Company Vision
Vision is made up of three major pieces. The first is purpose. Purpose is like your North Star. Your purpose is your "why."
In The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek talks a lot about how important it is to have a why, a purpose, for your organization. And trust me, your purpose is not to make money. Making money is a great benefit you get out of adding some value to society. What is that value you're adding?
Disney's purpose is not theme parks. It's not movies. It's not consumer products. That's what they do. Disney's purpose is happiness. Starbucks' purpose is not a cup of coffee. Starbucks' purpose is about providing a third place, an escape for people that's not work and it's not home. It's an escape for them to go somewhere. What's your purpose as an organization?
The reason I say purpose is your North Star is because your purpose is something that guides you on your journey. It gives you direction, but you never get there. You never achieve your purpose, but it gives you direction every day. You live your purpose every day, you don't achieve it. That's your purpose.
The second part of your vision is your BHAG. BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. That's something from Jim Collins. He wrote about it in his books Built to Last and Good to Great. A big hairy audacious goal is a 10 to 30-year flag on top of the mountain. Most of us, may not be old enough to be around in 1962 to hear JFK say by the end of the decade, we're going to put a man on the moon. That's a great example of a big hairy audacious goal. What is your flag on top of the mountain? What is that seemingly impossible flag on top of the mountain that you could rally your troops around? That's a big hairy audacious goal.
As a weigh station to get there, if you're climbing that mountain, you've got your three-year plan. Your three-year plan might include things like: what are your financials three years from now? What revenue are we striving for, what gross margin, what net profit, how many customers? But it's more than that. One of the exercises that I do with some of my private clients is called the postcard from the future. Part of the vision is literally projecting yourself out and your team out three years in the future and writing a postcard back, that kind of says, hey, it's great here in the year 2023, wish you were here. And instead of talking about where you are on vacation, it's how is the company different in 2023? What does the team look like? How has our talent improved? How has our culture improved? What are our clients saying about us? What's different about our products and services? What does our brand represent here in 2023? What impact are we having on our team members, on our clients, on our vendors, on our community? What are our financial results? What does your company look like, feel like, taste like, smell like, 3 years from now?
Your organization and your team, especially your leadership team, need to not only believe in the vision, but they need to be evangelists of that vision.