To remind myself of how much I dislike them I've just read through the vision statements of the Fortune Global 100 Companies and all too often they are meaningless claptrap, completely incomprehensible, bear little resemblance to the reality of an organisation, or alternatively, they simply state a business objective, 'To be the worldwide leader in retailing' (Wal-Mart) – I wouldn't describe that as particularly visionary, although at least I understand it.
Just about every automotive company has some sort of touchy-feely, green wording in their vision statement and just about every bank talks about their commitment to their customers – really!? on both counts. I love Fiat's vision statement, 'To create mobility which has a truly human dimension'. That would be walking then.
And then there are ones like this one from Siemens, 'A world of talent delivering breakthrough innovations giving our customers a unique competitive edge enabling societies to master their most vital challenges and creating sustainable value.' What??!!
Or this one from Hewlett-Packard, 'To create a diverse and inclusive environment. Diversity and inclusion are key drivers of creativity, innovation and invention. HP want to make diversity and inclusion a conscious part of how they run business throughout the world.' Apart from being written in strange business speak, I'm not sure Steve Jobs would have agreed diversity and inclusion are key to innovation and creativity; his dogmatism, obsessive behaviour and tendency to be a control freak seemed to do Apple no harm in the creativity and innovation stakes.
Or here's a good one from JP Morgan Chase, 'Aspire to be the best; execute superbly, build a great team and a winning culture.' I wonder how that ties in with having to pay $920 million of fines over the 'London Whale' debacle.
Out of the whole 100 vision statements, I haven't found one which I would describe as visionary or inspiring and all too many seem to be written by management consultants, or a committee, or the marketing department, or all three combined, which begs the question: who are these vision statements created for?
Well surely it's everybody who works for the respective organisation and the idea is to inspire, enlighten, educate, excite, thrill and guide, as well as rather importantly be true to the culture and ethos of the company.
So why don't companies start briefing great writers to come up with their vision statements and who knows they might get something as inspiring as this from Rudyard Kipling:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
.......
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
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