Written by: James Milsom, Head of Marketing
Ninety percent of organizations fail to meet their strategic targets due to poor planning.
You are only as good as your culture and strategy.
The beginnings of a successful organization, let alone strategy, are creating and communicating a vision, mission, and values.
However, it can be a daunting task if you don't know where to begin.
But, if you follow these simple tips, you'll be on your way to creating a strong company culture with an inspiring direction. And, with a Hoshin Kanri management twist involved in the shape of True North statements, you can wrap your direction into a coherent, passionate declaration.
“If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”
Steve Jobs
A vision statement is the anchorage of a strategic plan, and it describes what your organization wishes to accomplish in the long term.
The statement gives a direction for planning and executing strategic plans and highlights your organization's future look.
Vision examples
HP's vision
To create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere
Coca Cola's vision
To craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, to refresh them in body & spirit—and done in ways that create a more sustainable business and better-shared future that makes a difference in people's lives, communities, and our planet.
A good vision can propel your organization to new heights and inspire your employees to be their best. Here are some pointers on what makes a 'good' statement:
“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.”
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Creating a compelling vision need not be complicated. Here are some tips on building yours:
Inspiration can come in many forms and help shape meaningful, story-driven statements:
With a vision set, you will turn to discuss your values and objectives. While often confused with visions, the mission is very much different.
A mission statement is a statement that highlights your organization's purpose.
The statement answers the question, "why does your organization exist?" and defines and explains your organization's core values and objectives.
Mission examples
Progressive Insurance's mission statement
We seek to be an excellent, innovative, growing, and enduring business by cost-effectively and profitably reducing the human trauma and economic costs of auto accidents and other mishaps and by building a recognized, trusted, admired, business-generating brand.
Xerox's mission statement
Our strategic intent is to help people find better ways to do great work — by constantly leading in document technologies, products, and services that improve our customers' work processes and business results.
As for your mission statement, here is what a 'good' version measures up as:
Creating your mission is straightforward and starts with a "to." Measure the statement against it being:
Business values, also known as core values, are a collection of constant fundamental beliefs and directional principles that work harmoniously in succeeding your organization's objectives, shaping culture, and influencing the implementation of your strategic plan (equally as important as your business model).
These are often a combination of defined attributes but come together from how you operate and act as an organization.
Core values make it easy for you to make vital decisions, encourage teamwork, and foster collaboration between your customers, employees, and the organization.
Examples of business values
● Passionate about customers and consumers
● Freedom to succeed
● Pride in our work
● Strive to be the best
● Value for each other
And these are brought to life in many ways, including through career collateral:
Diageo's culture summarized in an effective careers video on YouTube
Finding your values can stretch from surveys to observing your business in practice, like through a Kaizen. However, here is a suggested values process:
As we have seen with Diageo, there are many ways to cement and talk to your business values. Some best practices include:
True north is an approach from Hoshin Kanri that ensures all stakeholders are aligned toward realizing your organization's strategic goals. By creating a statement that blends the vision and mission, you can create a clear, guiding direction that gives purpose to action at all the organization's levels.
A true north statement articulates your organization's purpose and guides every decision. It gives the right direction your organization should follow to achieve its strategic plans.
True north examples:
AerospaceCo
To be a global defense, aerospace, and security organization we must ensure that our strategic priorities develop a sustainable advantage, which helps our customers to take care of the thing that matters most to them.
InsurEco
To maintain our position as the market leader in insurance services, we will pursue opportunities to fortify our relationships with existing customers, ensuring our products deliver a contingency for every tomorrow.
As your organization's compass, the true north has the power to propel you to breakthrough results, and it all starts with what a "good" north statement lives up to be. This includes:
Watch how this Canadian health organization brings its True North to life.
When building out your true north, look at your current vision and mission and within your industry for examples.
Combining will initially be difficult, but it should inspire everyone toward the end goal.
Don't be afraid to draft, re-draft, and draft again.
Try this process for drafting:
The vision and mission statements are the guidelines for where you want your organization to be in the future and how it will get there.
The business values direct how all stakeholders will behave during this journey.
True North is a succinct tool to ensure all these stakeholders are aligned and moving in the same direction toward achieving the organization's goals and ensuring the success of its strategic plans.
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James Milsom is Head of Marketing at i-nexus. James has wide-ranging experience in markets such as telecommunications, energy, education, and software.
As Head of Marketing, his drive is to raise awareness and understanding of enterprises' challenges in delivering strategic objectives and transformation amidst changing markets and the obstacles traditional tools and methods present leaders.
If you’d like to talk more about strategy execution, reach out to James at james.milsom@i-nexus.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.