Seeing The Impact Of A Strategic Vision

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working with a client on matters concerning their “corporate vision.” It’s all a part of the brand development process outlined in our BrandCrafting blog – but the point I wanted to relate here is that this client (and many others, I assume) needed to understand the relationship between “vision” and “value” before he would move ahead with this project.

It’s not as obvious as it sounds, I think.

Creating a “corporate vision” sounds pretty loose and fluffy. Not a lot of implied value and plenty of “naval gazing” (as my dad would have called it). But to easily dismiss the visioning process is to close out real opportunity to formulate consensus among corporate management when it comes to setting a direction and a general plan for growth and development.

Personally, I opted for “vision” work like this years ago. As a cultural historian of sorts, I can see plenty of examples where things worked better when there was clarity of vision at the top. As a result, I’ve always worked with clients to help them identify their own personal version of success – and that’s the trick.

By getting clients to define where they want to be it becomes much easier to talk in concrete terms about potential stumbling blocks like budgets, deadlines and obligations for success. Arrangements are easier to make with vendors if the company has a clear idea of what kind of products it’s going to produce. Prospect lists are culled more easily once there are some rules in place that will help qualify and quantify sales leads.

But even though a clear vision can impact operations and customer relationships, its biggest impact is on the perceived value of the brand. Exactly how that value is imparted on the brand may surprise you.

Brand value improves not due to the boldness or uniqueness of the vision, but rather because everyone involved in adding value to the brand is informed and in agreement on how the brand will be successful. The lesson is simple and obvious: if everyone works together to make the brand what they agree it should be, the brand will be more successful than the alternative (of not working together).

There is another aspect of “vision” work that I enjoy. You see, when you develop a corporate vision, you have to take the time to make sure you understand how each constituency (i.e. market) will interpret and value that vision. As a result, the messages created to convey the vision (and its related values) are developed and targeted to specific markets and through specific media channels. The “promise making” part of brand equity building becomes much more precise and deliberate.

The result of all this sharing and communicating is the clarification of the “mission” so often overlooked by employees today, from the rank-and-file to the C-level executives. The corporate mission statement – once a bastion of bad grammar, convoluted buzz words and jargon – can now be distilled to one simple phrase:

“Live up to the promises we make and turn our vision of the future into a reality.”

It’s a clear and simple challenge that requires a fresh start every day. And with a healthy investment in a clear and succinct “visioning” process in place, mission statements don’t come much easier to understand than that.

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