A strategic vision is an aspirational description of what an organization wants to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term. It serves as a guide for understanding what the organization stands for and where it’s going. It provides a roadmap for the organization’s future within a specific timeframe, offering a clear and motivating picture of the company’s future.
A well-formulated strategic vision can align members of the organization around a common long-term direction, inspire engagement and commitment, and help guide decision-making and resource allocation at various levels of the organization.
Key components of a strategic vision typically include:
- Direction: The vision should indicate where the organization is headed. It can include specific goals or simply point towards a general direction of growth and improvement.
- Aspiration: The vision should be ambitious and aspirational, pushing the organization to strive for excellence and overcome challenges.
- Alignment: The vision should align with the organization’s values, culture, and business strategy. It should feel like a natural extension of what the organization already does and believes in.
- Clarity: The vision should be clear and simple to understand, so everyone in the organization can quickly grasp it and relate it to their own work.
- Inspiration: The vision should inspire and motivate people, encouraging them to invest their best efforts in achieving it.
A strategic vision is an important element of overall strategic management. It encompasses all the activities an organization undertakes to align its resources and actions with its mission, values, and vision.
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How to make a strategic vision?
Creating a strategic vision involves a thoughtful and systematic process. While the specifics can vary depending on the organization and its context, a general approach might include these steps:
- Understand your organization: Begin by examining your organization’s current situation. This includes understanding your mission (what you do and why you do it), your values (the principles that guide your actions), and your strategic goals (what you’re aiming to achieve).
- Assess your environment: Analyze the external environment in which your organization operates. This can include your industry, your competitors, and any technological, economic, social, or political trends that could impact your organization. Tools such as SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) or PESTEL analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal) can be helpful here.
- Identify key strategic issues: Based on your understanding of your organization and your environment, identify the key issues your strategic vision will need to address. These might include areas where your organization needs to improve, opportunities you want to take advantage of, or challenges you’ll need to overcome.
- Develop your vision: Combine your understanding of your organization, environment, and strategic issues to create a vision for the future. This should be a clear, inspiring statement describing where you want your organization to be. It should be ambitious but realistic and align with your organization’s values and strategic goals.
- Communicate your vision: Once you’ve developed your strategic vision, you must communicate it to the rest of your organization. This could involve presenting it at a company meeting, including it in your internal communications, or incorporating it into your training programs. The key is to ensure that everyone in the organization understands and is aligned with the vision.
- Implement and monitor your vision: Finally, you’ll need to implement your vision by integrating it into your strategic planning and decision-making processes. You’ll also need to monitor your progress towards your vision, adjusting your strategies based on changes in your environment or organization.
Remember that creating a strategic vision is not a one-time activity. As your organization grows and changes and your environment evolves, you may need to revise your vision to ensure it remains relevant and motivating.
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Types of strategic vision
Strategic visions can take different forms based on their focus and the specific future scenario they portray. Here are some types of strategic visions:
- Quantitative visions: These are visions that focus on achieving certain measurable goals or results. For example, a company might have a vision to increase its market share by a certain percentage or achieve a certain revenue or profitability level.
- Qualitative visions: These are visions that focus on less tangible or measurable aspects, such as improving the company’s reputation, enhancing customer satisfaction, or becoming a leader in innovation. They often focus on the intangible aspects of performance and success.
- Spatial visions: These focus on physical or geographical goals. A company might have the vision to expand its operations to certain locations, to serve a certain geographical market, or to become a global leader in its industry.
- Temporal visions: These visions focus on achieving certain goals within a specific timeframe. For example, a company might aim to become the market leader within five years or to double its size within a decade.
- Values-based visions: These visions are based on the organization’s core values and principles. They focus on how the organization wants to conduct its business and interact with its stakeholders. For instance, a company may envision itself as the most ethical player in the industry or aim to make a significant social impact.
- Scenario-based visions: These are visions that depict a certain future scenario that the organization wants to bring about. For example, a technology company might have a vision of a future where its products are used in every home, or a health organization might envision a world free of a certain disease.
Note that these types aren’t mutually exclusive, and an organization’s strategic vision could combine elements from several of these types. For instance, a company could have a values-based, qualitative vision to be the most respected player in its industry, a scenario-based vision to revolutionize its industry, and a quantitative vision to increase its market share by 20% – all at the same time.
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Examples of strategic vision
Here are some examples of strategic visions from different types of organizations:
- Microsoft: “To help people and businesses worldwide realize their full potential.” This is an example of a qualitative vision, focusing on the impact Microsoft aims to have on individuals and businesses.
- Alibaba: “To make it easy to do business anywhere.” This vision statement is also qualitative, indicating a desire to simplify business operations for everyone, everywhere, signifying a spatial element as well.
- Tesla: “To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.” This is a combination of a scenario-based vision (transitioning the world to electric vehicles) and a temporal vision (being the most compelling car company of the 21st century).
- Amazon: “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” This vision is both quantitative (in terms of the range of products offered) and qualitative (customer-centric).
- Google (Alphabet): “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” This vision is a combination of qualitative (making information accessible and useful), spatial (the world’s information), and scenario-based elements (organizing information).
- IKEA: “To create a better everyday life for the many people.” This vision is largely qualitative, focusing on improving daily life for their customers.
Each of these vision statements provides a clear sense of where the company aims to go and the impact it aims to have. They are ambitious and forward-looking, providing a clear and motivating future that guides decision-making and strategy within the organization.
