Most Vision Statements Reveal Management Weakness Not Strength

Aside from creating amusement and occasionally disdain amongst staff, what earthly use are vision statements to any business? For a start, if most companies actively presented their ‘statements’ to customers, they would be laughed out of court or shown to be the perpetrators of significant service lies. For example, I was in a very slow moving long queue at a car rental counter recently, manned by just one young lady who didn’t even look at those of us ‘waiting’, let alone talk to us. During this agony we could all see the company’s vision statement on prominent display, promising the opposite form of service to the kind we were enduring!

Additionally, if organisations treated their financial statements as they do vision statements, they would be locked up. We are not allowed by law to present financial data in an untruthful manner, but no such laws govern corporate use of flowery language, absurd claims and arrant nonsense.

And why is it that so many companies appear to have vision and mission statements that are virtually identical? Could it be that the ‘statements’ have been created using the supervision of like-minded consultants?

At a conference not long ago the CEO of a large company was due to set out the company’s latest ‘vision’ to managers and staff, just prior to my own presentation. Unfortunately, technical difficulties meant that he couldn’t use his PowerPoint presentation, and understandably he was hopping mad. In an effort to help I suggested that he should perhaps use the old-fashioned whiteboard to outline the vision…but this wasn’t possible because he couldn’t remember what it was! In a similar incident in New Zealand, a senior executive handed me what proved to be his last business card and pointed out the ‘7 Values’ of the company on the reverse of the card. I thanked him, put the card in the pocket of my shirt and the conversation continued. A few minutes later I asked him which of the 7 values were the most challenging; he seemed to reflect for a moment and then said ‘Can I have the card back for a moment please?’ Yikes!

At a conference for industry executives I asked the attendees how many of them had a vision statement. Almost all of the hands went up, after which I asked how many could recite the statement there and then, and only one man had his hand up!

People who operate in various ‘professions’ have ‘oaths’ or ‘creeds’ that guide their purpose and conduct, and while their respective statements are quite honourable in content…they are most often not put on public display. So why does the world of business do the opposite, and in the process present such menial messages? The answer is that ‘menial management’ prevails almost everywhere you look. Here are some clues:

• Most hotel chains use ‘guest surveys’ that feature the same layout and the same large number and inane type of questions (they get less than 3% of the surveys returned by the way!)

• Many companies use the same ‘titles’ for their sales people…such as BDM, BRM, etc. (no change of function, just a higher promise to customers which often turns out to be a lie). The boss of one company told me in solemn tones that his sales people were called BDM’s and then I found out that the customers referred to the sales people as ‘brochure delivery managers’!

• Huge numbers of companies are investing heavily in CRM, while they persist in offering a weak value proposition…via a weak sales team • An enormous number of companies use the same, lame Tele-marketing approach • Very high numbers of companies use ‘traditional’ sales training, if any, involving futile learning challenges such as ‘how to handle objections’, ‘how to close the sale’, etc.

I have no doubt that vision and mission statements will soon join the long list of discarded ‘new’ philosophies we have endured over the years (MBO, quality circles, change management, SPIN selling, etc.). By the way, you may have noticed the contradiction that vision statements usually have nothing remotely ‘visual’ about them. This is strange because the Encyclopaedic World Dictionary uses the word ‘vivid’ in its description of the word vision (see the description of vision at the beginning of the article), and vivid is defined as meaning ‘forming distinct and striking mental images’.

Real ‘vision’ in the business world generally comes to us from two power- sources, and neither of these areas of expertise finds reason to create ‘statements’. The first group involves the special people who are capable of creating completely new and excellent products for us to use in business and private life. Examples in recent times include Internet services, Laptops, Mobile phones, then going back we see Television, motor cars, etc.

The second and largest power-source group is more down to earth and makes up most of the business area of vision. These are the managers who position themselves to see and be affected by the problems and needs of those they associate with, such as customers, employees and suppliers. They also position themselves to see the ways in which leading customers achieve outstanding results, as the basis for creating benchmarks and performance platforms for all other customers. The ‘positioning’ factor for these managers is crucial because intercepting and interpreting problems, needs and outstanding performance rarely happens by accident. One has to be where the problems, needs and achievements can be displayed and discussed, which is almost always outside of transaction mode. Good managers therefore have organised ways of learning from customers and staff, etc., and as they ‘discover’ problems, needs and high-level achievement methods from just a few, they become inspired to envision a better future for the entire market…which is the equivalent of labour pains leading to the birth of new product and service ideas.

When managers learn how to be consistently and significantly affected by those they serve and work with, they are naturally possessed of a vision that need not be displayed by ‘statements’ on paper, but through the active influence of higher human qualities such as purpose, enthusiasm, commitment and professional conduct.

John Lees is a speaker, consultant, trainer and the author of 10 books...specialising in marketing & sales.

Website: www.johnLees.com.au email: info@johnlees.com.au



Most Vision Statements Reveal Management Weakness Not Strength - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees's Website.

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