Building Your Company

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Building Your Companys Vision A recap of the HBR
article written by James C. Collins and Jerry
Summarized and editorialized by Cindy Diamond
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Vision Workshop

• Why do this?
• Creates a structure around which to build your
  priorities and actions and guides those
  priorities and actions
• Helps establish alignment around who you are and
  where you are going
• Guides your selection of partners and others
  selection of you (including partners, employees,
  investors/donors)
• Provides inspiration and clarity
• Opens up a new possibilities and ideas
  stretches the imagination and motivates people
  to rethink what is possible

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Key Components
Vision
Core Ideology Captures what you stand for and why
you exist. Role is to guide and inspire those
inside, not to differentiate.
Envisioned Future Aspirations
Core Purpose Reason for being. Rarely if ever
changes.
Core Values Timeless guiding principles. Rarely
if ever change.
BHAG Clearly articulated, lofty goal -- 15
years out.
Vivid Description What the future looks like
when youre successful.
Key Strategies How will we achieve the BHAG
within the context of our core ideology?
Source Building Your Companys Vision, by
James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras HBR
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Core Ideology

• You do not create or set core ideology. You
  discover core ideology.
• You understand it by looking inside.
• Ideology must be authentic. You cannot fake it.
• It must be meaningful and inspirational only to
  people inside it need not be exciting to
  outsiders or differentiating vs. others.
• The point is not to create a perfect statement
  but to gain a deep understanding of your core
  values and purpose which can then be expressed
  in a multitude of ways.
• Once you are clear about the core ideology, you
  should feel free to change absolutely anything is
  not part of it. If its not core, its up for
  change!

Source Building Your Companys Vision, by
James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras HBR
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Core Values

• Guiding principles that already exist but may not
  be articulated ask what core values do we
  truly and passionately hold?
• 3-5 essential and enduring tenets (do not change)
• Require no external justification they have
  intrinsic value and importance to those inside
  (goal is to guide and inspire, not to
  differentiate)
• Must be authentic you can not fake it

• Sharei Chesed Synagogue
• Accepting and respecting of all
• Love your neighbor as yourself
• Inspiration through learning and teaching
• Accountability to ourselves, our synagogue and
  our communities

• Sony
• Elevation of the Japanese culture and national
  status
• Being a pioneer not following others, doing the
  impossible
• Encouraging individual ability and creativity

• Walt Disney
• No cynicism
• Nurturing and promulgation of wholesome American
  values
• Creativity, dreams and imagination
• Fanatical attention to detail consistency

Source Building Your Companys Vision, by
James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras HBR
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Core Purpose

• Articulates your reason for being
• Provides inspiration and direction for doing the
  work
• Should not change through time and circumstances
• Never truly completed a guiding star on the
  horizon

United Way To mobilize local leaders and their
communities in order to identify and address
local human needs.
Make a Wish Foundation To enrich the lives of
children with life-threatening medical
conditions.
3M To solve unsolved problems innovatively
Sharei Chesed Synagogue To share and experience
the joys and comforts of Judaism in a friendly
place where all feel welcome.
Lost Arrow Corporation To be a role model and a
tool for social change.
Source Building Your Companys Vision, by
James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras HBR
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Core Purpose Criteria

• States your organizations reason for begin
• Provides inspiration and direction for doing the
  work
• Timeless
• Never truly completed
• Not a statement of core competence
• Doesnt have to be differentiating

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Envisioned FutureConsists of a 10-to-30 year
audacious goal plus vivid descriptions of what it
would be like to achieve the goal.

• BHAG Big Hairy Audacious Goal
• The goal is a huge challenge, akin to climbing
  Mt. Everest.
• It is clear and compelling it serves as a
  unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a
  catalyst for team spirit.
• Organizations may have many BHAGs at different
  levels operating at the same time but must have a
  vision-level BHAG that applies to the entire
  organization.
• Requires thinking beyond current capabilities and
  the current environment.
• A BHAG should require extraordinary effort and
  perhaps a little luck.
• Vivid Description
• Think of it as translating the vision of the
  future from words into pictures, of creating an
  image people can carry around in their heads to
  make it tangible.

Source Building Your Companys Vision, by
James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras HBR
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Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)

• A clearly articulated goal with a clear finish
  line
• Achievable within a specific timeframe (10-30
  years)
• 15 knowledge of how, 50-70 sure we can
• Tangible, energizing, highly focused people get
  it right away

Boeing, 1950 (Target BHAG can be qualitative
or quantitative) Become the dominant player in
commercial aircraft and bring the world into the
jet age.
Stanford University (Role-Model BHAG) Become the
Harvard of the west.
Nike (Common-enemy BHAG) Crush Adidas
Computer Products Company (Internal-Transformation
BHAG) Transform from a industry innovation
follower to industry innovation leader
Source Building Your Companys Vision, by
James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras HBR
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Vivid Description

• A vibrant, engaging and specific description of
  what it will be like to achieve the BHAG
• Makes the BHAG tangible in peoples minds
• Passion, emotion and conviction are essential
  parts of the description
• Creative process

Example Division of product company with BHAG
of becoming one of the most sought-after
divisions in the company We will be respected
and admired by our peers . . . Our solutions will
be actively sought by the other divisions, who
will achieve significant success in the
marketplace largely become of our technical
contributions. . . We will have pride in
ourselves. . . The best up-and-coming people in
the company will seek to work in our division. .
. People will give unsolicited feedback that they
love what they are doing. . . Our own people will
walk on the balls of their feet. . . They will
willingly work hard because they want to. . .Both
employees and customers will feel that our
division has contributed to their life in a
positive way.
Source Building Your Companys Vision, by
James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras HBR
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• For more information on vision workshops and
  other strategy, team building and innovation
  workshops, please contact
• Cindy Diamond
• Diamond Marketing Solutions / IGNiTE
• www.ignitenewthinking.com
• cdiamonds_at_comcast.net
• 763-553-2018