January 27, 2016 Industry Forum Blog I never truly understood how important a clearly explained vision statement is to the success of an organisation, until I recently came across two very different cases. Like many managers, I thought that vison statements were the icing on the corporate cake. A set of clever words designed by expensive, external consultants to make the company look and sound world class. A vision statement is supposed to describe the possible and desirable future states of the organisation, like this one of Harley Davidson’s. “We fulfil dreams inspired by the many roads of the world by providing remarkable motorcycles and extraordinary customer experiences.” Then I learned that the vision statement is at the pinnacle of Policy Deployment methodology. Policy Deployment, or Hoshin Kanri, is the organising framework for planning, implementing and reviewing the changes required to move an organisation towards its vision. This started to make sense to me, the vision acts like a goal for the organisation, a direction to travel in. In fact the aim of Policy Deployment is to point everyone in the organisation in the same direction and navigate them to the desired end point. And this is what I have observed, without a clearly stated vision and an organising framework even the best intentioned business can miss an opportunity. Company A A small establishment with less than 80 staff, led by “John” who has lots of passion and enthusiasm. He believes that everybody can see what they are trying to achieve and that the old vision statement is just a bunch of nice, but empty words. John doesn’t plan for longer than a year as he believes any plans he makes can be wiped out in an instant. Results show that their overall performance has been steadily improving over a number of years. So why do I think they would benefit from a revamped vision statement and supporting plans to cover a medium term period? I observed a management meeting where each department reported back on what it had been doing. Despite the very differing formats it was clear they had good intentions, worked hard and were individually proud of their achievements. However, as they asked questions of each other it became apparent that there were some overlaps in effort, some areas that had been missed and no clear priorities on which actions to take. Nowhere were there links to the budget. In this case a clearly stated vision and supporting plans would help the team to all pull in the same direction, to prioritise actions and allocate spending accordingly, resulting in even better overall performance. Company B A larger establishment of 200 staff, and a division of a multinational. The site has a beautifully crafted infographic depicting their vision, with specific performance targets covering a 3 year period. They report that all their indicators have just turned green. So what could be better? When I questioned a few different people they found it very difficult to explain what the performance measures on the graphic meant and how what they do directly affects the results. So while the end destination and yearly targets are very precisely quantified, it is harder to motivate individuals to contribute to achieving the targets. In both cases it’s about harnessing the power of every individual in the company. When people have a vision that is clearly explained and translated into co-ordinated action plans, then their efforts can be aligned to give the best result for the effort put in. So, how well do you use your vision statement?
