Your Vision is weak?! The 19 Worst Shortcomings in Your Vision

www.FutureManagementGroup.com

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Your Vision is Weak!The 19 Worst Shortcomings in Your VisionA Checklist with Troubleshooting Tips

Leader's ForesightTools for Leaders and Trailblazersby Dr. Pero Mićić, CEO of the FutureManagementGroup AG

May 2015

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Dear Leader,

I’ll admit that I likely don’t even know your vision.But I read the visions of many companies on aregular basis.

It is painful to see how much potential issquandered, just because a vision is consideredsomething you only grudgingly jot down becauseyou have to have it.

Many companies only have a vision, because theywanted to have a quality certificate, and thatrequires that you develop a vision. If you didn’thave one, you just wrote something down.

It’s a truism: You will garner countless advantagesfrom an appealing, motivating, jointly developedand realistic idea of your company’s future.

Precisely because this seems so banal, it surprisesme every time to see how rarely, and if, how badly,this truism is made a reality.

What is the idea that channels and fuels all yourprojects and initiatives? A highly networked system– and your company is such a system – cannot bemanaged with goals and action plans alone.

If all you have is a weak vision, you’ll forgoprofitability.

This edition of "Leader’s Foresight" describes the19 worst shortcomings your mission and visioncould possibly have. Examine how many of themapply to your ideas of the future for your company.

I will also offer recommendations for erasing andavoiding these mistakes.

I look forward to your tips, comments andquestions: [email protected] and+49 172 6520 660.

Have a bright future!

Dr. Pero Mićić

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01Too Bad:You Don't EvenHave a Vision!

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You can live without a vision, your company can’t.Human beings go on living and can be very happy,even if they don’t have a vision in the true sense ofthe word.

Companies, on the other hand, are communities ofpeople and without a mission, a vision andguidelines, they cannot take shape. Companiesdeteriorate when they lack a clear mission andvision, because that means that they are lacking adefining foundation.

Lacking an effective vision, employees will fill thevacuum with their own ideas of the future. Each hisown. Only a long-term idea of a desired future canprovide the necessary orientation, focus andharmony of purpose. A vision works like a magnetfor attentiveness, like a pattern to a puzzle.

If used correctly, your vision is your strongestleadership tool. Don’t voluntarily forgo theenormously positive effect of a clear mission andvision, lest you dispense with your employees’engagement and performance, with theconsolidation of your strength and energy, andhence, in the end, with a portion of your potentialprofit.

Too Bad: You Don‘t Even Have a Vision!

4Dr. Pero Mićić: Leader's Foresight - May 2015

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Too Bad:You Underestimatethe Benefits ofa Vision!

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It is the mind that creates the body. This is whatFriedrich Schiller wrote in "Wallenstein‘s Death".Schiller was ill his entire lifetime. His vision gavehim the strength he needed to endure his pain andto become one of the most prolific and successfulGerman poets nonetheless.

The vision is the immaterial cause of all materialeffects, in other words: for everything that does ordoes not happen in your company.

Your vision is the joint mental map of yourmanagement team and your employees showing afuture that is aspired by all, appealing, and realistic.It will significantly increase the efficiency ofdiscussions.

Your vision empowers your "mental focus," which isnecessary in this complex world. With your vision,you can consolidate all your strengths that manifestin time, brain power, and money. You can work farmore effectively and be far more successful.

Your vision is your most profitable investment.

Too Bad: You Underestimate the Benefits of a Vision!


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What is the Use of a Good Mission and Vision?

How Can Your Vision be Profitable? What are the Effects? MoreEfficiency

LessTime

LessCost

LessEffort

MoreMotivation

MoreSecurity

MoreJoy

Choice Analytically and emotionally, you decide for and againstcertain elements of your vision to focus your activities ona few areas.

You have more consolidated strength as manifestedin money, time, and brain power for your focusactivities, which enables mental focus, too.

Attraction With your vision of a better future, you offer youremployees an appealing deeper meaning of their work.

Those who make your vision their own havesomething to look forward to, something they canwork toward with great motivation and confidence.

Anticipation You create a future image that can constantly functionas a mirror for the potential effects of actual events.

You recognize threats and opportunities earlier thanif you’d only check market developments against thereality of your current company.

Orientation You align and coordinate all activities, from themanagement team to the individual employee.

You create a harmony of purpose and action.

Agility Early on, you decide which future you wish to create andknow what you need to do to make it a reality.

