What is Your Company’s North Star? The Keys to a Meaningful Vision

The North Star has guided travelers and explorers for over a thousand years.  Also known as Polaris, it is a bright star set in the Ursa Minor (Little Bear) Constellation with a constant position in the northern sky above the North Pole. The star’s visibility and stability made it a simple but effective navigational beacon and a dependable guide to help travelers get to their destination.  

Like the early explorers, companies too need a North Star to help them get to where they want to go.   

Enter the Vision Statement 

Much has been written and talked about when it comes to the importance of vision as the centerpiece of a company’s strategy. In this post, we will do our best to boil it down for easy consumption and a good starting point is identifying the intended audience for your vision statement. Following that, we will dive into what a vision should encompass to effectively serve as your company’s North Star. 

Target Audience 

Candidates for the audience include shareholders, media, suppliers, potential customers, unions, employees (and potential employees), and potential investors.  

Sheryl Lyons, Founder & President of Culture Spark, LLC, believes that creating a vision statement should start with a dream and then project forward 10-15 years. She further explains, “A vision statement must drive employee engagement. It should spark an emotional response that makes them want to contribute to building your company’s ideal future.”  This would seem to suggest that a company’s vision should primarily drive internal behavior and, secondarily, influence external stakeholders.  

To test this, we might consider when we’ve ever read a company’s vision statement as a precursor to doing business.  For most of us, the answer is rarely, which is not to suggest there aren’t good reasons for doing so. For example, in considering an assisted living facility for a loved one, we might be inclined to look at the company’s vision (along with their mission and values) before deciding. If you liked what you read, your hope would be that the employees of that institution wholly embrace the vision, mission and values.  

While all stakeholders can benefit from knowing your vision, employees should be the principal target.  If your employees aren’t inspired and motivated into making the dream a reality, it may be time to go back to the drawing board. 

Ingredients of a Strong Vision 

Many executives hold that a vision statement should be so ambitious as to stretch the company’s capabilities, even its imagination. Some might even go as far as saying it should be so high a bar as to be unattainable.  

SpaceX’s vision "to make life multi-planetary" is incredibly ambitious and may seem unattainable to many, but not to its visionary leader. For those working at SpaceX, this vision provides a sense of purpose and motivation. It also attracts top talent who are passionate about space exploration and innovation. 

A strong vision statement needs to declare the aspirations of your company and should aim high to be meaningful. It should point the way into the future so that it can inform decision-making and shape strategies to achieve those aspirations.  

For HPE Financial Services, this concept hits close to home as President and CEO Gerri Gold points out, “We use the term ‘aspiration’ rather than vision to define for our colleagues where we are heading as a company.” Creating smarter IT lifecycles is their aspiration to constantly evolve and improve.   

At its highest level, much like HPEFS, a vision statement should be so concise and memorable that it can be easily recited by all stakeholders.  Consider this gem: Our vision is to create innovative products that change the world.  If you didn’t know which company this was at first read, you’d eventually connect the dots to Apple.   

This begs the question: does a vision statement need to at least hint at the nature of your business? In the case of Apple, the answer would appear to be no. So too with Amazon whose vision, …to be the most customer-centric company in the world says nothing about what they do, how they go to market or how price competitive they are. Both vision statements, however, convey a message about what the company aspires to be and that nothing less than making a significant impact will do. They are short, powerful and easily remembered.   

In contrast, a lengthy, all-encompassing statement that tries to capture the full breadth of what a company does misses the purpose behind a vision statement. Large conglomerates with multiple product lines risk falling victim to this tendency.  

Beyond Employee Engagement 

In addition to motivating and providing a shared purpose for your team, a strong and effective vision statement should yield the following benefits: 

• Guide decision-making: Strategy development and all ongoing business decisions should be tested against the vision to ensure that all actions are aligned with the long-term goals of the company. 

• Attract and retain customers: Customers who share the same values and aspirations as the company will be drawn to you and will help build trust and loyalty. 

• Measure progress: A clear business vision can help to measure progress and ensure that the company is moving in the right direction. 

Overall, a strong business vision is essential for the success of any company. It helps to create a sense of purpose and direction and guides decision-making processes towards a clearly articulated common goal. The vision should be bold and forward-thinking, yet realistic enough to keep everyone motivated and aligned.  

What vision do you have for your company?  Will it push the boundaries of imagination like SpaceX, or will it be something less audacious?  

At Endurium, we specialize in helping businesses create a compelling vision that not only inspires but also forms the foundation for strategic planning. Contact us today and let us help you craft your North Star to be that dependable guide for the journey ahead.