What Is a Vision Statement?

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what is the vision of business plan

Writing a vision statement for your business can be challenging because it must define your company, values and future goals. While many established companies focus on their mission statement , a vision statement is a valuable tool for inspiring your team and forging a corporate identity. 

We’ll explore vision statements and their importance, as well as offer tools and best practices for crafting an inspiring vision statement that powers your growth strategy. 

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement is a written declaration clarifying your business’s meaning and purpose for stakeholders, especially employees. It describes the desired long-term results of your company’s efforts. For example, an early Microsoft vision statement was “a computer on every desk and in every home.” 

“A company vision statement reveals, at the highest levels, what an organization most hopes to be and achieve in the long term,” said Katie Trauth Taylor, owner and CEO of Untold Content, a writing consultancy. “It serves a somewhat lofty purpose – to harness all the company’s foresight into one impactful statement.” 

A vision statement matters because it outlines the common goal of everyone in the company. Businesses that are working toward a higher aspiration are more appealing to current and future employees. 

A vision statement can affect a company’s long-term success, so take the time to craft one that synthesizes your ambition and mobilizes your staff.

A vision statement can increase employee engagement while making it easier to hire new employees for a cultural fit .

What’s the difference between a vision statement and a mission statement?

Mission statements are based in the present and convey to stakeholders and community members why a business exists and where it currently stands. Vision statements are future-based, and they are meant to inspire and give direction to employees. 

“The vision is about your goals for the future and how you will get there, whereas the mission is about where you are now and why you exist,” said Paige Arnof-Fenn, founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, a global strategic marketing consulting firm. “The vision should motivate the team to make a difference and be part of something bigger than themselves.” 

Mission statements and vision statements are both crucial for building a brand . “While a mission statement focuses on the purpose of the brand, the vision statement looks to the fulfillment of that purpose,” said Jessica Honard, co-CEO of North Star Messaging + Strategy, a copywriting and messaging firm that serves entrepreneurs. 

Although mission and vision statements should be core elements of your organization, a vision statement should serve as your company’s guiding light. 

“A vision is aspiration; a mission is actionable,” said Jamie Falkowski, chief creative officer at marketing and communications company Day One Agency.

Creating the perfect vision statement may seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Follow these suggestions and best practices when crafting your vision statement. 

Determine who will shape your vision. 

The first step in writing a vision statement is determining who will craft it. In a small business, you may be able to ask everyone for their insight. In a larger operation, you may need to be more selective while still capturing a range of employee voices.

Evaluate your company’s published materials. 

Your company likely already has published goals and established values in its employee handbook , marketing materials and other publications. Use this information to guide your work, suggested Alison Brehme, an author and content, marketing and media strategist.

“A company’s mission, purpose, goals and values are all involved in the creation of a company vision,” Brehme said. “Weave these concepts and beliefs into your vision statement.”

Hold workshops to brainstorm your vision. 

Brandon Shockley, former vice president of market research at branding and marketing firm 160over90 and now head of investor research and insights at Vanguard, recommended hosting workshops with key stakeholders representing a cross-section of your organization. Then, he said, assemble teams and use collaboration tools to create alternate versions of the statement, and gather employee feedback about how each version resonates. 

Get individual input. 

Falkowski also suggested conducting interviews with individual stakeholders to encourage honest feedback. Employees can identify common themes, describe the organization’s future in words or use visual branding tools as a basis for the vision statement. 

Check out competitors’ vision statements. 

Look at your competitors’ vision statements to determine how you can differentiate your business from theirs. [Related article: How to Do a Competitive Analysis ]

Keep it short but meaningful. 

A vision statement should be concise – no longer than a sentence or two. You want your entire organization to be able to repeat it quickly and, more importantly, understand it. However, a vision statement must be more than a catchy tagline.

“[It] can be smart and memorable, but this is for your team and culture, not for selling a specific product,” Falkowski said. 

Create a longer version for leadership’s eyes only. 

Don’t fret if you feel that a short vision statement doesn’t fully express the intricacies of your vision. You can create a longer version, but it should not be the one you broadcast to the world.

“Let’s be honest – most business leaders, not to mention boards of directors, won’t be able to sum up their vision in a pithy sentence or two. That’s OK,” said Shannon DeJong, owner of brand agency House of Who. “Have a full-length version of your vision for the leadership’s eyes only. Think of the long version as your reference guide to why you’re in business in the first place.” 

Map out your business’s biggest goals. 

When you’re crafting your vision statement, start by mapping out your business’s most audacious goals, Taylor suggested. “Reviewing your long-term goals in a collaborative setting will help you then zoom out on what your organization and the world will look like if you achieve them. That zoomed-out view of your success is really the heart of your vision statement.”

Consider your company’s potential global impact. 

Ask questions that reflect your business’s eventual scale and impact, Honard advised. “Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ve created a roadmap between your present and your future.”

These are a few of the questions Honard uses in guiding clients to identify their vision statement:

  • What ultimate impact do I want my brand to have on my community, my industry or the world?
  • In what way will my brand ultimately interact with customers and clients?
  • What will the culture of my business look like, and how will that play out in employees’ lives? 

Dream big. 

Don’t be afraid to dream big once you gather all the information and get down to writing. Don’t worry about practicality for now; what initially looks impossible may be achieved down the road with the right team and technologies. Work on shaping a vision statement that reflects the specific nature of your business and its aspirations. 

Be daring, not generic. 

Shockley said there’s nothing wrong with a vision statement that is daring, distinct or even disagreeable. “If a vision statement sets out a generic goal that anyone can agree with, it is likely to produce mediocre results. A goal like ‘delivering an exceptional experience’ applies equally to a hospital, bank or fitness club.” 

Consider creating a brand vision board. 

If you’re interested in taking your vision one step further, create a brand vision board, Taylor suggested. A vision board includes your company’s tagline, a “who we are” statement, a “what we do” section, a business vision statement, an overview of your ideal clients, client pain points, your content mission statement, advertising, products and SEO keywords.

“A vision board serves as a one-page business plan that anyone in a company can reference quickly to remember the key concepts that drive the work,” Taylor said.

Quick tips for your vision statement

Here’s a quick breakdown of what to do when formalizing your vision statement:

  • Project five to 10 years into the future.
  • Dream big, and focus on success.
  • Use the present tense.
  • Use clear, concise, jargon-free language.
  • Infuse it with passion, and make it inspiring.
  • Align it with your business values and goals.
  • Create a plan to communicate your vision statement to your employees.
  • Prepare to commit time and resources to the vision you establish. 

Your completed vision statement should offer a clear idea of your company’s path forward. Honard said many of her clients have used their vision statements to direct their overall plans for the future. For example, they’ve adopted new marketing initiatives to move them closer to their vision, pivoted their focus to clearly reflect their desired outcome, or doubled down on one particular aspect of their brand that is working to serve their vision.

When you’re setting business goals and taking actionable steps to achieve them, take time to visualize what your goal achievement will look like.

What to avoid when writing a vision statement

  • Don’t mix up your mission statement and vision statement. Mission statements are generally easier to write because they reflect what you’re doing now. Remember, a mission statement is what you are working to accomplish today, while a vision statement is what you want to accomplish in the future.
  • Don’t overthink your wording. One of the hardest parts of creating a vision statement is coming up with the right wording. You may find yourself endlessly rewriting and fretting about getting it right. Does this sentence or two define your values and shine a light on your corporate identity without sounding too vague? Don’t get lost in the pressure of perfect wording; a specific and unique vision statement is a good place to begin distinguishing your business from the rest of the industry. 

How to use your vision statement

Determine where your vision statement will appear and what role it will serve in your organization. This will make the process more than an intellectual exercise, Shockley said. It’s pointless to hang a vision statement in the lobby or promote it via your business’s social media channels if you never genuinely integrate it into your company culture . 

“The vision business statement should be thought of as part of your strategic plan,” Shockley said. “It is an internal communications tool that helps align and inspire your team to reach the company’s goals.” 

As such, you should view a vision statement as a living document that will be revisited and revised. Most importantly, it must speak directly to your employees. 

“If your employees don’t buy into the vision, you’ll never be able to carry it out,” said Keri Lindenmuth, director of marketing with the Kyle David Group, a web and tech solutions provider. “The vision statement should be something your employees believe in. Only then will they make decisions and take actions that reflect your business’s vision.”

Help employees take ownership of the vision by asking them to identify ways they could incorporate the vision statement into their daily jobs. Reward employees with cool job perks when you catch them exemplifying the vision.

20 examples of inspiring vision statements

Some memorable and distinct vision statements may be all the inspiration you need to write your own. Here are some of the best examples of inspiring vision statements: 

  • Amazon: “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
  • Ben & Jerry’s: “Making the best ice cream in the nicest possible way.”
  • Caterpillar: “Our vision is a world in which all people’s basic needs – such as shelter, clean water, sanitation, food, and reliable power – are fulfilled in an environmentally sustainable way, and a company that improves the quality of the environment and the communities where we live and work.”
  • Cradles to Crayons: “Provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school, and at play.”
  • Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click.”
  • Habitat for Humanity: “A world where everyone has a decent place to live.”
  • Hilton Hotels & Resorts: “To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality by delivering exceptional experiences – every hotel, every guest, every time.”
  • IKEA: “To create a better everyday life for the many people.”
  • Intel: “If it’s smart and connected, it’s best with Intel.”
  • LinkedIn: “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
  • Oxfam: “To be a self-organized people actively creating a just democratic and sustainable world where power and resources are shared, everyone lives in dignity, and poverty and inequality are no more.”
  • Patagonia: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
  • Prezi: “To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.”
  • Samsung: “Shape the future with innovation and intelligence.”
  • Southwest Airlines: “To become the world’s most loved, most flown and most profitable airline.”
  • Sweetgreen: “To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food.”
  • TED: “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives, and, ultimately, the world.”
  • Walgreens: “To be America’s most-loved pharmacy-led health, well-being and beauty company.”
  • Warby Parker: “We believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun.”
  • Wyeth: “Our vision is to lead the way to a healthier world.”

Often, the hardest part of creating a vision statement is coming up with wording that truly defines your values and shines a light on your corporate identity without sounding too vague.

Can vision statements change?

Many companies benefit from having a vision statement from their inception, but it’s perfectly acceptable not to commit to one specific vision immediately. 

“Getting too tied into one master statement can really mess with the learning and creation process in the early stages,” said Sonia Elyss, president of marketing and communications collective Round Twelve. She encourages her clients to write a vision statement monthly, save the previous drafts, and see what sticks and what doesn’t over time. 

“After the first year, you can look back and see how much you have evolved,” Elyss said. “What parts or words within the statement stuck around, and what was dropped? Those key words tend to end up being major brand pillars you can always come back to and eventually become part of the brand ethos.” 

