Vision

A vision is a short, easy-to-understand statement that describes the future you or an organization want to become a reality. On the organizational level, a vision defines aspirations for the future. It outlines the desired outcome that will serve as a beacon and motivate everyone to work towards it.

A vision statement may often be difficult to write. It is a statement of the desired future that everyone in the organization should resonate with. It is often a broad and animation statement. Vision statements are used as a guide for decision-making, planning and future resource allocation. But most importantly, vision statements are used as the basis for good strategy.

Here are three simple steps for creating a vision statement:

1. Ask this question: How do you see your customer’s future?
2. Ask this question: Twenty years from now, what would the Economist write about your organization?
3. Combine these two answers into a short but powerful Vision statement.

When answering the first question, the view of your customer’s future is important to consider. The customer could be a customer of your organization, or it could be you, or it could be your friends or family. How do you see their future? What are they happy about? What are these customers telling their friends about your organization?

The Economist question is a powerful tool to surface the vision for the organization. Let’s take Tesla’s vision as an example. “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” It is an ambitious statement that guides the company and its employees in their work and strategy. Twenty years from now, The Economist might write an article titled “Tesla, the company that accelerated the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” The vision turned into a real-life achievement.

Combining the answers to those two questions will serve as a solid foundation for your vision statement. The most important aspect is to keep it simple and easily understandable by your employees and customers.

Here are a few examples of company visions:

1. Tesla - “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
2. Google - “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
3. Amazon - “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
4. Microsoft - “To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”
5. Nike - “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If you have a body, you are an athlete.)”

These examples demonstrate how a company’s vision can be future-focused, ambitious, and inspiring. Each of these companies has a clear and concise goal outlining their aspirations for the future and how they hope to positively impact society through their products and services.