A vision statement is an aspirational description of what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term future. A vision statement is not limited to business organizations and may also be used by non-profit or governmental entities.
Definition and structure
A vision statement is a company's road map, indicating what the company wants to become by setting a defined direction for the company's growth. Vision statements undergo minimal revisions during the life of a business, unlike operational goals which may be updated from year-to-year. Vision statements can range in length from short sentences to multiple pages. Vision statements are also formally written and referenced in company documents rather than, for example, general principles informally articulated by senior management. Simply speaking, vision is an organization's self centered, egoistic, selfish pleasure seekinggoal, that directly attracts and motivates its employees: what a company "intakes", "inhales", "breathes in;" what catalyzes a company's actions. That's why vision is first of all important for the company itself and its internal decision-making, but not for customers - because it gives direction and energy to employees of the company rather than to customers. On the contrary, "mission" is altruistic - reflecting a company's customer-oriented products or services. Vision should be given primacy over mission because implementation of the mission depends on the catalyst provided by the vision. A consensus does not exist on the characteristics of a "good" or "bad" vision statement. Commonly cited traits include:
concise: able to be easily remembered and repeated
Motivate existing employees and attract potential employees by clearly categorizing the company's goals and attracting like-minded individuals
Focus company efforts and facilitate the creation of core competencies by directing the company to only focus on strategic opportunities that advance the company's vision
Help companies differentiate from competitors. For example, profit is a common business goal, and vision statements typically describe how a company will become profitable rather than list profit directly as the long-term vision
Relevance
While a consensus does not exist on the value of mission and vision statements, literature supporting the relevance of these documents to companies outweighs those opposed to them. This may be due to, among other reasons, the positive value of the tools in communicating to internal and external stakeholders or retrospective attempts to legitimize the use of these tools.
Challenges
Creating and implementing vision statements presents challenges to organizations. They can be challenging to write because they must balance being forward-looking and describing an ideal state without becoming so idealistic that the vision is unattainable. Vision statements can be an employee dissatisfier when staff feel the company's vision is filled with business buzzwords unrelated to the company's services or when the vision does not match day-to-day company policy; for example, a vision statement that includes root causeproblem solving while managers are rewarded for fixing problems quickly rather than resolving systemic issues. A vision statement may need to be paired with company initiatives to communicate and reinforce the vision, ensure processes align with the vision, and empower and incentivize employees to take actions that support the company vision.