Tying yourself to a particular vision statement in the early days of your business may limit your opportunities for growth or blind you to the need for change. 

“At the end of the day, trust your gut; test and check; look at the analytics; invest in the feedback your customer is giving you,” Elyss said. “If you aren’t willing to step outside of your initial vision for your business, you might miss a huge opportunity!” 

Regardless of how many years you have been in business or how long you have had your vision statement, you’re not stuck with it. Don’t be afraid to change it – even if you spent time and money developing it – if it stops feeling right. 

The vision for your vision statement

A vision statement is a tool that can help your business grow and achieve brand success. Along the journey of growing your business, you’ll face good months, rough months, and every detour and roadblock imaginable. 

Above all, your vision statement should constantly remind you and your team of the end goal. This message is important to hold on to, especially on the most challenging days. 

Bassam Kaado and Paula Fernandes contributed to the writing and reporting in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

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How to write a vision statement: Steps and examples

Julia Martins contributor headshot

The vision statement is designed to inspire employees, compel investors, and engage the imaginations of your customers. It paints a picture of your company's future and the impact you want your business to have on the world.

It takes work and creativity to write an inspiring vision statement. Here, we'll break down the elements of a great vision statement, guide you through the process, and walk through a few examples of excellent vision statements and explain what makes them great.

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement is your company’s guiding beacon. It zooms out to give perspective on the overarching reasons for your company's mission. Rather than articulating the specifics of your business operations, the vision statement describes how your company seeks to impact and improve the world around it.

Vision statement vs. mission statement

While both statements help define your company's character and personality, there are some key differences between a vision statement and a mission statement.

The mission statement describes what your company does in the present. It's comprised of three parts: what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. 

A vision statement outlines the company's long-term goals and aspirations for the future in terms of its long-term growth and impact on the world. Your mission defines what your organization does and what you stand for, while your vision statement speaks to your goals and ideals for the future. 

[inline illustration] Vision vs. mission statement (infographic)

Characteristics of a great vision statement

Vision statements are like snowflakes—each one is unique to its company in length, form, structure, and scope. Your vision statement should reflect your company's personality. However, there are a few traits that all great vision statements share. No matter how unique a statement is in terms of size, shape, or structure, a good vision statement should be:

The purpose of a vision statement is to inspire employees, investors, and customers to believe in your company's mission. Great vision statements are aspirational and ambitious. They convey a sense of passion for the ideal future toward which the company is working.

Though your vision needs to be ambitious in order to be inspiring, it shouldn't be so far out of reach that it feels impossible. You want to choose something that your company will have to strive for, but a completely unattainable goal isn't a vision—it's a fantasy.

A vision statement connects your company mission to your goals, but it isn’t a goal in and of itself. If your vision statement feels too finite or specifically achievable, try to zoom out and broaden the scope of your vision.

Don’t try to cram every detail of your vision into your vision statement—be strategic in selecting the ideas that feel the most relevant and compelling to your stakeholders . You might dream of someday having offices in every major city in the world, but your vision statement should focus on aspirations that speak to your company's mission and purpose.

[inline illustration] Characteristics of a great vision statement (infographic)

Vision statement writing tips

Here are a few best practices to keep in mind as you start writing your vision statement:

Collaborate. The vision statement should reflect the character of your entire company, and there's no better way to accomplish this than to write the statement alongside key members of your team. Gather leaders from across the organization to participate in vision statement brainstorms, and run drafts by these same people to get buy-in on your final vision statement.

Write first, edit later. Don't try to write a succinct, well-crafted vision statement right out of the gate. Put everything you think of down on paper, no matter how small. You may not see the value in a particular idea when it crosses your mind, but if you write it down anyway, it may spark better ideas later on.

Keep your own vision statement separate. Many people have personal vision statements that reflect their individual goals, and if you're a business owner, our own vision statement may overlap strongly with the vision of your company. It's important to keep your personal aspirations and your company's vision separate, so that your company's vision statement is something that your entire company can relate to and feel represented by. 

Avoid buzzwords and jargon. Using "industry-speak" makes a brand feel aloof and inaccessible, even to people within the industry. Plain language is always more powerful than jargon, so if you find yourself falling back on buzzwords, isolate the phrase in question and picture a friend or family member asking, "What does this actually mean?" Write or record the explanation you would give to that person and use that language to replace the buzzwords in your vision statement.

Avoid ambiguity. Vision statements don't have to be concrete the way a mission statement should be, but you want to avoid using words that could potentially be interpreted in a way that changes the entire vision statement's meaning. You won't be there to clarify or offer context to everyone who reads your statement, so it needs to be able to stand on its own.

7 steps to write your company's vision statement

There's a lot more to crafting a great vision statement than just writing a few sentences. In order to create a statement that's truly aspirational and inspiring, you're going to need to do a little bit of work. Here's our seven-step process to write a great vision statement:

1. Identify important stakeholders

Your vision statement speaks on behalf of your entire company, so make a list of co-founders, fellow executives, and high-level employees who can help you craft and refine your statement so that it represents your organization as a whole. Getting buy-in from company leaders is also a smart strategic move—the more they believe in the vision statement, the better they'll model it in their daily work and communicate it to their own departments and teams.

Make a second list of stakeholders that represent your vision statement's audience. This list may consist of personas rather than actual people, and should include:

Board members

Partner organizations

Different customer personas

Shareholders

Depending on your industry, this list may be longer or shorter; the main point is to write down a basic overview of the group of people you're writing for. If you're only thinking about your customers, your vision statement may not feel as relatable to employees or might not inspire potential funders to invest. Check your drafts against this list to make sure it feels applicable to all of your key stakeholders.

2. Start with a list of keywords

Ultimately, you're aiming to craft a few concise sentences—and the process of crafting those sentences will be a lot easier if you have a "word bank" of sorts to draw from as you write. Hold an open brainstorming session with your internal stakeholders to come up with a keyword list. 

Make sure your keyword list is comprehensive by subdividing it into smaller categories and making sure you have a good list of keywords for each. At a minimum, you should collect keywords related to:

Your product or service

Your mission and values

Your company's goals and initiatives

Your company's long-term strategic plan

Adjectives that describe your company, product, teams, community, and ideal future (e.g. expert, innovative, affordable, inspiring)

Adverbs that describe the way in which your company operates (e.g. flexibly, sustainably, cooperatively, fearlessly)

Just like your list of stakeholders, the number and type of keyword lists you should generate will vary depending on your industry and company. The important thing is to create a document filled with keywords that you can draw from as your writing, if you get stuck trying to communicate an idea, or if you need to replace some jargon-y text.

3. Answer foundational company questions

In addition to your keywords document, take time during your brainstorm to answer the following questions:

What is our organization’s main purpose?

What are our company’s main strengths?

What are our company values?

Why does what we’re building matter?

How do we want to make a difference as a company?

What is our vision for our company culture ?

What are our most ambitious goals?

What impact do we want our company to have on the world?

What are our company wants? What about company needs?

If our company succeeded in everything it set out to do, how would the world be different?

4. Sort your answers by importance

By the time you're finished brainstorming, you should have a lot of stuff written down.Put all of this content aside for a few days, so that your mind is clear when you return for the next step: deciding what goes in your vision statement and what gets left on the cutting room floor.

Sit down with your vision statement tiger team and a highlighter and review everything you have written down. Highlight ideas and phrases that your group feels are the most important to your company, and cross out items that you're ready to eliminate from consideration (however, don't throw this content out entirely—everything you brainstormed can be helpful in creating other important documents, like your core values, roadmap, or business plan). 

5. Write your company's vision out longform

At the end of step four, you'll have a smaller "word bank" of your most important phrases, ideas, keywords, and answers to foundational company questions. Your next step will be to organize these ideas into sentences that flow logically and are ordered according to your company's priorities.

Right now, don't worry about length—focus instead on communicating your vision in a way that makes sense, touches all of the key points you want to include, and feels relatable to your stakeholders and your audience. It's much easier to edit a long but comprehensive statement than it is to bulk up a statement that's missing pieces.

6. Step back and evaluate

Before you go through the work of editing your vision down to size, take a step back and look at your vision paragraph from afar. This is another point where you may benefit from setting it aside for a few days and returning with fresh eyes.

As you review your vision paragraph, check for the following things:

Is it ambitious enough? Your paragraph should feel aspirational, not like a finite goal to be accomplished.

Is it too ambitious? Make sure you strike a balance between idealistic and unrealistic.

Does it accurately reflect your organization? Run your paragraph by internal stakeholders who weren’t involved in creating it, and as for their feedback on what may be missing, what parts may be unnecessary, or how certain ideas may be phrased more effectively.

Does it make sense? Have friends and family members read your paragraph to confirm that it makes sense to the average reader.

7. Write your final vision statement

Once you've adjusted your vision paragraph and made the changes you wanted to make, it's time to edit your vision paragraph down to a vision statement. In many cases, your paragraph may naturally shrink as you solicit and implement feedback from others, and you may even want to specifically ask for opinions on how your paragraph could be more concise.

Here are a few ways to shorten your vision paragraph:

Eliminate what's unnecessary. Now that you've stepped away from your paragraph a few times and gotten a few rounds of feedback, are there any phrases or ideas that don't feel as necessary as they did when you wrote it? Cut any parts that feel lackluster or less impactful than the rest of the paragraph.

Look for synonyms. Are there any areas where you used several words to say something that there's already a word for? For example, you might replace the phrase "give people the ability to," with "provide access."

Edit each concept individually. Chop your paragraph into sentences and chop your sentences into phrases. Pick up each small segment on its own and see if you can come up with a shorter way to phrase it. It helps if you evaluate the smaller segments out of order—hopping around or going backwards piece by piece will help you notice things that your brain smooths over when you're reading a full sentence.

When your vision statement is finished, bring it back around to your stakeholders to get final feedback and make any finishing tweaks. 

Vision statement examples

There's no way around it—writing a vision statement is hard, especially if it's your first time doing so. Before you get started, or if you get stuck and need to spark some new ideas, take a look at some of these example vision statements for inspiration. 

Note that not all companies have both a mission and a vision statement. Some companies combine the two into a single small paragraph that touches on tangible objectives (mission) as well as more long-reaching aspirations (vision). In some cases, companies won't label either statement, encasing them in a broader page dedicated to "purpose," "who we are," or another similar title.

Here, we've gathered mission and vision statements for a few companies that have publicly set both. 

Mission: To act in the public interest, BBC serves all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain.

Vision: To be the most creative company in the world.

Mission: IKEA offers a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at low and accessible prices.

Vision: To create a better everyday life for the many people.

Southwest Airlines

Mission: Southwest connects people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel.

Vision: To become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline.

Mission: Hasbro creates the world's best play and entertainment experiences.

