VISION
most of those statements turn out to be a muddled stew of values, goals, purposes, philosophies, be- liefs, aspirations, norms, strategies, practices, and descriptions. They are usually a boring, confusing, structurally unsound stream of words that evoke the response “True, but who cares?” Even more problematic, seldom do these statements have a direct link to the fundamental dynamic of vision- ary companies: preserve the core and stimulate progress. That dynamic, not vision or mission statements, is the primary engine of enduring com- panies. Vision simply provides the context for bringing this dynamic to life. Building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment. When you have superb alignment, a visitor could
drop in from outer space and infer your vision from the operations and activities of the company with- out ever reading it on paper or meeting a single se- nior executive. Creating alignment may be your most important work. But the first step will always be to recast your vision or mission into an effective context for building a visionary company. If you do it right, you shouldn’t have to do it again for at least a decade. 1. David Packard, speech given to Hewlett-Packard’s training group on March 8, 1960; courtesy of Hewlett-Packard Archives. 2. See Nick Lyons, The Sony Vision (New York: Crown Publishers, 1976). We also used a translation by our Japanese student Tsuneto Ikeda. 3. Akio Morita, Made in Japan (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1986), p. 147. Reprint 96501 To place an order, call 1-800-545-7685.
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HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1996
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