What is an organizational vision?
An organizational vision is your take on the future state of the world – what you want your firm to be and how you envision the industry that it will be operating in. IT straddles being aspirational and realistic – something desirable to aim towards but at the same time a somewhat realistic prospect to allow you and others to buy into it.
Why is having a vision for your firm important?
One of the key challenges with starting a business is getting commitment from others. You need others to buy into your company – be it customers, employees, or suppliers. Even if you are going it alone as a solo entrepreneur, you will still need the support and commitment of others at some points.
Having an organizational vision is important for achieving this. It is the state of the world that you envision, and if you can convince others that this will be a likely situation – be it the technology that you are developing, or the superiority of the product that you are producing – then this will help gain their support.
The vision helps overcome initial concerns – there are likely hundreds of things where as a startup you have not yet fully got in place. Maybe the technology has some kinks or the product has yet to go into production. Having a vision helps get others to see past these initial issues, and concentrate on the ultimate state of the business.
Being able to sell your vision
Of course, having a vision is only part of the process of getting others commitment to your business. You also need to be able to sell others on your vision – communicate it, and help get them to buy into the same vision that you have.
Founders are sometimes worried that sharing their vision and allowing others to see it will pose a competitive risk. While there are is certainly things that you may not want to share with others, without gaining the support of others, success is a lot less likely. You need not share your entire strategy of how you will compete to be able to sell others on the possibility that you are pursuing.
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