Vision: To make the world a better place for all children, fans and families.

Mission: To make things universally accessible and useful, Google organizes the world's information.

Vision: To significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible.

Mission: To harness the next wave of innovation and solve customers’ toughest challenges, VMware uses disruptive technologies like edge computing, AI, blockchain, machine learning, Kubernetes, and more.

Vision: To build a sustainable, equitable and more secure future for all.

Use your vision statement to help you grow

A company's vision statement is a living document—it should adapt and change as your company achieves its business goals and sets new ones, grows in size, expands its offerings, and updates its mission. Revisit your vision statement once every year or so to make sure it still accurately reflects your company's ideal future; if not, adjust it! 

But for now, enjoy the fact that your vision statement is written. Share it with your team, announce it to your customers, and use it to proudly guide your company forward.

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How to Write a Business Plan Mission and Vision Statement [Sample Template]

Are you currently writing a business plan? If YES, here’s an in-depth guide and sample template on how to write a workable mission & vision statement for a business. A vision and mission statement are some of the most important requisite for business success and sustainability, but unfortunately, most entrepreneurs and small business owners run their business without these two thing out of ignorance.

What is a Mission and Vision Statement?

A mission and vision statement ( more commonly called a mission statement or a vision statement ) is a brief sentence that declares the goals that a business plans to achieve in the future. Like a compass guides a ship, it guides a business to success by providing continuously inspiring its stakeholders in their daily operations and strategic moves.

A mission statement helps you plan your business effectively. It provides the destination for your journey to business success. Of course, without a destination, you can’t plan a route. Before we discuss the steps involved in developing a mission statement for your business, let’s look at the components of a mission statement and why you really need a mission statement for your business.

Today, I will be sharing with you an underground secret to building a business from scratch. This secret is one of the contributing factors to the success of any business; yet, it’s often ignored. This secret is nothing more than a “ Business Mission Statement. ”

“The thing I really care about is the mission; making the world open.” – Mark Zuckerberg

The importance of a mission statement can never be over emphasized. I have seen so many startups without a mission; even some established firms also make the mistake of operating without a mission.

“Being an entrepreneur, I have come to realize that all successful businesses are driven by three fundamentals. One is the cash flow, two is the team and three is the mission. Of these three, the mission is the most important.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

Now what has a mission statement got to do with building a business? What’s the impact of a mission statement on an entrepreneur undergoing the entrepreneurial process? Is a mission statement a source of ? While I am not going to answer these questions directly, the following points will help you further understand why you need to develop a mission statement for your business?

Why Your Business needs a Mission Statement

1. The mission is the foundation on which your business will be built. It’s the true purpose of your business and that purpose is reflected in the mission statement. Without a strong mission statement, you don’t have a true business. All you have is just a profit making venture that will soon be wiped out with time.

“To turn really interesting ideas and fledging ideas into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.” – Steve Jobs

2. The entrepreneurial spirit is found in the mission statement. When I look at the mission statement of any business, I get a peep into the life of the entrepreneur that founded that business. The entrepreneurial spirit is what drives the entrepreneur forward. If the mission is strong, your spirit will be strong towards the pursuit of your goal.

“The IKEA spirit is strong and living reality. Simplicity in our behavior gives us strength. Simplicity and humbleness characterize us in our relations with each others, our suppliers and our customers.” – Ingvar Kamprad

3. Your mission statement is the bond binding you, your team, employees and your customers to the business. Take away the mission and other key elements will fall apart. Your mission also has the power to attract other like-minded individuals and entities to your cause. The reason is that people with the same mission align together; more like birds of the same feather flocking together.

4. With a strong mission, your business will weather any storm. Take a look at businesses that has been around for over 100 years and you will see businesses with a strong mission. As an example:

  • General Electric has stood the test of time because the spirit of its founder “ Thomas Edison ” continues to guide the company through its mission.
  • Henry Ford’s mission statement was: “ To democratize the automobile ” and that mission has kept the Ford Motor Company going.
  • Aliko Dangote’s mission statement goes: “ Providing your basic need ” and this mission drives the Dangote Group to dominate the commodities market of
  • The Rich Dad Company; founded by Robert Kiyosaki keeps waxing strong because of its mission, which is “ To elevate the financial well being of humanity .”

By contrast; I have come to observe that when a company forgets its mission, its starts to lose its relevance. The bond holding the business will be broken and good customers will leave, employees will resign and the business will dwindle. Just as the case of the Dot com burst, many profitable Dot com companies went under because they forgot their mission.

3 Components of a Mission and Vision Statement

1.  a vision.

This, simply put, states the impact you envision your business having on the world in years to come. You can have more than a single statement in here, but don’t go beyond three. Gloss it over to make sure anyone who reads it feels at least one of inspiration, hope, commitment, and awe.

In addition, your vision statement must be compelling, detailed, and reflective of the intended end outcome. Avoid one that is bland, generic, uninspiring, or unreasonable. An example of a good vision statement is that of Amazon:

“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

2.  A mission statement

This is a brief statement that states the important goal or purpose that your business is poised to achieve. In other words, it’s a single sentence stating why your business exists in a convincing manner. Keep your mission statement specific and concise ( the shorter it is, the better ), make it connect with both employees and stakeholders, and make it highlight your value proposition. Don’t make it too long, generic, or confusing. An example of a good mission statement is that of Nike:

“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

Here’s another example of a mission statement:

“To contribute to development of value-added agricultural businesses . ”

3. Core values

These outline the principles and values that the stakeholders in a business will follow in their bid to achieve their vision. They also specify the bounds or limits that the stakeholders must watch while trying to actualize the mission. The following are examples of core values:

  • Respect and protect the environment
  • Offer high quality products that are safe for consumers
  • Meet the ever-changing needs of consumers
  • Practice highly ethical business standards

If your business is going to stand the test of time, then you will have to build it upon a strong mission. With the above in mind, let’s now look at the steps involved in developing a mission and visions statement.

How to Write a Mission and Vision Statement for a Business Plan

Please bear in mind that you are learning as much of yourself each day as you are about your customer. So, don’t feel that anything you state here is etched in stone and cannot be changed. The more you understand your customer and the market, the more necessary it would become for you to shift grounds accordingly. But you need to state here what you have to offer at the moment. This will be a starting point for any changes you may need to effect later ( as your business grows ).

1.  Sit down in a quiet spot and reflect upon your thoughts

Ask yourself what drives you forward? What keeps you motivated? When you have figured out the answer to these questions, put it down in writing.

2.  Ask yourself how best you can serve your customers

What will your business stand for in the heart of your customers? What will be the ultimate benefit your customers can derive from your business? When you figure the answer to these questions out, put it down in writing.

3. Brainstorm for your vision statement

The vision is the most important component of your mission statement. Simply put, this is a picture or idea of what you plan to achieve in future . A vision statement is always concise and easy to remember, and for this reason, every stakeholder in a business can easily focus on it; and their decisions and activities are directed towards achieving the vision. Here is a good example of a vision statement:

“ Creating a vibrant rural economy driven by value-added agriculture. “

Once you get one down, then getting other components becomes very easy. To find the best vision statement for your business, simply ask yourself the question, “Why does this business exist?” Present answers from various angles, and you will find your mission statement among them.

4.  Get down your mission statement

As stated earlier, your mission statement is that action sentence that describes how you will achieve your vision. Finding this is much easier once you have found your vision statement. If you are stuck, just do it this way: If your vision is “A diabetes-free society” , then simply add the word “ To ” and another suitable verb to convert it to an action sentence. And there you will have your mission statement.

Using the same vision, you will get “To bring about a diabetes-free society .” You can go further by tweaking it, so that you will have something like: “To manufacture products that can cure diabetes effectively and permanently.” You get it now?

5.  List your core values

First off, you need to clarify your values. This means taking into account all the various stakeholders that your business is ( or will be ) accountable to—including investors, customers, employees, and suppliers. Now, consider how you would like to ideally conduct business with each of these stakeholders. Start making a list and your core values should start to emerge.

These are the various steps you will follow in your quest to achieve your vision. Brainstorm for as many as possible, list them down, and the prune your list down to as few as possible without leaving out any important ones. Now, let’s look at some additional tips that you will need to keep in mind when preparing your mission and vision statement.

4 Extra Success Tips for Developing a Business Plan Mission and Vision Statement

  • Your mission statement must be brief and simple. Being succinct as demanded by a mission statement isn’t easy. And you may need to go through several hours of tweaking and editing before arriving at the perfect sentence. Though short, your mission statement must capture the very essence of what your business plans to achieve. The fewer words the better. Use just only the few words needed to pass the message without leaving out any vital details.
  • Your mission statement must be in tune with your vision, and both sentences must blend to form a single thought.
  • There’s no rule that says you must get it perfectly at once. You can keep review your mission statement later, if necessary.
  • Your mission and vision statements must give the reader an insight, a covert one, at least into what you offer. This is more important if the name of your business doesn’t suggest what products or services you’re offering.

If you follow the guidelines I shared in this post, you will prepare a perfect vision and mission statement that will drive your business to success. Now I want you to know that no one can help you develop a mission statement. You alone can develop your mission and as a final note, it’s worthwhile you know that of the entire business system, the mission is the most important.

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22 vision statement examples to help you write your own.

When launching a startup, founders typically have an idea of what they want to achieve — a vision of what success will look like. During the strategic planning process, it’s important to put this vision into concrete terms. Not only does a vision statement clarify your thoughts, but it helps employees and stakeholders understand what the business has set out to accomplish. No matter what the business, a good mission and vision statement can inspire and motivate employees to make that vision a reality.

Whether it’s your first or fifth business, writing a compelling vision statement can be challenging. Below, we'll share how to write a vision statement — one that inspires your employees and positively impacts your business — and we'll look at a few vision statement examples to help you get started. 

What is a vision statement? 

A personal mission statement and personal vision statement can be used to guide our decision-making and help us stay focused to meet our long-term goals. Company statements are no different. A company vision statement is one of your most important business documents, along with your mission statement and core values. Although it’s easy to confuse the three, each one is unique and serves its own purpose. 

Core values are the organization’s long-term beliefs and principles that guide employee behavior. A mission statement deals with “why” an organization exists, while a vision statement outlines “what” that existence will eventually look like. A mission statement has to do with what the organization is doing in the present, while a vision statement focuses on the future. Mission statement examples include L’Oreal’s “Offering all women and men worldwide the best of cosmetics innovation in terms of quality, efficacy, and safety.” Conversely, Disney’s vision for itself is “to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.”

Primarily intended for internal employees and shareholders, a vision statement describes what an organization aspires to be. It helps to think of a vision statement as part roadmap, part inspiration. By outlining a long-term vision, rather than just short-term goals, a vision statement helps give the organization shape and purpose. 

