rather than just producing “me too” products. It is no surprise, then, that visions are sometimes hailed as the ideal route to business success. As the demise of the Inca Empire shows, however, this is dangerous thinking. And, anyway, how many of these visions were in fact only formulated after the event? So, when do you need a vision, what should it look like, and what are the associated risks for an organization?
“We Don’t Need a Vision—Just Reliable Delivery!”
Sooner or later, anybody who works for a large organization will be confronted with workshops dealing with “visions,” “missions,” or “statements of intent.” However, these concepts quickly become fuzzy and blurred, and then strange things start to happen. In our opinion, a proper vision is the setting of an ambitious but nevertheless realistic goal, which serves to inspire both existing and future employees and other stakeholders. Okay, Steve Jobs’s “dent in the universe” may not have been realistic, but it was memorable, and the majority of people will have known what he meant.
Don’t Fiddle While Rome Burns!
During an international meeting of a large life sciences company, Andreas Krebs experienced firsthand how not to go about launching a vision.
Here’s some background: Some countries were experiencing severe problems with their supply of a key product because certain raw materials were not being delivered on time, and there was a high risk of a major loss of sales. Board members, along with the most important leaders from different countries, were engaged in a heated discussion on the issue when the CEO announced that they had a tight schedule and needed to move on to the next agenda item: A Vision for Technical Operations (“technical operations” being the business area responsible for production and supply). Despite raised eyebrows, the colleague from TO started with a promotional film, heavily laced with sugary slogans about wanting to be the best, then continued with a detailed PowerPoint presentation on the new TO vision. She had just managed to get to slide number three when the leader from France, unable to hold back any longer, blurted out, “Hey guys, we don’t need to be the best. A regular supply would be fine!” There was laughter all around, and some sympathy for the lady from TO charged with the thankless task of presenting a vision at the worst possible moment. And, while the whole situation may not have been quite as dramatic as Rome burning, she certainly went home that evening with a different set of priorities than she’d had when she arrived.
A business working out a vision in the midst of a crisis is a bit like a captain gathering his crew during a Force Twelve storm to extoll the attractions of a destination which they may never reach. And yet, such madness is not that uncommon. Why? “Get the vision right and the rest will take care of itself” would be the wrong conclusion to draw, even if successful businesses often have an inspiring vision of their future and their value in the world. Visions are not simply the result of a distillation process which can be hurriedly cobbled together. Knut Bleicher, economist and former head of St. Gallen Business School in Switzerland, says: “Visions cannot be created on a whiteboard—they must be allowed to develop naturally, as part of a never-ending process.”
Was Bezos really driven from the very outset to become the world leader in customer focus, as the Amazon website claims? When Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, was he really dreaming of putting a PC on everybody’s desk? Or did these visions only emerge after their first successes? How much marketing, how much image-building, how much retrospective connecting-the-dots is hidden behind these legends? We simply don’t know and can only speculate. What we do know is that, for visions to really inspire and motivate, they must provoke a positive emotional response from all involved and be plausible. They have to be “lived” every day by all levels of the company. They have to be intuitive, be consistent, and reflect the firm’s DNA; otherwise, they will just provoke cynicism and ridicule. Ideally, a vision should communicate the essence and core purpose of a business by encapsulating it in an ambitious and emotionally charged long-term objective. Employees will only buy into a vision if it both inspires them beyond their daily routine and resonates with their normal activities and day-to-day experience. Even the Incas, with their vision of “good order,” could not just rely on divine guidance, but needed to highlight their successes to win credibility for their vision with neighboring tribes.
Contrary to many assertions, you cannot simply derive objectives, strategies, and values from a vision. It is a bit like a revolving spiral in which norms, values, rules, routine practice, specific business objectives, and an overarching vision all intertwine. By using the slogan “The Best or Nothing,” Mercedes-Benz fuses an appreciation of quality with a pride in its business. Even today, not without reason, Daimler employees in the Schwabia area of southwestern Germany are proud to say that they are part of the “Daimler family.” The fact that Mercedes-Benz can continue the vision of the company’s founders and incorporate it into advertising campaigns points to a well-anchored long-term objective with which workers can easily identify. The words “The Best or Nothing” are carved into the ceiling of Herr Daimler’s former garden pavilion, which can be seen in the Gottlieb Daimler Museum in Stuttgart. Such visions, deeply rooted in the DNA of a business, serve to boost morale, give a sense of purpose, and help to see everyone through difficult times. But what if you don’t have a legendary slogan coined by a business founder to refer to when you are searching for a vision? In the next section, we share an anecdote from the world of business.
Inspiring visions are grounded in the reality of daily business practice.
On Eagles Flying through Circus Tents
If visions are to engage people emotionally, they should not be imposed from the top along the lines of “Vision X will come into force on January 1, 20XX!” Psychologically and practically, that simply won’t work. Instead, many organizations go back to the basic educational principle of actively involving those who are going to be most affected. Fundamentally, for an organization looking to build a solid basis for a vision, it is good practice to involve as many employees as possible in the process. In many companies, this leads to a veritable flood of meetings and workshops at all levels and, unfortunately, the outcome is often the dreaded lowest common denominator: It does no real harm to anyone but, as a consequence, doesn’t get anyone particularly excited either. So far, so ineffectual. But we’re afraid it gets worse…
The Wonderful World of Workshops
A large company adopted the following vision: being ranked in the top ten in its sector within fifteen years. In addition to standard workshops on long-term goals and strategy, “vision workshops” were organized at different levels (department, region, country) to allow each unit to redefine itself in the context of this Vision 2025. One of the originators of the vision, a consultant in the team running the workshops, was particularly keen on using an “ice breaker” exercise involving metaphors, and there was a special moment at the beginning of each workshop when every participant was asked to write down how how they would describe themselves. No limits on people’s imagination were set, creativity was encouraged, and comparisons were explicitly invited with the world at large, be they animal, vegetable, or mineral. Each participant had to write down on a card how they perceived themselves in their particular area of the business, and the following results were the most popular: ringmaster, court jester, mermaid, fortune teller, queen bee (surrounded by useless drones), condor, large eagle, little eagle, supertanker, speedboat, bull in a china shop, Pied Piper of Hamelin, four-star general, private (who only takes orders), interior minister, foreign minister, magician, etc.
Alarm bells should have started ringing once the drones and bulls in china shops cropped up. But, as you may have experienced yourself, when this type of exercise gathers momentum, there is often a very fine dividing line between the inspired and the absurd, and no one really wants
