Visionary Businesses Need An Effective Vision Statement

by James Canada

You are a visionary. That’s why you’re here isn’t it? No one starts or acquires their own business without first having some sort of dream of what they want it to be. And no one is successful in realizing their business vision without crafting it, distilling it down to its essence.

Now that you have your vision, you need to write it down. Simply put, a vision statement explains the purpose of your business — the value your company provides to its employees, owners, customers, and community that no other business can deliver in the same way.

The vision statement stands as a focusing lens through which all decisions and actions of the company can be viewed. It’s not a superficial slogan, nor is it a hard quantitative target. Rather it’s a descriptive yet brief statement that provides a clear description of the organization’s destination strategy, which all employees may then internalize and refer to in order to become immediate and continuous contributors toward reaching that destination.

For example, Nike’s vision statement is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world,” while Google’s is “To provide access to the world’s information in one click”.

Crafting Your Statement
To create your vision statement, you must first convene your team and ask several critical questions. For instance:

- What is the current and primary purpose for your business to exist in the marketplace?
- What are the special benefits your business can provide to employees, owners, shareholders, and the community?
- If you had to shutter your business, what would you want people to miss the most? (Look beyond mere products, services, profits, and jobs.)
- How do you want your company’s people, products and services to be perceived as providing value to others?
- How is your selling proposition — the products or services you provide — unique?

Once you’ve gathered the answers to these questions, you can create a brief vision statement by integrating the responses with the following elements:
- Define the market climate or environment of your company. This should help explain what happened in the past, current developments, and future expectations. Describe key events and explain consequences.
- Explain a major pain point or opportunity that exists beyond your company’s current capacity. Why should you pursue it as a business?
- Apply this problem or opportunity to a specialized capability within the company’s current or potential reach.
- Relate how tackling this pain point or opportunity allows the company to penetrate the market.
- Describe why addressing this problem or opportunity is appropriate to serve as the company’s essential purpose.

James H. Canada is managing partner/CEO for Alliance Technologies LLC, ITEN mentor and author of “Corporate to Entrepreneur: Strategies for Success.” Contact Jim at james.canada@alliancetechnologiesllc.com, 636-734-2337 or www.alliancetechnologiesllc.com.