That Vision Thing: Do We Need It?
That Vision Thing: Do We Need It?
Michael E. Raynor
T H E CEO OF IBM, LOUIS V. Gerstner, Jr., was widely quoted in the press when, faced with the challenge of turning around the beleaguered computer maker, he said, 'the last thing IBM needs right now is a vision '. 1 For a good many critics, Gerstner 's comment was greeted with a heartfelt 'it 's about t i m e ' - - t h a t is, it is about time that a senior executive had the courage to speak up and put all that rhetoric about visions and missions in its place. There is justification for such cynicism. There is a surfeit of articles and books claiming to spell out the one best way to create vision and mission, and no two read alike. As a consequence, what exactly mission and vision statements are supposed to do for a company remains a mystery. Nevertheless, like a Phoenix from the ashes, the idea of corporate mission was resurrected at IBM by none other than Gerstner himself. Drafted in late 1993 (a year when losses at Big Blue exceeded US$8 billion), IBM 's Statement of Principles (see Table 1) is slowly being disseminated through the company.
'Vision ' and 'mission ' are words whose power is overshadowed only by the confusion which surrounds them. And so, while many executives are convinced of the importance of vision and mission statemenIs, they remain frustrated in their a~empts to realize the full value of these concepts. This article presents a comprehensive framework for vision and mission
of how the framework has been used successfully. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
• The marketplace is the driving force behind everything that w e do. • At our core, we are a t e c h n o l o g y c o m p a n y w i t h an o v e r r i d i n g c o m m i t m e n t to quality. • Our p r i m a r y measures of success are c u s t o m e r satisfaction and s h a r e h o l d e r value. • We operate as an entrepreneurial organization w i t h a m i n i m u m of bureaucracy and a never-ending focus on
Michael E. Raynor
T H E CEO OF IBM, LOUIS V. Gerstner, Jr., was widely quoted in the press when, faced with the challenge of turning around the beleaguered computer maker, he said, 'the last thing IBM needs right now is a vision '. 1 For a good many critics, Gerstner 's comment was greeted with a heartfelt 'it 's about t i m e ' - - t h a t is, it is about time that a senior executive had the courage to speak up and put all that rhetoric about visions and missions in its place. There is justification for such cynicism. There is a surfeit of articles and books claiming to spell out the one best way to create vision and mission, and no two read alike. As a consequence, what exactly mission and vision statements are supposed to do for a company remains a mystery. Nevertheless, like a Phoenix from the ashes, the idea of corporate mission was resurrected at IBM by none other than Gerstner himself. Drafted in late 1993 (a year when losses at Big Blue exceeded US$8 billion), IBM 's Statement of Principles (see Table 1) is slowly being disseminated through the company.
'Vision ' and 'mission ' are words whose power is overshadowed only by the confusion which surrounds them. And so, while many executives are convinced of the importance of vision and mission statemenIs, they remain frustrated in their a~empts to realize the full value of these concepts. This article presents a comprehensive framework for vision and mission
of how the framework has been used successfully. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
• The marketplace is the driving force behind everything that w e do. • At our core, we are a t e c h n o l o g y c o m p a n y w i t h an o v e r r i d i n g c o m m i t m e n t to quality. • Our p r i m a r y measures of success are c u s t o m e r satisfaction and s h a r e h o l d e r value. • We operate as an entrepreneurial organization w i t h a m i n i m u m of bureaucracy and a never-ending focus on
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