You act rather than react to the competition. Bycomparing it to reality, your vision shows whichactions you need to take.

Activation You create ambitious and challenging expectations foryour future competitiveness.

You activate and use the performance potential ofyour employees and resources.

Uniqueness With your foresight and forward thinking, you take theopportunity to make your company unique.

You find and describe the differentiation that is mostbeneficial to you in the competition.

Deduction You make all fundamental decisions at the same timeand with an all-inclusive view, thus creating a futureimage without inconsistencies.

You create a pattern with clear orientation forthousands of singular decisions during dailyoperations.

Alignment You make all major decisions with your managementteam. Together, you create mental maps to achieve thehighest agreement and harmony.

You have fewer exhausting and time-consumingdiscussions.

Authority You as the leader are equipped with the most powerfulleadership tools.

You can only lead into the future if you have animage of that future and are able to convey iteffectively on a rational and emotional level.

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Too Bad:You Have to Lookup Your Vision!

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Only if they are conscious can thoughts have effectsand knowledge be used. Seems obvious.

And yet, time and again I see that even top leadersof corporations have to read up on their ownmission and vision.

Do you know your vision by heart? Can you seeclear images of your vision in your mind’s eye?What about your closest colleagues? And whatabout your employees, those you work with closelyand those you you work with less closely?

Essentially, you should not rest before you are ableto give a motivational speech about your mission,your vision, and your strategic as well as culturalguidelines – on the spot.

As is well-known, visualization can be very helpfulwith this.

Too Bad: You Have to Look up Your Vision!


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Too Bad:You are Mixing upMission and Vision!

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Your company is built upon its mission and yourvision. In the end, that is how it is defined.

Your mission is the fundamental long-term purposeyou fulfill for your customers. The mission describesthe game. The game rarely changes.

Your vision is your concrete image of yourcompany’s appealing, jointly desired, and realisticfuture. It describes what kind of player you want tohave become in the game described by yourmission. You change your vision periodically.

The individual situation decides whether mission orvision play a more important role. Employees atApple are more excited by the mission that says"bringing the best personal computing experience."Employees in the area of auto-mobility at Siemensare more enthusiastic about the vision "zeroemission, zero accident."

Therefore, mission and vision are a little lessdifferentiated here than they may be in practice.

Too Bad: You are Mixing up Mission and Vision!

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Dr. Pero Mićić: Leader's Foresight - May 2015

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05Too Bad:You are Mixing upGuidelines andVision!

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If your vision includes statements such as "we arefair" like it does at Harley Davidson, then you donot have a vision. After all, you want to be fair rightnow, all the time, and not only in a distant future.

Desirable behavior such as "we are fair" or "wework in an ecological and socially sustainablemanner" should be documented in guidelines, inyour strategic, organizational, or cultural standards.

Guidelines and vision satisfy two fundamentallydifferent human needs. Guidelines offer theframework for the daily co-operation of youremployees and the strategic behavior of thecompany. The vision, on the other hand, offers thelong-term goal of daily operations, while themission describes their point and purpose.

When the core statements of an organization areunclear and unstructured, the organization thataligns itself accordingly is unclear and unstructuredas well.

Too Bad: You are Mixing up Guidelines and Vision!


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Too Bad:Your Vision is anEgocentric Dreamof Importance andWealth!

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World market leader, the greatest, the mostprofitable, the fastest growing, the richest. If yourvision sounds like that, it is fundamentally flawed.

The mission of your company has to include anotion of creating real value and emotional effectsfor your clients in order to be useful to society.Turnover is the quid pro quo. High turnoverreduces costs and increases profits. Great forstockholders and top-management.

Your employees, however, could not care less.Where complex tasks are involved, money does notmotivate and does not render work meaningful.

In an MRI, a "brain scan," you can see that peoplefeel comfortable when they are doing their "thing"while at the same time doing something good forothers.

That is why it must be your vision to make as manyclients as possible a little happier. Yes, that evenworks if you produce machine parts. Importanceand wealth will come naturally – but later.

Too Bad:Your Vision is an Egocentric Dream of Importance and Wealth!


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Too Bad:Your Vision AlsoWorks for YourButcher!

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"We are a leading manufacturer of products with ahigh quality and ultimate functionality. That is whatexcites our customers on a daily basis. Theirsatisfaction is the focus of our work." Somethinglike that. Missions or vision like that arecommonplace on websites and on glossy postersdisplayed in the offices of many a Board ofDirectors. These visions and missions say nothing ofsubstance at all. Often they don’t even name thebusiness. Even your butcher could have this samemission or vision.

Recaro says: "We fascinate our customers withpioneering solutions for better seating." Awonderfully clear an mission focused on thecustomer’s benefit, albeit a little too broad.

Google, too, has a clear mission: "Google’s missionis to organize the world’s information and make ituniversally accessible and useful." Here the missionis purposefully broad, for Google has extended thelimits of its mission more and more.

Your mission has to indicate your area of businessand your company’s unique role within.

Too Bad: Your Vision Also Works for Your Butcher!


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Too Bad:Your Vision AlsoWorks for YourCompetitors!

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The Warema AG says: "We are the sunlight-managers." Warema has defined its own market –with assistance by the FMG, by the way. By now,even Warema’s installation partners definethemselves like that: the sunlight managers. Such aunique mission and vision establishes an enormouspower of focus and attraction.

A clearly defined mission and vision is your mostpowerful tool when differentiating yourself fromyour competitors, and hence provides leverage for asuccessful and profitable company.

If you are not successful in assigning a uniquevalue proposition and a unique identity to yourcompany, then it won’t happen in more detail,either. Then you’ve missed a great opportunity.

It is not easy. It requires imagination and care. Butif you are successful, it is infinitely valuable.

Too Bad: Your Vision Also Works for Your Competitors!


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09Too Bad:Your VisionDoes Not Matter!

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"Just because it is written in the mission does notmean we have to do everything in line with it."

Those who say something like that have notunderstood the significance of a mission and vision.And worse, with such statements, they keep yourmission and vision from ever fulfilling theirpotential. Mission and vision are degraded to a fair-weather declaration, which can be interpreted anywhich way and is not really to be taken seriously.

The mind creates reality and the vision creates thebusiness, the turnover, the cost, and the profit. Thedecisions documented in your mission and visiondetermine the development of your company. Theyconstitute it.

Your vision is your most powerful and importantleadership tool. Consciously think about yourmission and vision before every strategic decision.Begin and end every presentation with your missionand vision.

Make it unequivocally clear that your mission andvision are the existential foundation of your worktogether.

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Too Bad: Your Vision Does Not Matter!


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Too Bad:Your Vision DoesNot Create anImage!

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If you are putting together a puzzle, you need atable, the puzzle pieces, and at least one person.And you need – a pattern! You’d never let anyoneyou like – or someone you pay by the hour – try hishand at a puzzle without a pattern. This would behighly inefficient and foolish.

But in most companies, employees are forced topuzzle without a pattern, because the only guidancethey have are a bunch of nice words that don’tmake a mission or vision. In daily operations, theyhave to poke around in the fog and cannot see, letalone walk, the most effective and efficient pathtoward the vision.

Vision derives from the Latin "videre," i.e., to see.Present your mission and vision with images,graphics, and videos. This helps to visualize andremember the vision. Thus, in everyday life, thevision becomes stronger and more conscious thanwords alone.

This places the strongest leadership tool into yourhands. You will save costs and nurture energies.Everyone knows that, and yet, not nearly oftenenough do we use the tool and act accordingly.

Too Bad: Your Vision Does Not Create an Image!


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11Too Bad:You think YourSlogan is YourVision!

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The vision is supposed to give you, your colleagues,and all employees a meaningful long-term goal thatis worth your commitment.

In many of the projects where we help developingthe vision, our clients fall prey to the temptation ofsuggesting their advertising slogans as their vision.

A summarizing phrase can and should be the title ofyour vision, but your vision should never be justthis one single sentence.

Your vision cannot be a slogan like "Advantagethrough technology," "The joy of driving," "Nothingis impossible," or "The bank at your side."Thoughts such as these can be part of your missionor vision, but these slogans have too littlesubstance to communicate an effective vision.

Those who shine on the outside have to sparkle onthe inside. Slogans serve an advertising purposeand address the client or the public. Your vision,however, should primarily work on the inside.

For the sake of your competitive edge, only a smallportion of your vision should be known to be public.

Too Bad: You Think Your Slogan is Your Vision!


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12Too Bad:Your Vision hasHundreds ofAuthors!

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Some advisors favor large group processes whendeveloping a vision. I clearly and strongly adviseagainst that.

"We will be market leaders," "We set the bar in XY-technology," "We strive for excellence," "Contentemployees are content clients." If you think of yourvision as a few beautiful and honorable thoughts,then you can work with large groups. Even 100 or100,000 employees can agree on the obvious.

