Vision statement

A vision statement is a high-level, inspirational statement of an idealistic emotional future of a company or group. Vision describes the basic human emotion that a founder intends to be experienced by the people the organization interacts with.

Vision statements may fill the following functions for a company:

• Serve as foundations for a broader strategic plan.
• Motivate existing employees and attract potential employees by clearly categorizing the company's goals and attracting like-minded individuals.
• Focus company efforts and facilitate the creation of core competencies by directing the company to only focus on strategic opportunities that advance the company's vision.
• Help companies differentiate from competitors.

A consensus does not exist on the characteristics of a "good" or "bad" vision statement. Commonly cited traits include:

• concise: able to be easily remembered and repeated
• clear: defines a prime goal
• time horizon: defines a time horizon
• future-oriented: describes where the company is going rather than the current state
• stable: offers a long-term perspective and is unlikely to be impacted by market or technology changes
• challenging: not something that can be easily met and discarded
• abstract: general enough to encompass all of the organization's interests and strategic direction
• inspiring: motivates employees and is something that employees view as desirable