Why most vision statements suck – and how to make one that doesn’t.

There aren’t many things more vapid than “strategy” out there in the corporate world.

But this is one of them.

Vision.

The idea of the “vision statement” actually makes a lot of sense on paper. You spell out some fabulous future state you’re trying to achieve, then use it to give everyone a sense of purpose, drive, and direction.

Lovely.

However for this to work, such a statement needs three characteristics:

• It needs to be motivating
• It needs to be specific
• It needs to be explicitly linked to strategy

The vast majority of vision statements are none of these things – and that’s why they end up ridiculed and ignored by rank-and-file employees.

Generally speaking you can recognise three distinct buckets of crap vision statements. These are:

1. The greedy ones. This is where you basically just set out a commercial target. Stuff like “to be number 1 by 2030”, or “be the global leader in our category”, that kind of thing. On the plus side these are at least relevant. But they’re not motivating or ownable. So they’re pretty pointless.

1. The wishful ones. This is when you state “what you’d like to be”. Essentially self-flattery. “To craft timeless products that define elegance for generations to come”. Or “to empower people to take control of their financial future with confidence”. These are proxies for “let’s do a good job”, which is all very nice, but aside from being pretty redundant, they just have no specific substance.

1. The do-gooder ones. Finally we have the grandiose ambitions to change the world. “We’re in business to save our planet” and the like. While these may well be at least somewhat motivating, they are generally non-specific, and moreover completely detached from the specifics of the business, rendering them faintly ridiculous.

And of course none of these are connected to the company’s specific strategy – which surely should be the point no? We are trying to move things in a particular direction which aligns with our strategy bet.

So yeah, no wonder people take the piss.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The reason you get these vapid vision statements isn’t because the concept is wrong, but because the way businesses create them is wrong.

There is a way of doing it that will generate killer vision statements – but it’s a bit counter-intuitive. (Would you expect anything less?).

First, here’s the normal (dumb) way people do it.

Step 1 – Decided what you want to happen (the vision)
Step 2 – Try to figure out how you’re going to do it (basically the strategy)

This is stupid, for a couple of reasons.

First, most people aren’t imaginative enough to come up with an intriguing vision out of thin air. That’s why you get such dull stuff as “being number one” or “being the widget of choice” (people in vision mode love that term, “of choice”).

And second, it’s very difficult to create a strategy for the business you have that will get you there. Good strategy emerges from the specific context your company finds itself in. And because these vision statements tend to be divorced from that context, it’s almost impossible to make a link.

But now here’s a smart way to do it.

(I’m actually quite proud of this)

Step 1 – Generate a commercial strategy built around unique value. Don’t worry about “vision” at all, just think about how you can sell more stuff by putting new value into the market.

Step 2 – Take that unique value and multiply it. Imagine what would happen if you were fabulously successful, and you did that thing for thousands, or even millions of customers. What would the net effect be on a social or industry level?

Step 3 – Make this net effect of success your vision. Whatever it is will be big, and highly connected to your strategic offer, so pursuing it will actually accelerate your commercial success.

With this technique you pull your vision “up and out” of your strategy, and then everything just works.

This is why IKEA’s nonsense sounding vision  – “to create a better everyday life for the many people” – actually makes sense, because it is pulled directly from flat pack.

And Walmart’s simple one – “to save people money so they can live better” – also focuses the mind on their intense cost-cutting strategy.

And even Patagonia’s incredibly vapid-seeming one – “we’re in business to save our home planet” – actually in their very specific case does make sense, because of its uniquely high relevance to their wilderness preservation focus.

This works for small businesses too.

I don’t have a big team so I’ve never really bothered to write down a vision statement, but if I did it would be something along the lines of “to create a flood of new value and growth through the democratisation of strategy”. Obviously strategy (the way I see it) is about value creation, and most business actually aren’t creating any meaningful new value at all. However, if I was to be successful in my endeavours, and every business took this seriously, then this would change and you’d see seismic economic effects.

Will this actually happen?

Probably not, but that’s not the point of the vision statement.

The point is to give you an exciting game to play, while simultaneously keeping you strategically focused.

So, the bottom line here is that you don’t decide your vision.

Your business does.

The realities of the market path it needs to take determine the direction. And then the vision is just like the ultimate destination on that path.

This idea was actually developed live and in-person on a call with members of my Strategy Shortcut System community – and gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of practical work we’re doing in there.