An organizational vision statement ensures everyone is working towards a common goal, which guides the business and its employees, helps build and connect people to your internal brand, and increases employee engagement by providing purpose and direction.

Employee connected to their company vision, mission and values are more engaged as they can more clearly understand their work's purpose, direction, and meaning. According to Forbes, employees who don’t find their company vision meaningful have engagement scores of only 16%.¹ This is a widespread issue, with 52% of UK employees in 2018 unable to remember their company vision², and 59% of US employees who did not know what their company stands for.³

Businesses with a clear vision are more appealing to current and future employees, improving retention and attracting new talent, with 77% of employees considering a role based on broader company culture, including vision.⁴ As we know, happy, more engaged employees create thriving businesses, with financial evidence showing that high-purpose firms have better financial performance and that stock prices, on average, are 12 times better than those of their peers.⁵

So, an organizational vision is key to improving employee engagement and therefore business results. But what exactly is a vision, what’s a vision statement, and most importantly how do you create one that truly resonates with your employees?

What is a Company Vision?

A company vision is an idea of a business's future that motivates and inspires. A company vision statement is a formal, concise declaration of an organization's long-term goals and aspirations. It outlines what the company wants to achieve and where it wants to go, providing a starting point for business planning and a defined direction for corporate strategy.

A good vision statement should capture future business success for you, be motivating and inspirational, reflect company culture and values, and be a living, breathing document that evolves over time. A vision statement should be more than a list of objectives or shouldn't be too similar to your mission or purpose statement. Vision statements are also not based on strategy, execution or delivery - vision is the destination, where you're going, while a strategy is how you get there.

What's the Difference Between a Mission Statement and a Vision Statement?

Mission, vision, and value statements are traditionally the three most common business descriptions. While closely related, mission and vision statements are more like siblings than exactly the same thing.

A mission statement defines why a company exists, focusing on its purpose and defining its 'who' and 'what'. It identifies business objectives and how it will achieve them in the here and now. This can make writing easier, so make sure you don't stray into more of a mission statement when writing your vision statement.
A vision statement defines the company's goals, creating long-term aspirational goals. It motivates people to keep pushing forward.

TL;DR: A Mission statement answers 'why do we exist?', and a vision statement answers 'what do you want to achieve?'.

In recent years, purpose statements have also started to become popular. These sit between mission and value statements, showcasing a company's aim for its existence. They often combine elements of mission, value, and vision statements.

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How to Create a Company Vision Statement

It can affect your company’s long-term success, so take the time to craft a plan that synthesizes your ambition and motivates your staff. It’s all too common to create a vision statement that doesn’t resonate, with only 1 in 4 U.S. employees who strongly agree that the mission or purpose of their organization makes them feel their job is important.⁶

An authentic vision statement often involves several steps:

Start From Your Mission and Values: Review existing material to generate ideas for your company vision. Your vision should naturally spring from your brand and company identity rather than conflict with them.
Talk to Key Stakeholders: Gather a diverse group of stakeholders from across the business, including employees, managers, and executives, to get their opinions.
Brainstorm Ambitious Goals: Based on everything you've gathered, list your biggest goals that will challenge your organization to reach new heights, thinking about the potential impact of your brand globally.
Summarise and Edit Down: Narrow your why and what into a few sentences to keep it concise and memorable. Cut down your ideas to those that resonate the most with your organization. Make sure you keep a few different options, though!
Collect Feedback and Refine: Test your vision statement within your company and, if possible, even more broadly within your network or with professional advisors. Respond to feedback and review and adjust the statement as required.
Make it Usable: Once you have a vision statement, communicate it to your business and define where it will appear and what role it will serve in your organization.

Our Tips for Creating a Great Company Vision Statement

Avoid too many inclusions—don't obscure the message or clutter the statement with too much detail.
Keep the statement short, bold and powerful —you want to say a lot in a few words.
Ensure that it covers and stays connected to the key purpose of your business. Your vision statement needs to describe an outcome only your organization can provide—the “thing” that sets you apart from other companies in the same space.
Ensure the vision is specific and realistic regarding resources, capabilities and growth potential.
Use language that is clear, concise and free of jargon.
Don’t overthink your wording - you may find yourself rewriting a lot, but don’t get lost in the pressure; this is where testing can help.

Iconic Vision Statements Examples

A well-crafted vision statement may be hard to create, but you know it when you see it. It'll show a clear vision for the future and be relevant to your business. Vision statements can be split into concept and quality-based statements. Concepts are based on what the company hopes to be or achieve in the future, while quality-based statements often centre on internal goals around the products or services companies hope to provide.

Here are some powerful vision examples from some of the world's biggest companies, mostly concept-based statements:

Tesla: "To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."
Microsoft (original): "There will be a personal computer on every desk running Microsoft software."
Habitat for Humanity: “A world where everyone has a decent place to live.”
Sweetgreen: “To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food.”
Apple: “To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.”
Spotify: “We envision a cultural platform where professional creators can break free of their medium’s constraints and where everyone can enjoy an immersive artistic experience that enables us to empathize with each other and to feel part of a greater whole.”
CVS: “We will help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.”
Alzheimer’s Association: “A world without Alzheimer’s.”

However you see these companies making progress toward their vision statements, these examples are all emotive but related to both the business and creating an effect in the wider world. While this is easier to do within large-scale businesses, businesses of all sizes can think about and motivate their staff to make an impact in the wider world.

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Using Your Vision Statement

While it's easy to write your vision statement, make a big release to your business, and then move on, you should use it as a touchstone across as many business areas and projects as possible. This includes but isn't limited to brand development, marketing strategies, staff inductions, performance reviews and conversations with customers and suppliers. However, it's crucial that you embed your vision deeply within your organisation whilst including it in projects or displaying it across different channels like internal social media, intranet or office lobby to become authentic.

In today's digital age, digital workplaces and intranets connect employees to the company vision. While initially useful to share your vision with employees via the different notification systems available, your digital workplace should be designed with your vision in mind. The homepage of your intranet and other design elements should include your vision statement and any related documents that need to be easily found.

You could also consider using your intranet to showcase progress towards your vision or run initiatives that embed your vision and values within your organisation. For example, if your vision focuses on healthcare or the environment, how can you create reward schemes or monthly focuses that encourage employees to live healthier or be more sustainable? By leveraging digital tools, organizations can ensure that their vision is not just a document on a shelf but a living, breathing part of the company culture.

Connect Employees to Your Vision with Akumina

One of Akumina's goals has always been to help employees connect with the organization and stay engaged. We enable you to connect all employees to the company's news, events, announcements, and goals through Activity Streams personalized to every employee, hundreds of integrations, a notification hub for simplified cross-company communications and complete design freedom to create your platform your way. Schedule a short, free demo with our team today to see how we can help your vision statement shine throughout your business.