The vision

4.3.1 The vision

For top management to lead the organisation to success in the future it needs an inspiring vision that everybody in the organisation – and external stakeholders – shares in and is excited about. Effective vision push the organisations and individuals within that organisation to look outside of themselves to see what is currently are but what they could

be in the future. A vision is also about creating expectations at an organisational level as well as at an individual level. 3 Henry Ford had such a vision for his company, namely `to make the

automobile accessible to every American’. McDonald’s vision statement is `to be the world’s best quick service restaurant experience’.

It should be clear from both these statements that the vision is not what these companies do, but where they dream to be in the future. The vision should provide clear sense of what the organisation hopes to become – an anchor for decision making in the organisation. The vision is the end, not the means of getting to the end. A company in the railroad business (means) should rather see their business as `getting people to their destinations’ (end). When formulating a vision statement, the means should not be confused with the end. The success of the vision statement depends largely on how well it is shared the organisation’s stakeholders.

These stakeholders include the organisation’s shareholders, its employees, customers, suppliers, the community in which it operates, and the government. These stakeholders all have vested interests in the future of the organisation. Employees, for instance, want to know that the organisation can provide them with job security – now and in the future; shareholders want to know that their invested will grow bovver the long term; customers want to know that they have bought from a reputable organisation, and so on.

A clear vision is important to an organisation for the following reasons: 4  It portrays the dream that the organisation has for the future.

 It promotes changes. A vision serves as a road map for an organisation as it moves through accelerated change. It is also a vehicle for driving change.  It provides the basis for a strategic plan  It enhances a wide range of performance measures. It has been found that organisations

with a clear vision statement outperform those that do not possess one. This should be considered by shareholders when selecting organisations in which they can invest.

 It helps to keep decision making in context. Vision provide focus and direction. Organisations with a clear vision help employees to focus their attention on what is most important to the organisation, discouraging them from exploiting short-term opportunities they may otherwise seize. In South Africa, as well as in other countries, organisations, organisation s tend to become managerially leaner and flatter; decision making becomes more decentralised. A clear vision can affect the perspectives or premises that people use to make decisions in the absence of direct supervision.

 It motivates individuals and facilitates the recruitment of talent. A vision should enable employees to see how their effort contributes to the organisation’s success. The vision should also indicate the attributes valued by the organisation, for example innovation

and knowledge.  It has positive consequences. When top management effectively communicates the vision, there is a significantly higher level of job satisfaction, commitment, loyalty, pride, esprit de corps , clarity about the organisation’s values, productivity, and encouragement.

Some vision statements are written in a conversational prose. Some crisply outlined in point form; some are vague and abstract on some topics but clear and precise on others. There is no template for the style of a vision statement. Companies often keep their vision statement to themselves: if the competition knew where you wanted to be, they could easily create a strategy to get in the way and prevent the business from moving closer to its vision.

Student task: