the future, what its appearance should be and determines the company's strategic position. It also sets the direction of the organization's activities by describing its planned future. It is also an expression of intentions and aspirations, but does not specify goals or methods of achieving them.
The company's vision can be understood in two ways. On the one hand, a vision - as a tool for creating a strategy, consistent with strategic documents and activities. On the other hand, a vision - as a business model that sets the direction of the organization's activities, building external and internal relations and shaping an advantage over the competition - points out Maciej Malarski in "Internal image and the vision of an enterprise".
The overall vision of the company should include the main message of the company and goals including customers, staff and stakeholders. Thanks to the vision, your company's activities will have a specific direction and meaning, which greatly facilitates the development of the company. You need to know the image of the organization's future to know what you are striving for.
You also have to remember that from a psychological point of view it is important that the company's vision inspires creative action. Antoszkiewicz in "Methods of effective management" emphasizes that "the vision should be associated with success, a positive attitude, satisfaction with the future state of affairs, be a process that opens up to new values, new perspectives, new directions, new horizons for the company's future existence. "
Company vision, goal, mission and strategy ... is it all necessary? Experts argue that it is. Without basic assumptions, it is quite difficult to go in the right direction and head out into the open.
What is the company's vision - definition
The company's vision is one of the basic concepts in the field of business. There are many authors who propose different definitions of vision, including:
- these are the far-reaching aspirations of a leader related to the future - writes R. Koch ("Strategy. How to develop and implement the most effective strategy"),
- is a model concept for the future structure of the organization - believes A. A. Stabryła ("Management in the theory and practice of the company").
- strategic can be adopted as a process of creating new values and perspectives, which sets the directions of the company's development in a long period of time and its place in the environment. - concludes G. Gierszewska ("Strategies of Enterprises in the Age of Globalization").
Three different definitions make it possible to comprehensively describe what the company's vision is.
Does your company's vision support its activities?
Check which ones PR activities will allow you to make even better use of the company's potential.
Does management with vision pay off?
What, then, should the enterprise vision consist of? How to create it well? The authors of "Strategic Thinking" indicated what should be included in a well-formulated vision of the company:
- Description of the company's competences
- Paving the way from your current position to the aspired position
- Awareness that you want to be better than the competition, so you should constantly improve and develop
- Description of the business environment and changes in society
- Characteristics of the company and its environment.
Józen Penc adds to this list: "define the business, identify opportunities to create potential surpluses in existing market areas that the company intends to continue to exploit. The needs in this area should be defined as creating a potential customer base, which the company will expand through its distinctive competences. "
Edgar Geffroy in "Clienting: the only thing that bothers is the customer" emphasizes that the vision has nothing to do with the products, as they are constantly changing and evolving. A vision is a fundamental task that may seem impossible for a company at first.
Every company should make sure that its vision is as short, simple, concise and understandable as possible, so that every consumer can remember it, and every employee can understand it and implement it in everyday activities in the company. Mission and vision, when known to the organization's employees, increase their motivation, give them a sense of meaning in their activities, and stimulate them to be creative.
Company vision - quotes
The company's vision is set in the future, as Halina Buk says in "Modern financial management. Planning and control ": "The vision is a conceptualization of the future state of the enterprise, it indicates what areas of activity and at what time the enterprise will be focused in the future."
"A well-formulated and articulated vision directs personal ambitions and creativity, creates a climate conducive to radical change, strengthens faith in the future and thus releases the energy of employees." - you can read in "The essence of development strategies in the practice of Polish enterprises."
Jens Dahlgaard has explained in detail three terms that are often confused with each other: company vision, mission and strategy. Each of these concepts is the basis for the appropriate operation of the company, without them your organization may not develop as it should. A precisely defined vision, mission and strategy allows to pave the way and direction of the company's activities.
"The vision relates to a future desired state, to the expected situation and to which the organization and its staff are committed. It sets a central direction around which management processes such as planning, directing, organizing and controlling can be coordinated. Its adoption serves to define the goals of everyday projects and activities at all organizational levels and across all departments of the organization. "
“The mission makes many statements about specific goals related to the vision. The implementation of all specific goals will ensure the achievement of the future, desired state, which is a vision. "
"The strategy establishes sequences and additional specifics of mission statements to show the set of goals that the organization commits to achieving."
Wawrzyniak in "Strategic policy of the enterprise: adds that"the company's mission is organizationally self-definition in terms of:
- what does it exist for?
- what is he striving for?
- what is to be achieved?
- whose and what needs does it satisfy?
- what is the social destiny, mission? "
What is the company vision?
Company vision it is a fundamental element of its strategy and organizational culture, acting as a compass indicating the direction of long-term development. What is the company vision? It is an aspirational statement that describes what the organization strives for and what place it wants to occupy in the future on the market, in society and in the eyes of its customers.
Writing a company vision is not that easy. The vision should be inspiring for all members of the organization, motivating them to work and strive together to achieve the set goals. At the same time, it is an important message for customers and business partners, informing about the company's values and priorities. A coherent vision is key to ensuring coherence of actions and effective change management, allowing the company not only to survive in a dynamically changing market, but also to prosper and develop, ahead of the competition. It is certainly worth paying enough attention to the company's mission and vision.
Mission, vision and strategy in the company
Enterprise vision is a concept that is often confused with other, similar concepts in the field of company management. The definitions of vision are presented above, so it is worth taking a look at the other terms. The strategy defines the goals and methods of achieving them. Therefore, it can be used to implement the company's mission and embody the vision.
Mission it is usually a positively formulated ("can do") strategic concept. It is to serve as a signpost for real actions as well as to inspire. For example, Tesla's mission is to accelerate society's transition to sustainable energy sources. Such a statement provides information to shareholders or customers, can serve as a starting point for creating an advertisement, but also guides a long-term strategy.
The company's mission is to be based on specific values. They should fall into all of the following categories:
- business - it makes no sense to formulate noble slogans if they do not translate in any way into the company's development.
- Rational - to be applied day by day, applicable in practice.
- Developmental - the most effective mission is the one that looks to the future and focuses on development.
- Useful for others - when analyzing the examples of missions formulated for brands such as IKEA or Microsoft, it can be seen that the mundane industry (furniture, computers) is most often presented in universal terms, with an indication of profit for society. This allows consumers to identify themselves more with the company than if its goal was only inward.
If a mission is not persuasive or does not stand the test of time, one of the above aspects is often missing.
What should the company's vision be?
At this stage, the company's vision may seem like an elusive concept, belonging to the sphere of dreams and aspirations. Therefore, there are a number of assumptions that it should meet. Thanks to this, it will also be practical on a down-to-earth level and will prove to be a signpost in the functioning of the company: In short, it should include goals expressed over timeand therefore formulated in a future tense. The goal may include company perception, achievements, and other factors. Some corporate goals focus on customers, others focus on employees or shareholders.
The company's vision in practice
The company's vision should look into the future for at least 5-10 years. This is why they usually operate at a certain level of generality and do not list individual annual or quarterly goals. Before it is established, it is worth knowing the goals and nature of the company. When we say "company vision", we implicitly add: vision of success. Therefore, it is worth understanding your perception of success in advance. What does it mean for a given company? How will success manifest itself? This sometimes allows you to immediately formulate the company's vision.
For example, a pencil manufacturing company's vision of success is pencils on every desk and satisfied customers. The company's vision is therefore to provide customers with everyday joy and help in work with good quality products.
How to create a company vision?
Creating a company vision is a key step that specifies the direction in which the organization should follow. To create an effective and inspiring vision, you must first of all deeply understand the values on which the company is to be built. Ask yourself questions about what is most important to you as the founder of the company, what problems you want to solve on the market, and what trace you would like to leave behind. Remember that the vision should be broad enough to allow for development and adaptation, but also specific enough to provide a clear direction of action. A well-defined vision will become a pillar that will unite both leaders and employees in pursuit of a common goal, inspiring them to act and innovate.
Methods that will help to define the company's vision
The vision of the enterprise is a topic that we have indirectly touched upon many times on the Commplace blog. It is especially important how to clarify it. One of the simpler solutions is the Osterwalder model, which shows the main components of the organization, its infrastructure, finances and the market in which it operates. It is usually compared with a traditional business plan - it is worth considering what will work better. The second option is Porter's five forces analysis – an enterprise built on the basis of these two techniques should have a clear and coherent structure. The third one is strategic benchmarking. Thanks to it, a vision of the company will be created, which has already proven itself in the market giant. A professional can also be an auxiliary method marketing audit - will show the strengths and weaknesses of the current activity. In addition, English-language sources distinguish the concept company vision statementthat is, a written vision.
Summary
Company vision examples can only inspire, but they should not be repeated because they cease to be authentic. And while the company's vision may take the form of a longer document, guidelines or even a mood board, such a "statement" takes the form of 1-2 sentences. The idea is to briefly summarize what is to be the essence of the company's functioning. They say that if you can't explain your company's vision in two sentences, there's something wrong with it. It is worth taking such a test and at least trying to describe the assumptions in such a short form. It is also a perfect starting point for composing any strategies or slogans. For example, Nike's company vision statement is "providing inspiration and innovation to all athletes." It corresponds perfectly with the classic advertising slogan: Just do it. It is worth using all of the above models to create a vision of the company that will stand the test of time. contact us - we will help you achieve it.
Worth knowing:
What is the enterprise vision?
It is the totality of how the company wants to be perceived in the future. The vision also describes the goals that the organization wants to achieve and the future direction of its activities.
What should the company's vision consist of?
A well-formulated vision of the company should include a description of the organization, setting the path it intends to follow, a conscious focus on development, a description of the environment and characteristics of the environment. The vision should also be short and concise.
What is helpful in developing a vision for the enterprise?
In order to develop a vision of the company, it is worth relying on helpful methods that have already been proven many times. The simplest of the helpful solutions is the Osterwalder model, the next one is Porter's five forces analysis. It will also be helpful to conduct a marketing audit.
How can a company's vision be defined and why is it important for the strategic direction of the company?
The company's vision is a concept that allows you to define what the company wants to achieve and what it expects from its activities. This is important not only for the company itself, but also for its strategic direction. If a company does not have a clearly defined vision, it is difficult to achieve success and attract customers. When the vision is well defined, the company has specific goals to focus on, avoiding distractions and unnecessary time and money wasted on irrelevant activities. The company's vision also allows for internal coherence and unity in the industry, which is very important if the company plans to increase its market position and achieve long-term success.
What is the difference between a company's mission and vision, and how do these two elements work together for the organization's success?
To understand the difference between a company's mission and vision, one must first consider their definitions. The mission defines what the company does and for whom it does it. Whereas the vision of the company describes the future goals and direction the organization wants to follow. These two elements are crucial to the success of the company, because the mission and vision complement each other. The mission helps to identify how the company meets the needs of its customers, and the vision sets the direction for further development and allows it to remain competitive on the market. The interaction of these two elements is crucial for the success of the organization. The company's vision should reflect its mission and help achieve business goals.