Vision And Organizational Soul Searching

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

- Japanese saying

Formulating a vision is an organizational soul-searching exercise wherein the organization defines its identity to itself and the outside world. It sets the mood for leadership and employees alike and thus dictates in a subtle, yet very strong, way the mode of operation. Take for example this part of DuPont's vision: "we deliver the miracle of science." A vision as large as life - or is it? With a vision like this, one wonders if any clear direction is given to leadership for steering the organization into the future, or for employees to understand the organizational overall purpose. But a deeper look at the words reveals the organization that DuPont aspires to be: one that sees itself and is recognized as achieving the impossible. Its vision not only reveals its commitment to do the miraculous, but also reflects the organizational character or personality. The organizational character painted by the words may be considered a little pretentious by other organizations. Another leader in the same chemical industry expresses its vision with equal strength but less flamboyance, providing that "We improve what's essential to human progress." Yet that flamboyance or confidence in their ability to do the miraculous is what sets DuPont's organizational character apart from the rest.

What Is a Vision?

A vision statement should focus on the purpose of the particular organization in a way that defines its character. It should reflect how the organization sees itself now and in the future, and how it wants to be seen by the outside world. The choice of words should aim at provoking a cer­tain mental image in the reader coupled with an emotional charge. Otherwise a vision statement will just be another document that sits in the drawers of some employees (if they can remember where they placed it). Such a vision is more of an idle, and outmoded, tool.

A vision statement can be made of few words or a number of lines. Sometimes it is equated with the mission statement. Opinions differ on what the elements and function of each statement should be but there is a general consensus that a vision statement should reflect the main spirit or purpose of an organization or a business unit. A mission statement, on the other hand, is gener­ally defined as a more detailed description of how the main purpose will be achieved by spelling out the means, the promises to customers, the main enablers (technology, creativity), and the shared values of the employees.

Many vision statements are redundant as they state the purpose of the organization in terms of what it does, and not in terms what it wants to be. An example of this are vision statements that read something like "we want to be the best manufacturer of x in the world." Such vision state­ments fail to inspire employees or create a distinctive organizational identity, and are thus sterile and ineffective. An organizational vision needs to be so strong as to define the personality, char­acter and identity of an organization or it runs the risk of being counterproductive by creating a fake sense of unity and confusion as to the direction the organization should take.

It is very important to start with formulating or amending the vision of the organization or the business unit before embarking on an ICM. This is because a vision statement, if properly drafted, provides the foundation for an ICM and establishes the business case for it. It grounds the ICM in the everyday business reality by showing how it helps the organization achieve its purpose. This is of particular importance for the KM stage; therefore, it is essential that an organ­ization defines its purpose or vision first. A well-formulated vision serves in several ways.

Find Your People

The other purpose a vision achieves is to broadly define the character of people the organization aspires to attract and will be able to retain. In DuPont's example, the vision reflects that the organization wants to attract and keep employees who do not quit even when their goal seems impossible to achieve.

That is clearly demonstrated by the vision of Disney Company: "We make dreams come true" and "We deliver the magic of Disney." Making dreams come true takes a lot of hard work and commitment, and needs both powerful imagination and advanced means (e.g., the latest in ani­mation technology). This reflects the level of commitment that Disney desires from its employ­ees: imagination, hard work, and commitment until a dream is made true. It also conveys to prospective employees Disney's commitment to provide the environment that fosters and encour­ages their creativity for them to make magic.

Connect with the Outside World

A vision statement should also define the business of the organization in terms of the real effect the organization has on the outside world. Such effect should be defined in a way that goes beyond the delivery of certain products or services. Coca-Cola is very good at this. It sees itself as being in the business of refreshment and invigoration of people rather than making and selling drinks. Defining its business this way, Coca-Cola creates a distinctive character that impacts its business at both the strategic planning and operational levels. Coca-Cola adopts and implements business plans that reinforce this character by delivering high emotional value with their products and taking an active part in the communities they serve. This translates into consumers who become increasingly loyal to the brand that delivers to them a story - an emotional value - rather than just a drink. That connection with the outside world was a result of Coca-Cola's envisioning itself as refreshing people rather than making a drink.

Taking a look at leaders in other industries, the same trend is detected. Such organizations define their business and purpose in reference to the way they see themselves impacting their society or the whole of humanity. Dow's business is "to improve what is essential to human progress" and not to make chemicals, and Pfizer sees itself as contributing to humanity's quest for a better life. Pfizer is in the business of healing, rather than the business of making and sell­ing drugs. Envisioning its role in this way, Pfizer has created and maintained a distinctive char­acter of being caring of both its employees and its customers - a character that is continuously affirmed by the way Pfizer responds to its community.

Transform the Organization

Visions are usually set by the founding leaders of the organization. Nonetheless, it is common to have an organization change its vision if it is considered restrictive or unsuitable for the times, or if it does not conform to the vision of a new leader who sets out to transform the organization. A vision can transform an organization since it sets the tone, the culture, and the envisioned reality of an organization.

The power of vision to transform a whole organization can be seen in the story of Franklin Pierce Law Center (Pierce Law). Historically, the powerful vision of Pierce Law took it from the farm barn headquarters where it was established in 1973, to become a state-of-the-art school that is renowned globally for its intellectual property (IP) program.6 Established at a time when the term intellectual property (and patent law) was seen as the black sheep in legal education, Pierce Law's vision was to advance IP law to support inventors and promote innovation in business. At times when little academic attention was given to IP, let alone research or law reform activities, Pierce Law's vision was indeed futuristic.

Pierce Law maintained its position as the national leader in this area of law until powerful competitors joined the race,7 which - though able to join Pierce Law at the U.S. national arena - could not effectively compete with it internationally. The implications of this are cru­cial from a strategic standpoint. Other competitors, who are supported by powerful financial and administrative infrastructures, now share the once unique competitive advantage of Pierce Law in IP law. Furthermore, IP law courses per se became more of a commodity as these courses were embraced by mainstream legal education. The vision of the founders has brought Pierce Law to where it is, but as it substantially materialized, it can no longer inspire it into the future. Intellectual property law may remain Pierce Law's cash cow,8 but to maintain its leadership position Pierce Law needs a new vision to take it into the future.

After suffering the loss of two consecutive deans, Pierce Law was deanless for a number of years until the appointment of John Hutson in 2000. Faced with the daunting task of reformulat­ing a vision for the future, Hutson started with organizational soul searching. For months, he focused on consulting key people, feeling the organizational culture, discovering the strengths, testing the depths of the strengths and weaknesses, and dissecting the old vision for insight. Eventually, it became clear to Hutson that connecting business to IP and other areas of law in legal education is the way to the future:

Our vision is to be business-oriented,. . . our graduates will not hold MBAs but they will certainly have a keen appreciation of business needs and concerns. Augmenting their legal qualifications with appreciation of business we are graduating a genera­tion of lawyers who will facilitate business development.

This vision led change in the school and permeated into the strategies of the various depart­ments from admission - where the vision is offered to prospective students - to faculty commit­tees where new courses are developed and new credentials are recruited. Most importantly, it affected the culture, which should be aligned with the new initiative before any change is intro­duced, as explained next.