But that is not what turns your vision into yourmost significant and powerful leadership tool.Instead, the often difficult decisions should becoded within your mission and your vision. Thoseare decisions a large group can never make. Largegroups always end up with a democratic consensuson the lowest common denominator.

As a "leader," it is your first and most importantjob to develop the vision. You cannot delegate thistask. You can collect ideas from everyone, but it isthe leadership team that has to author the vision.Not only is this the most important task, it is alsoone of the most beautiful tasks.

Too Bad: Your Vision has Hundreds of Authors!


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Too Bad:Your Vision DoesNot Hurt Anyone!

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Did you develop your vision according to thefollowing formula: today’s company plus a fewelements you’d like to have, minus a few elementsyou’d like to eliminate? Was everyone able tocontribute equally? Yes? That means you have adangerous vision!

A vision needs to comprise clear decisions. To makedecisions, you need alternatives. Don’t just developone vision, but develop three or five or eightalternative visions for your company. Those are thecandidates from which you choose your vision.

Let your vision candidates compete with each otherin pairs, as if in a tournament, in several disciplines.One of these disciplines tests the performance ofyour vision in several different future scenarios ofyour market. The winner in this tournament willform the core of your vision.

Everything else will be "de-cided," i.e., not pursued,cut off, not made a reality – even if it is painful.Nothing works without difficult and painfuldecisions.

That is how you will end up with a crystal clear, wellfounded and – in your market – likely unique vision.

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Too Bad: Your Vision Does Not Hurt Anyone!


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14Too Bad:Your Vision TakesAll Things TodayInto the Future!

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It is rather unlikely that you can, should, and willtake everything that defines your company todaywith you into the future. If you have developedyour vision from a present viewpoint into thefuture, i.e., if your starting line was today’scompany, your vision will be dominated by thepresent.

If, in addition, many actors from many divisions inyour company contributed to this vision, you canassume that they wanted to make sure their futurerole would be included. That means that,essentially, you simply transposed your companytoday into the future.

Correct is, however, to develop your vision from afuture viewpoint. The vision discards and leavesbehind what does not fit into the future. Initiallythis does not entail any consideration for today’sversion of your company.

Only then do you proceed to include in your visionwhat you want to or have to take along. That aloneensures that your vision encompasses what shall bein the future. It leaves behind anything that doesn’tfit while integrating everything new that should beincorporated.

Too Bad: Your Vision Takes All Things Today Into the Future!


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Too Bad:Your Vision isRevolutionary!

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The most conservative vision may be your best.Daimler could be in terrific shape if they had notaspired to be an integrated technology corporationor an international stock company. 60 billion Eurocould have been invested in better cars andservices.

There is a strong longing for a vision that inspiresgoose bumps and ecstasy, a vision that serves thedesire for adventure.

Visions like that are usually demanded by thosewho don’t have any responsibility for the potentialfailure and the potential loss of a huge amount ofmoney.

No. Revolutionary visions should only emerge fromnecessity, only if today's business has no morechance. And of course, a start-up with an entirelynew technology or a disruptive business modelneeds revolutionary visions, too.

Don’t ask too much of your clients. Don’t ask toomuch of your employees or your owners, either.Use an ambitious, but realistic measure ofchallenges. Consider your history, your present,skills, and culture.

Too Bad: Your Vision is Revolutionary!


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Too Bad:Your Vision isnot Robust!

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We’ve heard them all, the stories about thevisionary hero. With unbelievable ingenuity andimagination, he has seen what nobody before himcould see. His admiring followers in his wake, hehas revolutionized the world. He is a Steve Jobs.

A great deal of success- and leadership literature ismade up of stories like that. However, behind everysingle one of these success stories are likely ten,one hundred, one thousand, or even more cases inwhich the ingenious visionary has missed a decisivefactor and therefore ended up a desperate debtor.

Given the complex nature of today’s businesses,founders and particularly leadership teams have toinvest much care into the development of theirvision.

Base your vision on solid assumptions about futurechanges in your market. He who does not protecthis vision against surprises and eventualitiesaccepts high risks that cannot be justified.

Make your mission and vision future robust.

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Too Bad: Your Vision is not Robust!


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Too Bad:Your BusinessDivisions do NotHave Their OwnVision!

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"We have a relentless drive to invent things thatmatter: innovations that build, power, move andhelp cure the world. We make things that very fewin the world can, but that everyone needs." Giventhe many business divisions, General Electric has nochoice but to make such a generalized statement.

But your mission and vision has to mean somethingto your employees. Yet if all divisions are combinedon the corporate level, it won’t. With every divisionthat is added, the statements become more generaland removed.

The real work is done not on the corporate level,but in the divisions, in the units and entities, in the"unities", if you will. At Villeroy & Boch, one divisiondeals with food and drink, another with thebathroom, i.e., toilets and sinks. An overarchingmission and vision in such cases is necessarily lessclear than the statements of the respectivedivisions.

Define the framework. Then provide each divisionwith a separate mission and vision. And finally,summarize your mission and vision on the corporatelevel.

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Too Bad: Your Business Divisions do Not Have Their Own Vision!


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18Too Bad:Your Vision has Nothad a Check-Up forYears!

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A wide-spread misconception is to believe that avision is only successful if you realize it exactly as itwas developed years earlier.

This may be true in a few individual cases. But itwould be unusual if we did not learn anything in theyears between the development of a vision and itsoriginal time frame – say, for example, in the tenyears between vision 2026 and the year 2016, inwhich it was developed.

We learn new things every day, develop a betterunderstanding of the customer, the market, theenvironment, and one’s own company. It would befoolish not to incorporate what we learn into ourvision.

A vision is supposed to unfold its effect in thepresent. It is supposed to help us decide todaywhere the next step will take us. It is supposed tomake a difference today. Realizing it the way it wasconceived is far less important than we think.

Your vision has to be a periodic construction site. Ithas to be on the bench to be checked regularly. Ifnecessary, it has to be amended, adjusted, andchanged.

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Too Bad: Your Vision has Not had a Check-Up for Years!


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Too Bad:Your Vision hasBeen inDevelopment forYears!

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I have witnessed cases where many years werespent searching for the perfect words to describe amission and a vision.

As important as the quality of your mission andyour vision is: worse than a less than perfectimage of the future is to have no notion of theaspired future at all.

Virtually no software company these days developsperfect specifications before they beginprogramming. They develop an initial rough vision,then create prototype after prototype, until they'vefound a marketable product.

If there is no notion of the "what for?", there is nomotivation to get involved and to make an effort.

In these cases, you need to be pragmatic. Minimizeyour compromises, but then live with them.

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Too Bad: Your Vision has Been in Development for Years!


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Too bad: Your Vision is Weak!The 19 Worst Mistakes in Your Vision

01You Don‘t Even Have a Vision!

02You Underestimate the Benefitsof Your Vision!

04You are Mixing up Mission andVision!

05You are Mixing up Guidelines andVision!

11You Think Your Sloganis Your Vision!

12Your Vision has Hundredsof Authors!

15Your Vision is Revolutionary!

13Your Vision Does Not Hurt Anyone!

14Your Vision Takes All Things TodayInto the Future!

06Your Vision is an Egocentric Dreamof Importance and Wealth!

16Your Vision is Not Robust!

07Your Vision Also Worksfor Your Butcher!

08Your Vision Also Worksfor Your Competitors!

17Your Business Divisions do NotHave Their Own Vision!

10Your Vision Does Not Createan Image!

03You Have to Look up Your Vision!

09Your Vision Does Not Matter!

18Your Vision has Not had a Check-Up for Years!

19Your Vision has Been inDevelopment for Years!

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Now What?

Presentation for Your Team

Keynote for Your Clients Speak with the Author Dr. Pero Mićić

InternationalBook Award

Most significantFutures work 2014

E-Mail: [email protected]

Read a Book

Request Reference Projects

Conversation with a Senior FutureManager

E-Mail: [email protected]: 06123 60 109 -0

Martin Ruesch Enno Däneke

Gregor Schiffer Berthold Müssig Dr. Jörg Blechschmidt

Bernd Hinrichs

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© FutureManagementGroup AG, 2015

Wallufer Strasse 3aD-65343 Eltville, GermanyPhone: +49 (0)6123 60109 – 0Fax: +49 (0)6123 60109 - [email protected]

Board of Directors:Dr. Pero Mićić (Managing Director),Martin RueschChairman of the Supervisory Boad:Prof. Dr. Peter Mettler

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About the FutureManagementGroup AGSince 1991, the FutureManagementGroup AG has beensupporting the management teams of leading companies intheir effort to recognize, investigate, and develop theopportunities of future markets.

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Your Vision is weak?! The 19 Worst Shortcomings in Your Vision

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