Why it’s important to have a vision statement.

Despite the importance of a vision statement, many companies choose to operate without one. Some simply combine their mission and vision into one general document. Others do away with the idea altogether, thinking that corporate visions are vague statements that serve no actual purpose. 

Furthermore, studies show that highly aligned organizations grow revenue 58% faster, and are 72% more profitable than ones that are unaligned. If an organization doesn’t have a vision or a clear idea of what it wants, it will greatly limit its opportunities and have a difficult time inspiring employees to stay committed.  

How to write a vision statement.

Writing a vision statement may seem like a daunting task. It’s read by every employee and shareholder, and greatly impacts the success of the organization. And a vision statement takes time and thought. When done well, a vision statement can provide the encouragement your company needs to achieve its goals. To streamline the process, keep the following steps in mind while crafting your vision statement:

1. Determine who will help write your vision statement.

When starting out, it’s likely you and your partners will be responsible for writing your company’s vision statement. Once you start hiring, you can ask managers and employees to contribute additional insights. Interviewing a range of individuals will help create a vision statement that integrates and speaks directly to the entire organization. 

2. Project your goals for the future.

Imagine your company five or ten years down the line. The outcome you envision — your dream for the future, your success as a company — should be captured in the vision statement. Keep in mind that the statement should only include the vision, not an actual step-by-step plan for implementing solutions. 

The following questions can help you clarify your vision: 

  • Where do we want the organization to go? 
  • What can we realistically achieve?
  • What problem does the organization intend to solve?
  • What are the changes we believe the organization can make for individuals? For the industry? 
  • How will things be different if the vision is realized?
  • What phrases or keywords describe the type of organization and outcome we want?

3. Stick to the specifics.

A generic vision statement — one that sounds like it could apply to any company — will not be enough to motivate your team. Vision works best when it’s specific and describes an end goal only your organization can provide. Don’t be afraid to dream big. A lukewarm vision will only yield lukewarm results. So it’s important to be bold, and even risky, when writing your vision statement. 

4. Keep it short and simple.

While it should be specific, a vision statement shouldn’t be overly detailed. It should be concise. Start by jotting down all of your ideas, and then pare those down to the essentials. Keeping just one or two key points helps create a clear vision that’s easy for everyone to focus on and fulfill. Stay away from technical terms and jargon, and use the present tense. Rather than trying to write something catchy, aim for clarity. A great vision statement works best when it’s simple, memorable, and inspirational. 

Revisit your vision often as your company evolves.

A vision statement sets an organization’s sights on the future. However, once that future is reached, the vision needs to continue moving forward. Your vision statement is a living document, not a set of static sentences. It plays an important part in your overall strategic plan for a certain time frame. It should therefore be regularly updated to reflect your organization’s current purpose. 

Constantly communicate your vision.

Once you have a vision statement that articulates your end goal, make sure it’s clearly communicated. A vision is more effective when your entire organization takes it to heart. Commit the proper resources and time toward realizing the vision you’ve set. This can mean investing in seminars and training or launching a new product. It can also include offering the lowest possible prices, entering new markets, or exploring other areas of opportunity. A good way to help everyone align with a company's vision statement is by inviting them into the process. Ask for employees’ input, and suggest ways to incorporate the vision into their work. Then, make sure to recognize or reward individuals for their standout contributions.

Vision statement examples.

Sometimes, seeing what works for notable companies is just the inspiration you need to create your own vision statement. Below are some inspiring vision statements from today’s top companies:

Concept-based vision statements.

Some vision statements are based on concepts of what the company hopes to be or achieve in the future. This can be a general statement focused on customers, or a position the company wants to hold within the industry. Below are a few examples of concept-based vision statements:

  • BBC: “To be the most creative organization in the world”
  • Disney: “To make people happy.”
  • Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click”
  • IKEA: “To create a better everyday life for the many people”
  • Instagram: “Capture and share the world’s moments”
  • LinkedIn: "Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce”
  • Microsoft: “To help people throughout the world realize their full potential”
  • Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”
  • Oxfam: “A just world without poverty”
  • Shopify: “To make commerce better for everyone”
  • Sony: "To be a company that inspires and fulfills your curiosity.”
  • TED: “Spread ideas”
  • Tesla: “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”
  • Uber: “We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion”
  • Whole Foods : “To nourish people and the planet.”

Quality-based vision statements.

Other common vision statements are focused on internal goals. These include the type of products and services the company hopes to provide as they grow. Quality-based vision statements can also relate to company culture and operations. The following are some examples from actual United States companies in different industries:

  • Amazon: “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
  • Avon: “ To be the company that best understands and satisfies the product, service, and self-fulfillment needs of women—globally.”
  • Ben & Jerry’s: “Making the best ice cream in the nicest possible way”
  • Ford: “People working together as a lean, global enterprise to make people’s lives better through automotive and mobility leadership.” 
  • IBM: “To be the world’s most successful and important information technology company. Successful in helping our customers apply technology to solve their problems. Successful in introducing this extraordinary technology to new customers. Important because we will continue to be the basic resource of much of what is invested in this industry.”
  • McDonald’s: “To move with velocity to drive profitable growth and become an even better McDonald’s serving more customers delicious food each day around the world.”
  • Nordstrom: “To serve our customers better, to always be relevant in their lives, and to form lifelong relationships”
  • Starbucks: “To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow.” 
  • Warby Parker: “We believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good-looking, with money in your pocket. We also believe that everyone has the right to see.”
  • Zappos: “To provide the best customer service possible. Deliver 'WOW' through service”

Keep a clear vision.

Even if it’s just a few sentences, a vision statement provides a lot of value. Not only does it outline the company’s desired outcome, but it can communicate intentions and hopes for the future. The best part is that a vision statement changes with your organization. When a vision is reached or updated, it’s time to create a new vision statement. This encourages everyone toward greater goals, and opens your company to more possibilities.

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What Is a Vision Statement? 25 Vision Statement Examples

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Table of Contents

What is a vision statement, what is the purpose of a vision statement, vision statement vs. mission statement, vision statement vs. purpose statement, 25 vision statement examples, how to write a vision statement.

A vision statement almost sounds mystical. But it’s not supernatural, far from it. Rather, a vision statement is a foundational business document.

There’s a lot of paperwork that clutters the office of any organization, but the vision statement is unique from the rest. Often confused with a mission statement , the vision statement has a different purpose. A vision statement looks toward the future, but a mission statement talks about what the company is doing in the present.

A vision statement is a business document that states the current and future objectives of an organization. A company’s vision must align with its mission, business plan , strategic plan, and organizational culture. A vision statement isn’t only used in business; nonprofits and government offices also use them to set strategic goals.

Vision statements aren’t necessarily set in stone. They can be returned to, reviewed and revised as necessary. Any changes should be minimal, however, because a vision statement is a guideline for a company’s strategic plan , so it must be thoroughly reviewed.

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The business vision of an organization might change over time, as companies adapt to their business environment and external factors that might affect their ability to achieve their mission. Using a SWOT analysis is a good way to gauge the internal and external factors that shape the business environment of a company.

A vision statement doesn’t have any particular length. However long it is, the vision statement is formally written and is used as a reference in company documents to serve as a guide for short and long-term strategic planning. The best way to learn about vision statements is to look at examples. We’ve gathered 25 vision statement examples from the best companies in the world to help you write your own.

As stated above, a vision statement is an integral part of an organization because it aligns with its mission, core values, and culture. It also guides the strategic plan because it sets future goals. Similar to a mission statement, a vision statement it’s a living document that’s referred to as a lodestar to lead a company to its next innovation and so, all the projects and programs executed by the project management office (PMO) should be aligned with it.

Related: Free Project & Tracking Templates for Excel

There are different approaches when it comes to writing a vision statement, as companies have unique core values. For example, a motivational vision statement will both motivate existing employees and also drive talent to the company. They’ll want to work at a place with a business vision that aligns with their personal values. A strong vision statement also works to help differentiate your company. All companies want to become profitable, but a company can create a unique vision statement that’s appealing to its customers and employees.

Free Vision Statement Template

Feel inspired? Ready to make your own vision statement? Download our free vision statement template for Word and start refining your vision. There’s even guiding questions to help you get started.

Vision statement template for Word

Why Is it Important to Have a Vision Statement?

Vision statements are one of the most important documents you can create for your business because they set a common goal for everyone in your organization. Once you get your employees on the same page, it will be easier to lead them toward success.

Types of Vision Statements

In addition to the traditional business vision statement, there are other types of vision statements, such as project, product and even personal vision statements.

Project Vision Statement

A project vision statement is used to guide a project, motivate the project team and further inspire those involved. Like any vision statement, it’s short but should be powerful to communicate the project’s aim. It’s not specific or directional but delivers the end goal of the project which must be aligned with the strategic goals of a company. In that sense, the project team can use the project vision statement as a guide to follow and help them make decisions that align with the overall project vision.

Product Vision Statement

A product vision statement is also a guide and a tool to motivate and inspire product development teams. It tends to look toward the future to expose where the product will be in a number of years. Therefore, a product vision statement goes beyond what the product is currently, but its vision shouldn’t be unrealistic. While there’s no standard length, like any vision statement, the product vision statement should be short and to the point.

Personal Vision Statement

A vision statement isn’t restricted to the realm of industry, you can make one for your own purposes. A personal vision statement simply focuses on your personal values, strengths and goals. While you can use a personal vision statement for your professional life, it’s also commonly focused on life-long goals. As with any vision statement, use it to keep you on track and make the right decisions to direct you to that transformational achievement. Then, you should make an action plan to make your personal vision come true.

The vision statement and mission statement are both equally important for a company as they complement each other and guide the direction of your company. The main difference between them is that the mission statement describes what your company does, while your vision statement explains what the company attempts to achieve in the future.

On the other hand, their main similarity is that they both need to align with your company’s core values and culture because all these elements make up your company’s identity and differentiation factors.

The vision statement comes before the purpose statement and it outlines where you want to be. First, you have to conjure it. You’re not there yet, but keeping the vision in sight allows you to get there in time.

A purpose statement is the why, it’s the reason you want to achieve the vision that’s your goal. You have to answer the question of why you want to achieve this vision. Therefore, the purpose statement is about the overall values.

There’s also a mission statement, which often joins these other two statements. The mission statement is about how you’ll achieve your goals. This allows you to make a plan, create steps to implement it and track your progress towards achieving that vision statement.

The best way to learn about vision statements is to look at real-life vision statement examples. We’ve gathered 25 vision statement examples from the best companies in the world to help you write your own. These examples prove that a vision statement isn’t a templated document that only differs from other organizations by the branded logo on top of it.

  • IKEA: “Our vision is to create a better everyday life for many people.”
  • Nike: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If you have a body, you are an athlete.)”
  • McDonald’s: “To be the best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile.”
  • Amazon: “We strive to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection and the utmost convenience.”
  • Walmart: “Be the destination for customers to save money, no matter how they want to shop.”
  • Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click”
  • Microsoft: “To help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.”
  • Facebook: “People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world and to share and express what matters to them.”
  • Coca-Cola: “Our vision is to craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, to refresh them in body and spirit.”
  • Starbucks: “Treat people like family, and they will be loyal and their all.”
  • Tesla: “To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.”
  • Samsung: “Inspire the world with our innovative technologies, products and design that enrich people’s lives and contribute to social prosperity.”
  • Netflix: “Becoming the best global entertainment distribution service.”
  • Zoom: “Zoom is for you.”
  • Patagonia: “We’re in business to save our home planet.”
  • Oxfam: “A world without poverty.”
  • Disney: “To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.”
  • Instagram: “Capture and share the world’s moments.”
  • LinkedIn: “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
  • Meta: “Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.”
  • Shopify: “To make commerce better for everyone.”
  • Uber: “We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion.”
  • TED: “Spread ideas”
  • American Express: “Become essential to our customers by providing differentiated products and services to help them achieve their aspirations.”
  • Sony: “To be a company that inspires and fulfills your curiosity.”

Every company has a unique vision statement, but the process is similar for most of them. Here are some steps to help you write your own.

1. What Are the Core Values of Your Company?

The core values of your company define its identity and how it interacts with the communities and the environment. It’s important to understand them to define your company vision.

2. What’s Your Company Mission?

Understanding what your company does and how it operates is essential to planning for the future.

3. Understand Your Company Culture

A strong company culture is an essential part of the success of any business. That’s why your vision must be aligned with it, otherwise, your strategic planning won’t work.

4. Identify Current Strategic Goals

Before you think about future goals, you must understand where your organization currently stands. Your vision might be a long-term plan that sets goals for the next 5 to 10 years, but those goals need to be realistic. You can use a SWOT matrix to get a better idea of the competitive environment of your business.

5. Define Future Goals

Think about what you’d like your company to achieve in the next 5-10 years based on the current status of your business and create a strategic plan to achieve your goals.

6. Write Your Vision Statement

Now that you have an idea of the main elements that are involved in the process of writing your vision statement, you can create one that fits your organization.

Best Practices for Writing a Vision Statement

There’s no template for writing a vision statement, however, a common structure for successful ones includes these traits:

  • Be concise: This isn’t the place to stuff a document with fluff statements. It should be simple, easy to read and cut to the essentials so that it can be set to memory and be repeated accurately.
  • Be clear: A good rule of thumb for clarity is to focus on one primary goal, rather than trying to fill the document with many ideas. One clear objective is also easier to focus on and achieve.
  • Have a time horizon: A time horizon is simply a fixed point in the future when you’ll achieve and evaluate your vision statement. Define that timeline .
  • Make it future-oriented: Again, the vision statement isn’t what the company is presently engaged in but rather a future objective of where the company plans to be.
  • Be stable: The vision statement is a long-term goal that should, ideally, not be affected by the market or technological changes.
  • Be challenging: That said, you don’t want to be timid in setting your goals. Your objective shouldn’t be too easy to achieve, but also it shouldn’t be so unrealistic as to be discarded.
  • Be abstract: The vision statement should be general enough to capture the organization’s interests and strategic direction.
  • Be inspiring: Live up to the title of the document, and create something that will rally the troops and be desirable as a goal for all those involved in the organization.

Because the vision statement is a foundational business document that will guide the company’s strategic planning direction for years to come, consider using project planning tools and brainstorming techniques to get input from everyone on the team. That way, you’ll get greater buy-in from the company, and you’ll widen your net for collecting business vision ideas.

Using ProjectManager to Write a Vision Statement

Writing a vision statement is a project in itself, and one that should be treated with some weight. A vision statement informs the direction, morale and spirit of the organization: you need it to be inspiring.

To help you craft the ideal vision statement, try ProjectManager . Our subscription model gives you several entry points. Then you can create collaborative task lists, so you can brainstorm with other leaders in the organization regarding your direction. Create a task, and add subtasks, so you can take everything into account when making your vision statement. Plus, you can add comments and files to tasks, so collaboration can stay focused and localized.

what is the vision of business plan

Once you’ve crafted a vision statement that inspires your team, the real work begins. To achieve that vision, you’ll need the right tools. ProjectManager is online project management software with tools like online Gantt charts, task lists and kanban boards to help you complete projects and make a name for yourself. Take a free trial of our award-winning software and see how it can help you realize your vision .

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How to Write a Vision Statement for Your Business

Why your business needs a vision statement, when should you write a vision statement.

  • Tips to Create Your Company Vision Statement

The Bottom Line

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Creating strategies for your business takes time and dedication. As a business owner with many responsibilities, you may prioritize items that you deem profitable. And when you hear the term vision statement, it’s probably a task that many entrepreneurs write off as an unimportant step toward success. 

However, this statement is one of the most vital items you can produce for your brand. A strong vision statement creates a concrete foundation for your company’s growth, motivates everyone connected to the business, and provides direction to make smart decisions for long-term success. 

Continue reading for a step-by-step guide on how to write a strong vision statement.

A vision statement is a key motivator behind your business’s success, according to brand strategist and motivational speaker Rich Keller. “It’s the desired future outcome you want to achieve with your company,” Keller told The Balance by phone. “Having the end goal means you can work backward and set yourself up for success.” 

Research shows employees work harder when they feel connected to a bigger purpose, yet just about half (51%) of employed Americans say they get a sense of identity from their job, while 47% say their job is simply what they do for a living, according to recent data from Pew Research Center. With a vision statement, employees can get an idea of where your company’s brand is going, further building that connection between an individual and the business. 

“The vision is emotional—it’s the Oz for the entrepreneur and what keeps the company moving forward,” Keller explained.

As the founder, you can be similarly inspired by the vision statement. “Great brands always begin with the end in mind. They have a vision of what they want the world to be and how their brand fits in,” Keller said. 

By keeping your business’ end goal in mind, you can be more strategic in making decisions, leveraging the vision statement to build your company. 

According to employment site Indeed, if used correctly, a vision statement can be a vital tool while a company is growing and developing. The Indeed staff suggests treating it as a ruler used to measure and compare the company’s decisions and future successes.   

With that in mind, it’s important to note that a vision statement can be created and implemented regardless of your business’s age or size. While starting your business off with a vision statement allows you to be aligned from the beginning, writing it years in will allow you to reset strategies and make smarter future decisions. 

Five Tips to Create Your Company Vision Statement

A vision statement shares the long-term goals, produces a narrative for marketing, and creates a strategic framework. It also builds alignment and connection between the business and its people.

A vision statement should only be a few sentences but have everlasting power in its meaning. This may sound like a lofty task to complete, but the five simple tactics below can help get you there.  

Your business’s vision acts as a lens into the future, pinpointing the outcomes you are working toward. Dream big for your company and focus on the long term. “Write the vision statement in the present tense as though it has already happened,” Keller suggested. 

This is a key principle of positive thinking, which has been proven to have both mental and physical health benefits. According to recent research from Johns Hopkins Medicine, people who are more positive may be better protected against the inflammatory damage of stress, and also have a higher likelihood of making better health and life decisions.  

Imagine you are being interviewed years from now, speaking about your company’s success. Use these potential interview questions to start thinking big: 

  • What do you want to be remembered for? 
  • What is your company’s biggest achievement? 
  • In what ways have you impacted the community and industry at large?

“It's like answering the question ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ for your business,” Keller said. Answering questions that speak to massive scale allow you to visualize the future of your business and articulate your most audacious goals. If you need more inspiration to get started, here are a few vision statements from well-known brands: 

  • Tesla: “To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles.”
  • Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
  • American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA): “That the United States is a humane community in which all animals are treated with respect and kindness.”

Follow a Formula

You can be a visionary for your company by using a simple formula for how to write a vision statement. In a paper published in the Journal of Business Strategy, researchers Sooksan Kantabutra and Gayle C. Avery outline a few strategies for getting there. Consider these steps:

  • Choose who will be a part of writing the statement. If you are an early-stage business, this will be you and any founding team members. If you are further along in your development, this could be a diverse range of team members. 
  • Answer deeper questions (such as the ones included in the previous section) to obtain a unique view of the future you hope for the company. 
  • Make it specific to your organization, using words and goals that would inspire the team. This shouldn't be a statement any company can use.  
  • Keep it brief—between 11 and 22 words—concise enough so that it can be remembered with ease.

This is a straightforward way to distill your business vision into a single message that shares the highest goals. Already have a vision statement? Run it through these steps and see if it still speaks to your company’s long-term aim.

Commit to and Interact With Your Vision

A vision statement creates the framework to ensure all your goals and strategies can ultimately become a reality. Give your vision statement prominent placement within the company workspace. You can do this by using it to open strategy meetings, kick off a new quarter, and encouraging employees to take ownership over it. 

Your vision should be a living entity among your team, community, and industry. Once written, you need to actively commit to your vision, both internally and externally. 

If your employees believe in your vision statement as much as you do, that passion will shine through to clients or customers. To get employees more involved with the concept, consider creating incentives by rewarding employees when you catch them embracing and exemplifying said vision. 

Be True to Your Vision

“Visionaries can think of and have faith in the future. That’s who you’re encouraged to be when you write your vision statement,” Keller said. If you don’t have faith in your ability to achieve the vision, you won’t be able to find sustainable, long-term success. Your statement must reflect the greatest truth you can see for your business.

Writing your vision statement should force you to be both honest and audacious about how much you want to succeed. Ensure you are speaking to goals that are fundamental to your ambition and foresight. 

Revisit Your Company Vision Statement Regularly

One of the most common misconceptions about vision statements is that they are created once in the company’s lifetime and never touched again. You are failing at living your vision if you don’t allow yours to grow and evolve with you and your business. 

A vision statement is a living, breathing document that you should regularly revisit and revise. Once your company reaches the goals it has set for itself, look ahead and create a new pathway for success. Your statement needs to reflect your company’s current strategies, purpose, and goals. As you accomplish goals or pivot your brand, the vision statement must morph along with it.

Vision is not static—it changes over time just as you and your company grow. Use the above tips for how to write and revise your vision statement as frequently as needed. 

Your company has big aspirations, and you should find excitement in writing those down for all to see. Your statement needs to reflect those big dreams to inspire you and your team, customers, and community to action.

Pew Research Center. " How Americans View Their Jobs ." Accessed April 30, 2021. 

Indeed. " Guidelines for Writing a Vision Statement for Company Goals ." Accessed April 30, 2021. 

Johns Hopkins Medicine. " The Power of Positive Thinking ." Accessed April 30, 2021. 

