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developing a vision
A vision is not wall decoration for the mission statement. It is a compass with consequences — or it is nothing at all.
shaping, not reacting
the starting point“Vision” is among the most overworked words in business language. Every company has one, hardly any can recite it, and very few feel in their day-to-day work that it exists.
Usually it sits in a presentation, sounds like everything and nothing — “We want to be the best, with passion, for our customers” — and inspires one thing above all: well-groomed boredom. The Stanford researchers Jim Collins and Jerry Porras put it plainly in “Building Your Company's Vision”: the typical vision is fuzzy and dull. After six years of research into enduringly successful companies they arrived at a sentence that reads like a warning: without a vision, organisations cannot shape their future — they can only react to it.
Reacting instead of shaping. That is exactly the difference between brands that define their era and those driven by it. The good news: a workable vision does not fall from the sky. It can be worked out — in four steps.
the core first
step one: reflectBefore anyone talks about the future, an honest look at the here and now pays off. Where do you really stand? Which challenges and opportunities define your position? And above all: what is the hard core that should remain, however much everything else changes?
Collins and Porras call this core the core ideology — the founding values and reason for being, the “what for” behind everything you do. It is the part that never changes while strategies and tactics adapt endlessly. Their point that this is not word-smithing matters: the job is not to craft a pretty sentence but to expose the values you genuinely feel bound by. Simon Sinek meant nothing else with “Start With Why”.
A vision that does not know what it wants to preserve cannot meaningfully say where it wants to go. The core first, then the direction.
This reflection is uncomfortable because it has to be honest. But it is the foundation. A vision not standing on real values is a house of cards with good marketing.
the big hairy goal
step two: think biggerThe second component of the framework is the envisioned future: a bold, tangible goal that stretches and challenges. Where the core ideology works in the background, this goal stands in the spotlight and directs attention to a concrete point on the horizon.
Collins and Porras coined a term for it that deliberately sounds muscular: the BHAG — big hairy audacious goal. Not a cautious quarterly target but a summit like the Mount Everest of your own industry. The classic example is John F. Kennedy's declaration that America would land a person on the moon before the decade was out. Or Henry Ford's promise to democratise the automobile.
The test for it is refreshingly simple. Collins and Porras do not ask: is this realistic? They ask: does it get our blood going? A good BHAG is so compelling that it keeps driving the organisation long after the leaders who set it have gone. The rule here is not to limit but to unfold.
putting it into words
step three: with warmthA vision nobody understands or nobody feels is worthless. So the third step needs both: clarity and emotion. The big goal has to fit into a sentence that gives direction, is comprehensible and carries emotional charge — not a dry strategy paper but something that makes people want the future.
Collins and Porras call this the vivid description: you have to paint the goal so graphically that people can see it in front of them. Kennedy did not say “We will improve our spaceflight capabilities”. He said: a person on the moon, and safely back. Images beat abstractions.
The standard behind it: this is not about polishing phrases. The same ideals can be expressed a thousand ways — just as the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address and “I Have a Dream” carry the same values in entirely different words. What counts is not the pleasing sound but the truth behind it.
from thinking to doing
step four: and takeawayThe finest vision stays a sheet of paper if the execution is missing. The last step is the unromantic one: concrete measures, measurable milestones, a route that makes progress visible. The big goal gets broken into stages without losing its force.
And here is where most people fail — not at the dreaming but at the staying power. A vision gives direction, motivation and the strength to keep going through difficult phases. But it needs a corrective: someone who exposes blind spots, who grounds the ambition without talking it down, who helps distinguish between bold and detached from reality.
Visions need not only dreams but resistance — someone who asks whether the big goal is also the right one.
That is what we mean by sparring: not saying yes but challenging. We bring the vision to the point, turn the feeling into a direction and the direction into a strategy that is ambitious and workable at once. Because a brand that only reacts loses — and one that shapes needs more than enthusiasm. It needs a clear core, a bold goal, a vivid picture and the nerve to start. The future is not waiting to be found. It wants to be made.
Sources
- 01Collins, J. & Porras, J. I. (1996): “Building Your Company's Vision”, Harvard Business Review, September–October 1996.
- 02Collins, J. & Porras, J. I. (1994/2002): “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies”, HarperBusiness.
- 03Collins & Porras: the framework of core ideology (core values and purpose) and envisioned future (bold goal plus vivid description).
- 04Collins & Porras: the BHAG concept (big hairy audacious goal); examples being the JFK moon landing and Henry Ford's “democratize the automobile”.
- 05JimCollins.com: “Vision Framework” — a working guide, explicitly not an exercise in word-smithing.
- 06Sinek, S. (2009): “Start With Why” — purpose as the existential why behind organisational action.
- 07Kouzes, J. & Posner, B.: “To Lead, Create a Shared Vision” — collectively held visions as a leadership task.
who challenges you?
Sparring does not mean saying yes. We bring your vision to the point and test whether the big goal is also the right one.
