A Step-By-Step Guide For Creating A Corporate Vision Statement

Where do you see your organization in the long run?

The most common question focused on understanding your future plans. Both external and internal stakeholders are interested in knowing your company’s vision. Companies create a corporate vision statement to underline the core areas of focus. Frequently, the major areas are ignored, and critical questions remain answered. We have brought some tried and tested ways to create a vision statement that caters to specific needs.

This article will walk you through the purpose of creating a vision statement and the steps involved in creating one successfully.

Vision Statement Vs. Mission Statement

A corporate vision statement is a future-oriented summary of your business goals that helps people better understand your current decisions. The focus remains intact on communicating an organization’s future goals. On the flip side, a mission statement handles day-to-day operations for efficient functioning. What type of statements should organizations prioritize? Organizations must provide both these documents to produce improved results.

Here are some questions answered by a corporate vision statement:

• What does your business plan achieve in the long run?
• What common problems do you help your target audience overcome?
• How do you plan on motivating your team to achieve the set targets?

A strong vision provides the team with the required boost for proper execution. With a clear vision, a company understands the parameters to measure success. The day-to-day decisions are often affected by the level of clarity.

Both internal and external stakeholders must be kept aware of the company’s vision. Internally, employees need to understand the vision to work with motivation. Remember that passion and motivation are the derivatives of success. Somehow, both stem from a clear company vision. With clear employee communication, you can decrease employee turnover, reduce safety incidents, and increase profitability.

A vision statement also helps communicate unique brand values and directions. How does your company plan to achieve the desired position? It helps businesses in establishing trust amongst stakeholders.

Steps For Creating An Effective Vision Statement

Here are the steps to create a vision statement that conveys the right company values and long-term organizational goals:

Step 1: Identify The People Required In The Process

Eliminate the myth that you don’t require many people to define your company’s vision. While people in the leadership roles are effective, you need to include individuals from different levels for improved results. It will help you come across new perspectives, ideas, and creativity required for success. Also, it helps you understand the efficiency level of your current team.

Including your employees in the core decision-making process will improve employee engagement, customer engagement, and high profits.

Step 2: Conduct A Brainstorming Session

Next comes the responsibility of conducting structured and standard visioning sessions. It’s better to prepare certain questions for your participants to get them started. Here are some questions you can take inspiration from:

• What ultimate impact do we plan to have on the industry?
• What’s the best way to define our company culture?
• Do we have an unfair advantage compared to our greatest competitors? If yes, what is it, and how do we make the most of it?
• How do we plan to deal with the upcoming challenges of our target audience?
• What are our upcoming plans for dealing with the most common customer complaints?
• How do we plan to increase customer satisfaction in the next X years consistently?

Analyze the answers received by your team members and identify the pattern. Pay attention to recurring answers and use them efficiently for laying out the vision statement. Create a list of goals and purpose(s) to initiate the writing process.

Step 3: Creating Sample Vision Statements

You have all the ideas required to initiate the writing process. Start by creating sample vision statements from the ideas obtained in the brainstorming sessions. Work on writing on-point statements consisting of a few sentences. Every statement must focus on being future-oriented, challenging, and inspiring.

Next, share your samples with the teams and take their inputs and opinions. Use their feedback to identify the best-rated samples. Make a combination of these samples to come up with a final draft. Remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect in the first go. But all the efforts will help you lend a decent draft in the end.

Step 4: Presenting Vision Statements

The next step focuses on an appropriate presentation of the devised vision statements. You can use a Mission, Vision, and Values PowerPoint template for a clear representation. It will help you bring forward your company goals and develop trust amongst stakeholders.

Examples Of Vision Statement

Let’s look at the vision statements of some top brands for an improved idea. Notice how every brand expresses its values, offering, and purpose creatively with every sentence.

Amazon Vision Statement

“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Apple Vision Statement

“We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products, and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.”

Starbucks

“To be the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world.”

Tesla

“To create the most compelling electric car company of the 21st century.”

Key Takeaways

• A corporate vision statement helps brands underline their goals, directions, and purposes to be presented to stakeholders.
• Companies must have both a vision and mission statement to provide a clear picture. A mission statement provides information about the day-to-day happenings.
• Include individuals from all levels to introduce new perspectives and ideas to your statement.
• Conduct frequent brainstorming sessions to collect and evaluate ideas.
• Create sample vision statements based on the ideas acquired in the brainstorming sessions.
• Use appropriate methods of presenting the devised mission, vision, and company values.