To infinity and beyond

A lot of buzzwords get thrown around in business today. Some of them are productive, some of them are trendy, and some are confusing. A great example of this is when companies talk about their vision, mission, and strategy. Let’s take a look at each of the three: what they are, how they are different and probably most importantly, how they all fit together.

Company Vision

It tells us the company’s purpose by focusing on the future and what the organization exists to achieve. The vision statement is the company’s desired future position for the business. Some industry examples are:

• Amazon – “To be the world’s most customer-centric company”
• IKEA – “To create a better everyday life for the many people”
• Apple – “To challenge the status quo. To think differently”

What’s clear from these vision statements is the company’s intention, aspirations, and reason for existing, in other words the WHY. In Simon Sinek’s acclaimed book “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”, he shows that leaders of organisations, big and small, all started with the WHY. They realised that people won’t truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it.

‘Why bother with a vision? We’re doing just fine without one’.

For the business owner, MD or CEO it’s the vision statement that provides the destination for the journey, and without a destination, how can you plan the route? At Pro-development, we have been working with employee engagement and supporting business for nearly 10 years. Our experience shows that a compelling vision statement can be a powerful tool to help your employees feel engaged. It gives them a goal that everyone can work together to achieve and help them see how their own work makes a difference.

Tips for writing your Vision Statement

• They should be short – ideally two sentences so that it is punchy and memorable.
• Make them specific to your company and describe a unique outcome that only you can provide.
• Keep it simple enough for people both inside and outside your company to understand.
• It should be ambitious enough to be exciting but not too ambitious that it seems unachievable.
• It needs to be in line with the company values that you want your people to demonstrate at work.

Company Mission

The Mission Statement is how the company works toward the vision. Sinek’s “Start with Why” describes what is called the ‘Golden Circle’.  Imagine a dartboard where the bull’s eye represents the ‘WHY’. The next circle, as on a dartboard, represents the HOW. At IKEA this how or mission statement defines the process they take to reach the vision. For example, the vision (the WHY) is “To create a better everyday life for the many people.” Their mission statement (the HOW) is ‘to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them’.

You will see that the mission is more specific and relates directly to the company’s products and services. It is a long-term aspiration, but not so lasting as its vision. Even though the company’s vision remains unaffected by environmental changes, the mission statement could change overnight, or it could also serve a company for many years and slowly evolve

In the early 1980s, at Apple, Steve Jobs made that overnight turn. With the vision to empower every individual to challenge the status quo through the use of the personal computer, Apple pivoted. They abandoned their new version of the Apple computer and invested in the new “graphical user interface technology”. The rest is history.

Tips for writing your Mission Statement

• Describe the company goals making sure they are aligned to the vision
• Include measurable outcomes
• Like the vision, it should also be short and punchy and aligned to the company values
• Keep it simple
• Don’t make it too limiting
• You shouldwrite a mission statement if you want to add clarity to your company goals and you want to get your employees, investors, and customers to understand what your organisation is all about.

Strategy

Creating a company strategy is the final step in this process. Defining the vision and mission are critical before starting on strategic elements. After all, what is the strategy trying to achieve if not the company mission? And what is the mission if not the essential parts of the vision?

The strategy should include short- and long-term goals and should explain how those goals will be achieved. It is focused on present actions and outcomes needed to move closer to achieving the mission. Company strategies evolve and are updated over time to adjust for current factors such as local economic conditions and company needs.

Writing Strategic Objectives is probably the most fun and exciting part of creating your strategic plan and breathing life into your vision

Tips for writing your Company Strategic Objectives

• Don’t be afraid to write many different versions
• Involve your employees as early as possible.
• Don’t sit in a room and try to do things yourself.
• Revisit frequently and communicate results to employees
• Discuss the objectives during staff reviews and one-to-ones

Are you thinking about how to get started with pulling together your vision and mission to help support your strategy?

At Pro-development we partner with you on every aspect of your business strategy as your trusted advisors supporting the growth of your business. When your vision, mission or values are unclear or need a refresh we can support you and your leadership team to develop or review and embed them. We work as trusted advisors to develop a people plan that creates the right culture, values and behaviours and supports your talent and succession to reduce risk, protect the business and help you grow. We offer a range of services, consultancy and support that is flexible, can be phased and is relevant to your business and where you are right now with your growth plans.

Here’s what Torque Law had to say about the work we did with them a couple of months ago …..

“Working with Tracey has been extremely positive from start to finish.  Having known Tracey for a number of years I was confident that we would work well together, but in fact the synergy was far greater than expected.  Tracey had invested time before our sessions to prepare and her instinctiveness on when to challenge and push us was brilliant.  The programme clearly showed that there is huge further potential for the business and the team.  This could feel overwhelming, but Tracey’s style meant that we have the confidence to tackle it with far clearer view of our future direction, knowledge of our team’s amazing skill set and practical tools and checkpoints to plan and manage our growth.  The programme has provided the catalyst for us to more clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each team member, provide a clear focus on priorities for growth and the foundations for our values and mission based marketing communications.

I valued most the level of honesty, respect and trust – and the fact that we know that the door is open for more work, or even just a bit of a steer or a sense check as we put our plans into action. The Pro-Development team are great, brilliant at what they do.”

If you’re interested in finding out more about this or our work with employee engagement, then contact us on 01904 628838 or email us info@1245881.eu11.myftpupload.com.