Kodak and Fuji are good examples. The first one produced camera rolls, just like the second one. But when the digital camera disrupted the market, Kodak chose to stick to camera rolls, while Fuji focused on film; all kinds of film, layered plastic film. Kodak could not pivot by lack of vision, they where short sighted and only focused on the analog camera roll. Fuji on the other hand understood that it was making film that could be used in analogue cameras, but also understood that there are many other purposes for film. The first one went out of business while the latter one still produces film.
In this example we see that Fuji had a vision, a broad view of the world and its needs over a long period of time. Kodak did not have a vision for a longer term and they gambled and lost.
Another example. Elon Musk is successful because he has a vision that one day, men will be living among the stars. To make that happen he needs to be able to travel to space, so he makes rockets. But he knows that the planet will probably not survive long enough to reach to the stars due to pollution. So in order to achieve his vision he needs to act on that as well, hence he started Tesla.
Vision
Vision is one of the most important aspects of a company. Small startups have success because their vision is still alive and clear. Big companies that produce a lot of different stuff with a lack of vision might survive, but have a big chance to fail at any market disruption because they are not able to pivot based on their vision.
Developing a vision is imperative to give a company focus. A vision is about what a company wants to achieve in four years or even longer. We should ask ourselves: "What is the purpose of the company?", "Why do we exist?" A vision is about one sentence capturing the essence of the company.
Some examples:
Nike - "Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world"
Unilever - "Make sustainable living commonplace"
Netflix - "Helping content creators around the world to find a global audience."
As we can see from these examples, the companies could pivot, change their products and still fulfill their vision. Nike could go into gyms, food and stadiums. Unilever could go into housing and farmlands. And Netflix isn't bound to the internet.
Mission
A mission is about how you are going to achieve the vision. Typical questions are: "What will we do?", "How will we do it?", "What do I need to do to reach the stars?"
A clear mission is made for a middle long term, about one to four years. It gives meaning to the vision, makes it less abstract. A mission should be revised as soon as the market is disrupted, while probably the vision will remain the same.
A mission for Nike could be: to start a company that creates composites for new soles or they could produce a movie about the origins of the Olympics.
Goals
Goals are the short term anchors on which to focus in order to achieve the said mission. Goals stretch from three months to about a year. They are clear, market focused and descriptive. Goals are something like a plan for the next quarter or year.
Cascading
This system of vision, mission and goals can be cascaded through the company from C-level to teams. A company will have a vision, mission and goals. Departments will have their own vision, mission and goals to cover the goals of the company. The same goes for teams. They will formulate their own vision, mission and goals based on the goals of the department. The further down the chain, the shorter lived the three elements are.
Just imagine a pivot of a company, this means all department and team elements must be flushed and remade in line with the new company goals.
Battleplan
In order to have your teams, departments and the whole company move in the right direction, you should formulate a goal. Mind you that this is a hard exercise and should not be taken lightly. You are going to be stuck with the vision for a long time, so spent enough time on it to get it right. Get the people involved, sketch, write, bin it and start over. Refactor the outcomes, right until it feels right, gives you meaning and energy. Writing a vision can take days or weeks. It is important to get the feeling right.
Once the vision is done, start with the mission. This is also no more then about a sentence, it describes how we are going to achieve the vision. It is important to stick to the how. Again sketch a lot, throw all away, start over and refactor until it is right.
Based on vision and mission the goals need to be created. There might be many goals, the rule of thumb is that there are about as many goals as there are departments, so every department can fulfill one goal. Do not base the goals on departments though, if there is no match, perhaps the department should be reworked and not the goal. Form the company about the vision, mission and goals, not the other way around.
Refactor
The world is constantly changing, we need to adapt to survive. The only way we can do that is to keep our eyes and ears open and pivot when we need. Pivoting is changing the course of the company to match the market demand. Pivot is what Fuji did and Kodak did not.
In order to pivot, we need to refactor or rework our mission and goals often. We need to inspect them on a regular basis and we should adapt them when we see a disruption. Managing a company, department or team is hard work, these three mentioned elements should be at the core of that work.
New world leaders
A new world leaders is someone who owns the vision, mission and goals. That leader can explain why a company is working the way it does. Why stuff needs to be done. A new world leader is always explaining why we are doing the things we do, because of the vision the leader wants to achieve. When you can explain the why as a leader, you build a successful company, department or team.
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