Knowledge
Company vision: your key to growth and inspiring others
Company vision
As an entrepreneur, especially at the initial stage of the company’s development, you may not feel the need to have a verbalized and written-down company vision. You have enough strength, determination and motivation to move every day towards realizing your ambitions. Practice also shows that the beginning of a company usually comes more from spotting a business opportunity than from having a clearly defined vision of the company.
At this point it is worth realizing that as entrepreneurs we do not function in a vacuum. We have business partners, co-owners and employees. To act effectively, each of us likes to know why we should do something. Nobody likes work without sense and purpose. A clear vision of the enterprise helps in a better shared understanding of the direction in which the company is heading. It is easier to identify with the company and help in its daily development if we understand where we are heading and it is consistent with our ideas and beliefs about the future of the enterprise.
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable” Seneca once wrote.
Company vision from the perspective of owners, employees and clients
So at the level of the company’s partners, we need to know where we jointly want to take the company. What way of organizing we will adopt, what the goals of the business are, the strategy and generally the future that awaits the enterprise. At the level of the company’s partners and clients, it is good for them to understand what values the company cultivates, where it is heading in its development and what can be expected of it. In relations with employees, it is good when the vision of the company presented by its leaders is strong, and the future and goals we are to fight for together are ambitious and clear. Strong leadership, manifested by having and communicating a clear mission and vision, attracts ambitious and talented people.
We talked about why vision is so important and how to communicate it in your environment at the last meeting of entrepreneurs in Katowice.
The gathered entrepreneurs declared that the company’s mission and vision are important. At the same time admitting that in the rush of operational activity they are involved in, there is no time to formalize the company’s vision and communicate it systematically. Communicating elements of the company’s vision takes place rather organically during numerous conversations with colleagues.
They also begin to notice the need to have a mission and vision only when they start to realize that controlling results alone and an efficiently operating enterprise are not enough to build a company achieving significant market success.
Do you want to develop a vision and mission for your company and need support with it? Contact us – we have a proven methodology for creating and defining a company vision.
What a company vision is
A company vision is a certain idea about the future of the enterprise. One can say that it sets the direction in which we want to develop the enterprise. An enterprise vision may contain the following example elements:
- principles of organization
- a defined direction of business development
- a description of the company’s competencies
- charting the road from the current state to the desired one
- a definition of success
- a characterization of the company and its environment
- the role of the enterprise’s employees
- a vision of the brand or its elements
A company vision should definitely be inspiring and in a way create the future. Preferably referring to values that will trigger emotions and stimulate the imagination of clients and employees of the enterprise. At the same time it is worth making sure that the enterprise vision is not too detached from reality. It may then demotivate rather than motivate action.
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You can hear more about company vision and how to create it in #episode 1 of the podcast Droga Przedsiebiorcy (in Polish): Company Vision, the Foundation of Your Business |
An example of an enterprise vision and visionary thinking
In some cases, something that for most companies and entrepreneurs would be impossible to achieve is entirely realistic for another enterprise. For example, Elon Musk can inspire with the vision of a mission to Mars in the near future. All this to motivate action and create an environment where innovative solutions are born. In such an organization, such a far-reaching mission and company vision allow bold actions to be taken which already today form the foundation of the organization’s future, without fear of pursuing only current goals.
Company mission and vision
A company’s mission and vision are not the same thing. The vision is a direction, a point suspended in space towards which enterprises are heading. The company’s mission, on the other hand, is a kind of “transmission belt” for realizing the company’s vision. The company’s mission is a set of values expected from the enterprise by the stakeholders involved in it: owners, investors, the board, clients, business partners and employees. The company’s mission and vision are therefore complementary elements that will set the direction the enterprise’s strategy will take.
Company vision as a practical tool for business growth
When the enterprise vision is treated as lofty tales that are really only for a large company, we lose an important management tool. The enterprise vision helps us better understand what we are fighting for. It makes the actions of everyone involved more coherent. It can also help in making operational decisions. It is enough that, in case of doubt about which direction to choose for a specific solution, we ask ourselves: which actions bring us closer to realizing the company’s vision? A clear enterprise vision allows us to act with greater determination and to grow the business in a non-random direction.
How to communicate the company vision
Having a company vision and mission is one thing. But if it is to be a real tool for scaling the company, it is essential that the vision be properly communicated. In practice, in a small company, the owner conveys the company’s vision during daily interactions with the team. In particular this happens when talking about new products and services, the competition, market opportunities, or when setting new goals for the organization.
Once the enterprise vision has been formalized, it is good to place it in the internal systems employees use. It may be the company wiki, the task management system or even a cork board everyone can see. The vision should be defined as concisely as possible, so those few sentences can fit almost anywhere. We have also encountered a situation in which, after defining a clear company vision, the owner printed it on small plexiglass banners and decided to hang it on the wall in each of the offices.
It is definitely good practice to refer to the vision at all kinds of company meetings. Whether regular status meetings, summaries, or motivational conversations with employees in a group or individually. It is a process that is better not neglected, and one should not assume that since someone works in the company, they certainly know and share the vision of the company’s development. It is best to make sure regularly, referring to it for example when delegating goals to achieve, when speaking about the market position of our brand relative to the competition, when we change the business model or the way some part of the business is organized.
Just as it is worth never missing an opportunity to catch an employee doing something well and compliment them for it, it is likewise best not to miss an opportunity to repeat like a mantra the vision of the organization we are creating.