Panmore. " Tesla, Inc.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An Analysis) ." Accessed April 30, 2021.

Panmore. " Nike Inc.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An Analysis) ." Accessed April 30, 2021.

ASPCA. " Vision ." Accessed April 30, 2021.

Journal of Business Strategy. “ The Power of Vision: Statements that Resonate .” Accessed April 30, 2021. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Simple Business Plan

By Joe Weller | October 11, 2021

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A business plan is the cornerstone of any successful company, regardless of size or industry. This step-by-step guide provides information on writing a business plan for organizations at any stage, complete with free templates and expert advice. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan and a chart to identify which type of business plan you should write . Plus, find information on how a business plan can help grow a business and expert tips on writing one .

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that communicates a company’s goals and ambitions, along with the timeline, finances, and methods needed to achieve them. Additionally, it may include a mission statement and details about the specific products or services offered.

A business plan can highlight varying time periods, depending on the stage of your company and its goals. That said, a typical business plan will include the following benchmarks:

  • Product goals and deadlines for each month
  • Monthly financials for the first two years
  • Profit and loss statements for the first three to five years
  • Balance sheet projections for the first three to five years

Startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses all create business plans to use as a guide as their new company progresses. Larger organizations may also create (and update) a business plan to keep high-level goals, financials, and timelines in check.

While you certainly need to have a formalized outline of your business’s goals and finances, creating a business plan can also help you determine a company’s viability, its profitability (including when it will first turn a profit), and how much money you will need from investors. In turn, a business plan has functional value as well: Not only does outlining goals help keep you accountable on a timeline, it can also attract investors in and of itself and, therefore, act as an effective strategy for growth.

For more information, visit our comprehensive guide to writing a strategic plan or download free strategic plan templates . This page focuses on for-profit business plans, but you can read our article with nonprofit business plan templates .

Business Plan Steps

The specific information in your business plan will vary, depending on the needs and goals of your venture, but a typical plan includes the following ordered elements:

  • Executive summary
  • Description of business
  • Market analysis
  • Competitive analysis
  • Description of organizational management
  • Description of product or services
  • Marketing plan
  • Sales strategy
  • Funding details (or request for funding)
  • Financial projections

If your plan is particularly long or complicated, consider adding a table of contents or an appendix for reference. For an in-depth description of each step listed above, read “ How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step ” below.

Broadly speaking, your audience includes anyone with a vested interest in your organization. They can include potential and existing investors, as well as customers, internal team members, suppliers, and vendors.

Do I Need a Simple or Detailed Plan?

Your business’s stage and intended audience dictates the level of detail your plan needs. Corporations require a thorough business plan — up to 100 pages. Small businesses or startups should have a concise plan focusing on financials and strategy.

How to Choose the Right Plan for Your Business

In order to identify which type of business plan you need to create, ask: “What do we want the plan to do?” Identify function first, and form will follow.

Use the chart below as a guide for what type of business plan to create:

Is the Order of Your Business Plan Important?

There is no set order for a business plan, with the exception of the executive summary, which should always come first. Beyond that, simply ensure that you organize the plan in a way that makes sense and flows naturally.

The Difference Between Traditional and Lean Business Plans

A traditional business plan follows the standard structure — because these plans encourage detail, they tend to require more work upfront and can run dozens of pages. A Lean business plan is less common and focuses on summarizing critical points for each section. These plans take much less work and typically run one page in length.

In general, you should use a traditional model for a legacy company, a large company, or any business that does not adhere to Lean (or another Agile method ). Use Lean if you expect the company to pivot quickly or if you already employ a Lean strategy with other business operations. Additionally, a Lean business plan can suffice if the document is for internal use only. Stick to a traditional version for investors, as they may be more sensitive to sudden changes or a high degree of built-in flexibility in the plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step

Writing a strong business plan requires research and attention to detail for each section. Below, you’ll find a 10-step guide to researching and defining each element in the plan.

Step 1: Executive Summary

The executive summary will always be the first section of your business plan. The goal is to answer the following questions:

  • What is the vision and mission of the company?
  • What are the company’s short- and long-term goals?

See our  roundup of executive summary examples and templates for samples. Read our executive summary guide to learn more about writing one.

Step 2: Description of Business

The goal of this section is to define the realm, scope, and intent of your venture. To do so, answer the following questions as clearly and concisely as possible:

  • What business are we in?
  • What does our business do?

Step 3: Market Analysis

In this section, provide evidence that you have surveyed and understand the current marketplace, and that your product or service satisfies a niche in the market. To do so, answer these questions:

  • Who is our customer? 
  • What does that customer value?

Step 4: Competitive Analysis

In many cases, a business plan proposes not a brand-new (or even market-disrupting) venture, but a more competitive version — whether via features, pricing, integrations, etc. — than what is currently available. In this section, answer the following questions to show that your product or service stands to outpace competitors:

  • Who is the competition? 
  • What do they do best? 
  • What is our unique value proposition?

Step 5: Description of Organizational Management

In this section, write an overview of the team members and other key personnel who are integral to success. List roles and responsibilities, and if possible, note the hierarchy or team structure.

Step 6: Description of Products or Services

In this section, clearly define your product or service, as well as all the effort and resources that go into producing it. The strength of your product largely defines the success of your business, so it’s imperative that you take time to test and refine the product before launching into marketing, sales, or funding details.

Questions to answer in this section are as follows:

  • What is the product or service?
  • How do we produce it, and what resources are necessary for production?

Step 7: Marketing Plan

In this section, define the marketing strategy for your product or service. This doesn’t need to be as fleshed out as a full marketing plan , but it should answer basic questions, such as the following:

  • Who is the target market (if different from existing customer base)?
  • What channels will you use to reach your target market?
  • What resources does your marketing strategy require, and do you have access to them?
  • If possible, do you have a rough estimate of timeline and budget?
  • How will you measure success?

Step 8: Sales Plan

Write an overview of the sales strategy, including the priorities of each cycle, steps to achieve these goals, and metrics for success. For the purposes of a business plan, this section does not need to be a comprehensive, in-depth sales plan , but can simply outline the high-level objectives and strategies of your sales efforts. 

Start by answering the following questions:

  • What is the sales strategy?
  • What are the tools and tactics you will use to achieve your goals?
  • What are the potential obstacles, and how will you overcome them?
  • What is the timeline for sales and turning a profit?
  • What are the metrics of success?

Step 9: Funding Details (or Request for Funding)

This section is one of the most critical parts of your business plan, particularly if you are sharing it with investors. You do not need to provide a full financial plan, but you should be able to answer the following questions:

  • How much capital do you currently have? How much capital do you need?
  • How will you grow the team (onboarding, team structure, training and development)?
  • What are your physical needs and constraints (space, equipment, etc.)?

Step 10: Financial Projections

Apart from the fundraising analysis, investors like to see thought-out financial projections for the future. As discussed earlier, depending on the scope and stage of your business, this could be anywhere from one to five years. 

While these projections won’t be exact — and will need to be somewhat flexible — you should be able to gauge the following:

  • How and when will the company first generate a profit?
  • How will the company maintain profit thereafter?

Business Plan Template

Business Plan Template

Download Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel | Smartsheet

This basic business plan template has space for all the traditional elements: an executive summary, product or service details, target audience, marketing and sales strategies, etc. In the finances sections, input your baseline numbers, and the template will automatically calculate projections for sales forecasting, financial statements, and more.

For templates tailored to more specific needs, visit this business plan template roundup or download a fill-in-the-blank business plan template to make things easy. 

If you are looking for a particular template by file type, visit our pages dedicated exclusively to Microsoft Excel , Microsoft Word , and Adobe PDF business plan templates.

How to Write a Simple Business Plan

A simple business plan is a streamlined, lightweight version of the large, traditional model. As opposed to a one-page business plan , which communicates high-level information for quick overviews (such as a stakeholder presentation), a simple business plan can exceed one page.

Below are the steps for creating a generic simple business plan, which are reflected in the template below .

  • Write the Executive Summary This section is the same as in the traditional business plan — simply offer an overview of what’s in the business plan, the prospect or core offering, and the short- and long-term goals of the company. 
  • Add a Company Overview Document the larger company mission and vision. 
  • Provide the Problem and Solution In straightforward terms, define the problem you are attempting to solve with your product or service and how your company will attempt to do it. Think of this section as the gap in the market you are attempting to close.
  • Identify the Target Market Who is your company (and its products or services) attempting to reach? If possible, briefly define your buyer personas .
  • Write About the Competition In this section, demonstrate your knowledge of the market by listing the current competitors and outlining your competitive advantage.
  • Describe Your Product or Service Offerings Get down to brass tacks and define your product or service. What exactly are you selling?
  • Outline Your Marketing Tactics Without getting into too much detail, describe your planned marketing initiatives.
  • Add a Timeline and the Metrics You Will Use to Measure Success Offer a rough timeline, including milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will use to measure your progress.
  • Include Your Financial Forecasts Write an overview of your financial plan that demonstrates you have done your research and adequate modeling. You can also list key assumptions that go into this forecasting. 
  • Identify Your Financing Needs This section is where you will make your funding request. Based on everything in the business plan, list your proposed sources of funding, as well as how you will use it.

Simple Business Plan Template

Simple Business Plan Template

Download Simple Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel |  Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this simple business plan template to outline each aspect of your organization, including information about financing and opportunities to seek out further funding. This template is completely customizable to fit the needs of any business, whether it’s a startup or large company.

Read our article offering free simple business plan templates or free 30-60-90-day business plan templates to find more tailored options. You can also explore our collection of one page business templates . 

How to Write a Business Plan for a Lean Startup

A Lean startup business plan is a more Agile approach to a traditional version. The plan focuses more on activities, processes, and relationships (and maintains flexibility in all aspects), rather than on concrete deliverables and timelines.

While there is some overlap between a traditional and a Lean business plan, you can write a Lean plan by following the steps below:

  • Add Your Value Proposition Take a streamlined approach to describing your product or service. What is the unique value your startup aims to deliver to customers? Make sure the team is aligned on the core offering and that you can state it in clear, simple language.
  • List Your Key Partners List any other businesses you will work with to realize your vision, including external vendors, suppliers, and partners. This section demonstrates that you have thoughtfully considered the resources you can provide internally, identified areas for external assistance, and conducted research to find alternatives.
  • Note the Key Activities Describe the key activities of your business, including sourcing, production, marketing, distribution channels, and customer relationships.
  • Include Your Key Resources List the critical resources — including personnel, equipment, space, and intellectual property — that will enable you to deliver your unique value.
  • Identify Your Customer Relationships and Channels In this section, document how you will reach and build relationships with customers. Provide a high-level map of the customer experience from start to finish, including the spaces in which you will interact with the customer (online, retail, etc.). 
  • Detail Your Marketing Channels Describe the marketing methods and communication platforms you will use to identify and nurture your relationships with customers. These could be email, advertising, social media, etc.
  • Explain the Cost Structure This section is especially necessary in the early stages of a business. Will you prioritize maximizing value or keeping costs low? List the foundational startup costs and how you will move toward profit over time.
  • Share Your Revenue Streams Over time, how will the company make money? Include both the direct product or service purchase, as well as secondary sources of revenue, such as subscriptions, selling advertising space, fundraising, etc.

Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Lean Business Plan Templates for Startups

Download Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

Startup leaders can use this Lean business plan template to relay the most critical information from a traditional plan. You’ll find all the sections listed above, including spaces for industry and product overviews, cost structure and sources of revenue, and key metrics, and a timeline. The template is completely customizable, so you can edit it to suit the objectives of your Lean startups.

See our wide variety of  startup business plan templates for more options.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Loan

A business plan for a loan, often called a loan proposal , includes many of the same aspects of a traditional business plan, as well as additional financial documents, such as a credit history, a loan request, and a loan repayment plan.

In addition, you may be asked to include personal and business financial statements, a form of collateral, and equity investment information.

Download free financial templates to support your business plan.

Tips for Writing a Business Plan

Outside of including all the key details in your business plan, you have several options to elevate the document for the highest chance of winning funding and other resources. Follow these tips from experts:.

  • Keep It Simple: Avner Brodsky , the Co-Founder and CEO of Lezgo Limited, an online marketing company, uses the acronym KISS (keep it short and simple) as a variation on this idea. “The business plan is not a college thesis,” he says. “Just focus on providing the essential information.”
  • Do Adequate Research: Michael Dean, the Co-Founder of Pool Research , encourages business leaders to “invest time in research, both internal and external (market, finance, legal etc.). Avoid being overly ambitious or presumptive. Instead, keep everything objective, balanced, and accurate.” Your plan needs to stand on its own, and you must have the data to back up any claims or forecasting you make. As Brodsky explains, “Your business needs to be grounded on the realities of the market in your chosen location. Get the most recent data from authoritative sources so that the figures are vetted by experts and are reliable.”
  • Set Clear Goals: Make sure your plan includes clear, time-based goals. “Short-term goals are key to momentum growth and are especially important to identify for new businesses,” advises Dean.
  • Know (and Address) Your Weaknesses: “This awareness sets you up to overcome your weak points much quicker than waiting for them to arise,” shares Dean. Brodsky recommends performing a full SWOT analysis to identify your weaknesses, too. “Your business will fare better with self-knowledge, which will help you better define the mission of your business, as well as the strategies you will choose to achieve your objectives,” he adds.
  • Seek Peer or Mentor Review: “Ask for feedback on your drafts and for areas to improve,” advises Brodsky. “When your mind is filled with dreams for your business, sometimes it is an outsider who can tell you what you’re missing and will save your business from being a product of whimsy.”

Outside of these more practical tips, the language you use is also important and may make or break your business plan.

Shaun Heng, VP of Operations at Coin Market Cap , gives the following advice on the writing, “Your business plan is your sales pitch to an investor. And as with any sales pitch, you need to strike the right tone and hit a few emotional chords. This is a little tricky in a business plan, because you also need to be formal and matter-of-fact. But you can still impress by weaving in descriptive language and saying things in a more elegant way.

“A great way to do this is by expanding your vocabulary, avoiding word repetition, and using business language. Instead of saying that something ‘will bring in as many customers as possible,’ try saying ‘will garner the largest possible market segment.’ Elevate your writing with precise descriptive words and you'll impress even the busiest investor.”

Additionally, Dean recommends that you “stay consistent and concise by keeping your tone and style steady throughout, and your language clear and precise. Include only what is 100 percent necessary.”

Resources for Writing a Business Plan

While a template provides a great outline of what to include in a business plan, a live document or more robust program can provide additional functionality, visibility, and real-time updates. The U.S. Small Business Association also curates resources for writing a business plan.

Additionally, you can use business plan software to house data, attach documentation, and share information with stakeholders. Popular options include LivePlan, Enloop, BizPlanner, PlanGuru, and iPlanner.

How a Business Plan Helps to Grow Your Business

A business plan — both the exercise of creating one and the document — can grow your business by helping you to refine your product, target audience, sales plan, identify opportunities, secure funding, and build new partnerships. 

Outside of these immediate returns, writing a business plan is a useful exercise in that it forces you to research the market, which prompts you to forge your unique value proposition and identify ways to beat the competition. Doing so will also help you build (and keep you accountable to) attainable financial and product milestones. And down the line, it will serve as a welcome guide as hurdles inevitably arise.

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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Create a business vision

A business vision is your goal for what your business will be in the future. It will align with your business goals and aspirations.

Your business vision is the formal way of communicating your business goals and commitments to others. The business vision statement should capture the key elements of what business success looks like to you.

Defining the business vision will guide you while you are planning to start a business and provide a sense of purpose and direction for your staff.

Business vision statements

The purpose of a business vision statement is to:

  • define what the business does and why it is important
  • inspire and create a sense of optimism about the business for the future.

Consider the following when creating your business vision statement:

  • The business why —what is the purpose of the business? Why is the business important? Who thinks the business is important?
  • The business what —what products or services does the business provide? What do you want the business to achieve? What do you want the business to look like in the future?

The business vision should be the starting point for business planning . The vision outlines the goals and aspirations for your business.

Examples of business vision statements

Large companies often have grand vision statements linked to large-scale global goals. But businesses of all sizes can benefit from a business vision statement.

Some examples of vision statements from global companies and small businesses with local goals are:

  • 'Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.' (LinkedIn)
  • 'To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy' (Tesla)
  • 'There will be a personal computer on every desk running Microsoft software.' (Microsoft's original vision statement)
  • 'To create a better everyday life for the many people.' (Ikea)
  • 'To build a community of coffee lovers in Rockhampton, by serving the best coffee at the best possible prices.' (Local café)
  • 'Our salon will change the way you think about a haircut, and leave you glowing both inside and out.' (Local hairdresser)

Writing a business vision statement

The following steps can help you write a business vision statement for your business.

  • Develop your vision (with co-owners or partners), or invite staff, business advisers and mentors to a business vision workshop.
  • Start by considering the 'why' of the business. Clearly define why the business matters to staff and customers.
  • Consider the 'what' of the business. Clearly define what the business does (e.g. what are the business products and services?).
  • Try using our business model canvas to capture all the key points that can help you identify what to include in your vision statement.
  • Summarise the why and what into a single statement (1 to 2 sentences).
  • Ensure that the statement is clear and concise, written in plain English and easy for someone outside of the business to interpret.
  • displaying the vision statement in staff common areas
  • including it in your code of conduct and other key policy documents
  • using it as a tool in staff performance review
  • displaying it publicly (e.g. in marketing material and on your website).
  • Review and update your vision statement as needed. It can help to test the vision statement with business contacts, friends or at business networks. Respond to feedback and review and adjust the statement as required.

Tips for business vision statement writing

These tips can help you develop a high-impact business vision statement.

  • Align it with the broader goals, values and mission of your business.
  • Avoid too many inclusions—don't obscure the message or clutter the statement with too much detail.
  • Keep the statement short—it should say a lot in few words.
  • Ensure that it covers the key purpose of your business.
  • Make it passionate, powerful and memorable.
  • Ensure that the vision is realistic in terms of resources, capabilities and growth potential. Be aspirational but not unrealistic.
  • Use language that is clear, concise and free of jargon.
  • Aim to make it inspiring and motivating—it should capture the audience's attention and prompt them to action.

A vision statement should be used across various areas of your business, including any brand development and marketing strategies , as well as part of your staff induction and with customers and suppliers.

Template for business vision statement

Use the following template to help you create a business vision statement.

Also consider...

  • Learn about establishing business values .
  • Read about writing a business plan .
  • Explore business processes, procedures and standards .
  • Last reviewed: 8 Dec 2022
  • Last updated: 20 Dec 2022

What is a vision statement?

Based on your goals and aspirations, a vision is the desired image of what you want your business to become in the future.

A vision statement provides you and your employees with direction, purpose, motivation and inspiration to achieve the desired outcome for your business.

What is the purpose of a vision statement?

A vision statement is an important part of your business strategy. It provides you with insights on where your business is heading by providing long-term direction. Your vision statement also aligns with the mission, core values and culture of your business.

A vision statement answers three key questions:

  • Where do you want your business to be in the future?
  • What is the purpose of your business?
  • What impacts do you want your business to have on your customers, community and/or the world?

How to create a vision statement

Each business has a unique vision statement, but the process of preparing and writing a vision statement is similar for most of them. Let us look at some steps that will help you prepare a vision statement.

Writing a vision statement requires analysing both internal and external aspects of your business as well as the current state of your business and where you want it to be in the future.

Your vision should be aligned to fundamental aspects of your business. Answer the following questions to assist you with this process:

  • What are the core values of your business?
  • What is your business mission?
  • What is the business culture that you want to cultivate?
  • What are your business’s current and future goals?
  • Where do you see your business in ten years' time?

Brainstorming

It’s important to get your staff involved in brainstorming and sharing ideas for a vision statement. Key staff can provide helpful insights on the business aspects mentioned above and the brainstorming process creates a sense of shared purpose, cohesiveness and direction.

Components of a good vision statement

Now that you have your answers ready, it’s time to develop your vision statement. Before you start writing, consider the following components which will aid you in writing an effective statement.

Make sure your vision statement is:

  • concise and clear (make the vision statement simple and easy to read)
  • brief (stick to the essentials)
  • future-oriented (a vision statement focuses on the future long-term goals and destination)
  • ambitious but realistic (keep in mind your resources)
  • inspiring and emotive (you want the vision statement to inspire and motivate people).

Examples of vision statements

Regardless of your business size or industry, a vision statement tells you where you want your business to be in the future and clarifies the path forward to achieve your objectives. Below are some examples of vision statements from businesses:

Using your business vision statement

As your business grows and expands, revisiting your vision statement can provide you with insights into the direction your business is going and whether you are on the right path to achieving your desired aspirations.

You can also use your vision statement in your marketing and promotional materials, either by having it on display in your place of business, posted on the business webpage/social media accounts, or incorporated as part of your business brand.

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5 Top Vision Statement Examples For Your Business Plan

Mission and Vision Statement Templates

Free Mission and Vision Statement Templates

Aayushi Mistry

  • October 25, 2023

Vision Statement Examples

Example 1: A vision statement by Microsoft

To help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best-known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. Microsoft ranked No. 21 in the 2020 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue; It was the world’s largest software maker by revenue as of 2016. It is considered one of the Big Five companies in the U.S. information technology industry, along with Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.

