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Building Your Company's Vision (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)

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James Collins is a management researcher from Boulder (Colorado) and Jerry Porras is a professor of organizational behavior and change at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. This article is based on their novel 'Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies'.

In this 1996-article, the authors explain the successful companies have core values and core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices adapt to a changing world. Great companies understand the difference between what should never change and what should be open for change. Vision provides guidance about what core to preserve and what future to stimulate progress toward. Vision consists of two major components: (1) Core ideology defines the enduring character of an organization - a consistent identity, in which core values are the essential and enduring tenets of an organization, and core purposes is the organization's reason for being. The role of core ideology is to huide and inspire, not to differentiate. It needs to be meaningful and inspirational only to people inside the organization. (2) Envisioned future consists of vision-level Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAG) and vivid description. Big, hairy, audacious goals are often bold missions, although they should be clear and compelling, and are a powerful way to stimulate progress. Vivid description is a vibrant, engaging, and specific description of what it will be like to achieve the BHAG. It serves as a translation of the vision from words into pictures in which passion, emotion and conviction are an essential part.

Great strength of this article is that the authors recommend a conceptual framework to define vision and give practical guidance for articulating a coherent vision within an organization. They also provide reassurance for people with less imagination - according to the authors building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment. Great article, which resulted in me buying their book 'Built to Last'. Jim Collins has recently published his latest book 'Good to Great' (October 2001). The authors use simple US-English.