At this time of year, along with developing your business plan for the coming year, you should be reviewing your company’s Mission (or Core Purpose) statement, Vision statement, and list of Core Values. The Mission is your “reason for being,” the purpose of the business beyond providing income for the owner and stakeholders. The Core Values represent your organization’s personality. They define how you behave, how you treat each other, and the values that drive your priorities.
Vision, or Future Vision as we term it at Violand Management, is what you want your business to become; what you will achieve or create. A part of that Vision is the size of your company in terms of revenue, number of locations or geographic scope, and the breadth of services you will provide. In our recently updated training designed to lead business planners through the process of defining their Future Vision, we explain the need for a Flag — a measurable target you set for your business to achieve 10 or more years in the future. Your Flag can be a quantifiable goal or one that is more qualitative. In the early 1960s, NASA had the Flag: To land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth.