Values, Vision & Entrepreneurial Leadership: Lesson Five
The Business of Vision & A Clear Value Proposition
Lots of organizations get started and go far without a written — or even a clear — “vision.” Lots grow without one. Lots spend a ton of time on getting the words exactly and precisely right, and lots of money on consultants to help them, often only to find that they get it confused with the mission, or they paint it on the wall but people seem to walk by it without really paying attention.
Vision, mission… many will tell you there is a huge difference between the two. I think you can skip spending the energy on that debate. What you need it to figure our where you want to go and the guidelines for how you will get your there. The language I like to use is:
Vision = “where” you want to go
Value Proposition = guidelines for the “how”
Now that we have that sorted we can get to it. Stating your vision is critical. If you are starting something, it’s probably very clear to you, but a stated vision will not only help you attract the people you need to help you in your enterprise, it can also begin to differentiate your from your competitors. A clear vision will also remind you of your sense of purpose on the hard days.
One trick, though, as you think about your vision. Don’t ask it to do everything on its own. Here is what the vision should do.
Imagine for a second that you a general in medieval times, standing in a the foothills. You look around in every direction: there are hills and mountains. You stand before your battalion of soldiers and shout, “take the hill!” There they are, ready to run and fight. But they look at you and just stand there. They look off in every direction and look back at you, confused and unable to know how to start.

If you don’t show them, how will they know which hill to take? To them they are starting a range of mountains, hills in every direction. They are perfectly willing to go fight the fight but the need some direction.
Your vision is the hill… which particular one you are going to take? It doesn’t have to say how you are going to bring things to life (although sometimes they do) — rather, it says what and possibly why you are doing it.
The road map, which is much closer to what some might call a strategy, is something else. We call that — the “how” of achieving your vision — the “value proposition.”
Your vision guides and inspires.
Your value proposition helps you understand your market, the value you create and the way you can stand out from the competition.
Sometimes the basic idea, or the calling, or the community need from which the organization stems is strong enough on its own to fulfill the needs a vision would fulfill. Here’s an example: you believe homelessness is a huge problem in your community and you decide you want to take it on. You start a an organization to provide temporary shelter for people with no place to live.
Isn’t the idea or the need clear enough that in the beginning you don’t need a vision? Probably.
But what happens when someone says it’s not enough to provide temporary shelter — you should be providing transitional housing? That’s a different problem and would lead you to a different strategy. Both problems are part of homelessness but how you address them. the resources and expertise you need, are very different.
A clear vision, in this case whether you are providing temporary shelter for people who desparately need it vs. you are providing counseling and support for people who are transitioning into permanent housing, would help you and your other leaders come to alignment around which (or both) problems you are trying to solve. Are you in the business of keeping people warm for the night or helping them back into a more permanent living situation? Are you for emergencies only? Are you open to all? Will you turn people away? It will save a lot of pain and heartache if you are clear on why you do what you do and how you do it from the start.
In that example, neither are right or wrong and they are not mutually exclusive. However, if you have a strong vision it can help you make decisions, decisions that will require an allocation of resources and define your potential scale and scope. When a leader or an organization is forced with a difficult decision, a clear and aligned vision can help focus time, strategy and other resources. If you are providing lots of beds for emergency shelter, will you have the money to buy or rent a building that can provide transitional housing? How do you choose to expend your limited resources?
You don’t have to have a vision and you don’t have to have one that never changes. But the bigger you are and the more people it takes to make the enterprise run, the more important it is that they start from a common place. A vision can provide this organizational backbone.
Here are some qualities to look for as you craft and articulate your vision.
A vision compels. It helps us find the “why” (Simon Sinek’s “The Golden Circle”) and it helps us provide a platform upon which we can build our values (the central idea in Jim Collins “Good to Great”), thereby helping attract and retain the right people to build and grow. Think of The Container Store… it sells stuff to organize your home. Now it’s known as one of the best companies to work for in the U.S. Who they are is equally compelling to employees as it is to customers. They see their purpose — and their value — as higher order than selling stuff to organize you clutter. They see themselves as solving problems, as doing whatever it takes to serve their customers, where everyone thrives. They say: “what we stand for: organization with heart.”
A vision directs possibility. It helps the company’s leaders make difficult choices. It helps constrain the temptations of possibility that for many organizations is the most difficult force to manage. Think of Starbucks. In its massive growth phase it yielded to temptation to go into different lines of business because it had some cache as a “lifestyle brand” — it had to revisit its vision to get back on track. Yes it’s a lifestyle brand, but that is not its purpose. Starbucks wants to nurture and inspire the human spirit, which it knows it can do when it acts as the place that brings people together.
A vision transforms. A good one can transform an organization beyond an individual or a founder. For founder/entrepreneurs this is a tremendously difficult challenge. What is Microsoft without Bill Gates? Can Nike be Nike without Phil Knight? Can Apple be Apple without Steve Jobs? Howard Schultz left Starbucks but he had to come back. He’s trying it again now. With some hard work they can exit and the company will stay successful; after all, we still have McDonald’s without Ray Kroc and we still have Ford without Henry Ford. The companies that make it through the “founder phase” and into the next chapter have to have something else, no matter how compelling and how charismatic that one person is/was.
A great vision and a clear value proposition can also help guide an organization through challenging times. Look at the American car companies who have rebounded from the depths of problems. “Made in Detroit” stems from a vision about the American automobile industry that eventually was translated into a passionate communication strategy.
Recognizing an effective vision…
It’s clear.
It has a point of view.
It’s simple
It’s understandable.
It tells you what the organization does or believes.
It provides focus.
It tells you what’s important.
If you like the sound of what it says, it might make you want to go work there.
A good one rarely needs to be changed.
Stay Tuned for More on the Value Proposition.
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This is the fifth lesson in a series of nine by Jane Melvin, the founder and president of Strategic Innovations Group, Inc., a strategy and creativity consulting practice. These lessons grew from content she originally created for an online course in an MBA program.
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