Information Courtesy: Wikipedia

Ratings by experts: 4 / 5

  • This mission statement communicates the intention of the empowerment of people and organizations.
  • It also indicates the vision of catering to the world’s unity and productivity.
  • However, the [How] is missing.

Example 2: A vision statement by Harley Davidson

Harley-Davidson, Inc. is an action-oriented, international company, a leader in its commitment to continuously improve our mutually beneficial relationships with stakeholders (customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, government, and society). Harley-Davidson believes the key to success is to balance stakeholders’ interests through the empowerment of all employees to focus on value-added activities.

Harley Davidson , Inc. is the fifth-biggest motorcycle manufacturer of heavyweight motorcycles in the world.

  • The mission statement shows the company is looking forward to expanding its business. Moreover, they have shown interest in the stakeholder’s leadership.
  • No user benefit is shown.

Example 3: A vision statement by Google LLC

To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big Five technology companies in the U.S. information technology industry, alongside Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.

Ratings by experts: 5 / 5

  • Clear communication on the intention.
  • Short, simple, and catchy.
  • Relevant to the audience and their services.

Example 4: A vision statement by KFC in the year 2013

To sell food in a fast, friendly environment that appeals to price-conscious, health-minded consumers…

KFC stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is an American fast-food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world’s second-largest restaurant chain after McDonald’s

Ratings by experts: 3 / 5

  • Clear mention of the target customer.
  • Can’t be used for branding purposes.
  • The reason why the statements fall back is that their actions as a brand did not completely align with their mission.

Example 5: A vision statement by Unilever

To make sustainable living commonplace. We believe this is the best long-term way for our business to grow.

Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in London, England. Unilever products include food, confections, energy drinks, baby food, soft drinks, cheese, ice cream, tea, cleaning agents, coffee, pet food, bottled water, toothpaste, chewing gum, frozen pizza, pregnancy tests, juice, margarine (Upfield), beauty products, personal care, breakfast cereals, pharmaceutical, and consumer healthcare products. Unilever is the largest producer of soap in the world. Unilever’s products are available in around 190 countries.

Information courtesy: Wikipedia

  • This statement targets the current requirement of the world community. Which is very relevant to the industry in which the company serves.
  • This is a long-term vision and can even concrete vision statement
  • Good use of vocabulary.

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Vision Statement in a Business Plan

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Every business begins with an inspiration or a concept for a fresh endeavor. It may have started as a thought or a discussion you had with a possible business partner. You must create a business strategy before considering launching a new enterprise. You can think of a business plan as your company’s road map. You’ll find it simpler to move your company in the direction you want it to go if you have a strategy in place. Making or revising a business plan is a crucial task for long-term success. This is regardless of how long you have been in company or how new you are. An excellent business plan aids in directing you through each phase of founding, running, and expanding your company. The job that your business plans to undertake is specified in your business strategy. One component, the vision statement, introduces the plan’s purpose, needs, and objectives. In order to effectively articulate your goals, developing a vision for your strategy requires understanding your company requirements. You’ll be able to get corporate support by doing this. That’s why, in this post, we are going to take a look at vision in business plan .

The Role of Vision in Business Plan

Vision Statement in a Business Plan

A vision statement is a written proclamation that outlines the meaning and goals of your company for all parties involved, particularly workers. It outlines the long-term outcomes that your business hopes to achieve.

Because it explains the company’s overall objective, a vision statement is important. Businesses that have greater goals are more desirable to both present and potential workers.

Take the time to create a vision statement that captures your passion and inspires your team. This may have an impact on the long-term success of your business.

A company’s mission statement demonstrates the entrepreneur’s enthusiasm for a brand-new business. Entrepreneurs who are looking to raise funds from venture capitalists or angel investors should demonstrate enthusiasm and excitement in their work.

They may decide not to invest if the entrepreneur isn’t passionate about the venture in which they are investing.

The company’s ultimate goals should be stated in the vision statement , which should be a declaration of the future. Vision statements that claim, “Our firm aims to be number one in the industry,” are frequently seen by bankers and other investors.

The mission statement applies to more than just lenders and investors. It serves as the company’s guiding philosophy while dealing with both external and internal stakeholders.

Customers and workers of the firm are also stakeholders. The corporation occasionally uses parts of its vision statement in its advertising.

When employees can relate to their employer’s vision statement, it makes them feel better. Employees who support the long term vision will be more committed to their work than those who only work for the money.

Difference Between Vision and Mission Statements

The purpose of a firm and its current status are communicated to stakeholders and members of the community through mission statements. Mission statements, by their nature are interested in the present. Future-focused vision statements are created to motivate staff members and provide guidance.

The mission focuses on where you are right now and why you exist. On the other hand the vision discusses your long-term objectives and how you plan to achieve them. The team should be inspired by the goal to change the world and contribute to a cause greater than themselves.

Both mission and vision statements are essential for developing a brand. The brand’s fulfillment of its purpose is the emphasis of the vision statement rather than its mission statement, which focuses on the brand’s purpose.

A vision statement should be your company’s compass even if its purpose and vision statements should be its fundamental components.

It may seem intimidating to write the ideal vision statement, but it doesn’t have to be. You just have to follow some basic rules and procedures and you will be all set.

How to Write a Statement of Vision in Business Plan?

Know the many categories of needs. Your company aim is defined by the business needs. The tasks a user must be able to complete with your product or service are listed under user requirements. Functional requirements outline how your product will act in particular circumstances.

Perform a competitive analysis. Analyze the descriptions of similar or existing items. Read up on industry norms or governing bodies’ rules. To find support issues, analyze problem complaints from the help desk. For inspiration, talk to your stakeholders or possible investors. Determine what numerical or statistical information you can use in your vision statement to support it.

Develop methods for acquiring, analyzing, specifying, and validating requirements. To find out what demands potential consumers have, conduct surveys or focus groups with user group representatives. Make sure you comprehend the duties and goals of the customer. Recognize the relative significance of the features of the product from their point of view. Prioritize the implementation of your ideas so that you can transform the requirements of your clients into detailed written instructions. Together with your development team, go through your results.

Describe your vision in writing. Provide information about your target audience, including who they are, what they want, the name of your product or service, and the main advantage. Additionally, you should describe your main rival and how your product or service is sufficiently unique in your statement.

In Conclusion

The vision of a business plan is the organization’s idea of what they hope to be like in five years time. It’s not something that can be accomplished in just the short time span of five years. But the goal should be to keep the vision in the mind and attempt to steer the business in that direction.

We hope you can easily draft up your own vision statement for your business plan after reading this. Vision in business plan is very important and mastering your vision statement will help you a lot in the future. If you have any questions, please let us know!

Vision Statement in a Business Plan

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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As we approach Super Bowl weekend, we’re thrilled to be a part of the festivities for the first time in four years. This year, we’re proud to celebrate the transformative power of AI and Microsoft Copilot, showcasing peoples’ “watch me” moments with Copilot enabling people to do things previously unattainable. With a simple sentence or two, you will see a budding entrepreneur turn a fledgling idea for a new product into an actionable business plan, a filmmaker’s concept into a rich set of storyboards, and a fantasy football player’s team come to life with a mascot image they can edit inline.

Coincident with the launch of our Super Bowl ad , we are also launching a significant new update to our Microsoft Copilot experience on copilot.microsoft.com and our Copilot app on iOS and Android app stores.  Today when you visit Copilot, you will see a more streamlined look and feel designed to help you bring your ideas to life and more easily gain understanding about the world. We have introduced a cleaner, sleeker look and feel for answers and a fun new carousel of suggested prompts to showcase the power of Copilot.

Today marks exactly one year since our entry into AI-powered experiences for people with Bing Chat. In that year we have learned so many new things and seen the use of our Copilot experiences explode with over 5 billion chats and 5 billion images created to date which have led to sustained growth in Edge and Bing share. Now with Copilot as our singular experience for people looking to get more out of AI creation, we are today introducing further image creation capabilities.

With Designer in Copilot, you can go beyond just creating images to now customize your generated images with inline editing right inside Copilot 1 , keeping you in the flow of your chat. Whether you want to highlight an object to make it pop with enhanced color, blur the background of your image to make your subject shine, or even reimagine your image with a different effect like pixel art, 2 Copilot has you covered, all for free.  If you’re a Copilot Pro subscriber, in addition to the above, you can also now easily resize and regenerate images between square and landscape without leaving chat. Lastly, we will soon roll out our new Designer GPT inside Copilot, which offers an immersive, dedicated canvas inside of Copilot where you can visualize your ideas.

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what is the vision of business plan

Google Cloud CEO On Huge Investments, AI And Challenges In 2024

CEO Thomas Kurian dives into Google Cloud’s biggest market opportunity, investments, partner strategy and toughest challenges facing the company in 2024.

what is the vision of business plan

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has some bold investment plans in store for the $37 billion cloud company this year around cybersecurity, collaboration and generative AI, with Google partners being the tip of the spear.

“The biggest market opportunity we see [in 2024] is moving customers from AI pilots and proofs of concept toward larger implementations that solve real business problems,” Thomas Kurian told CRN as part of its 2024 CEO Outlook project.

“Our partners will be critical as this pivot takes place in 2024 because our partner-led approach to services delivery means that the majority of customers implementing Google Cloud AI will do so with the support of a partner,” he said.

[Related: AWS Vs. Microsoft Vs. Google Cloud Earnings Q4 2023 Face-Off ]

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Cloud recently generated over $9.1 billion in revenue during its fourth-quarter 2023, an increase of 26 percent year over year.

The cloud computing company now accounts for nearly 11 percent of parent company Google’s total $86 billion revenue as of fourth-quarter 2023.

Thomas Kurian: Generative AI Is An ‘Unmatched Opportunity’

Not only is Google Cloud on a record $37 billion annual run rate, but the company is more profitable than ever thanks to Kurian’s leadership over the past six years.

Google Cloud captured operating income of $864 million in fourth-quarter 2023, up significantly from an operating loss of $186 million year over year. This means the company increased its operating income by over $1 billion from fourth-quarter 2022 to fourth-quarter 2023. For all of 2023, Google Cloud achieved a 5.2 percent operating margin, marking the company’s first year with a positive operating margin.

Kurian said he’s bullish about Google Cloud’s growth, channel partner strategy and investment vision in 2024, specifically around GenAI .

“We lead cloud service providers with strong differentiation in each category, and we look forward to continuing to expand these capabilities to better serve our customers [in 2024],” said Kurian. “All of these investments offer our partners and customers an unmatched opportunity with the emergence of generative AI. Our vision for generative AI has been to create a platform that allows people to build and use agents that can understand, reason and act on information in a similar way that humans do.”

As part of CRN’s 2024 CEO Outlook project, Kurian takes a deep dive into Google Cloud’s biggest market opportunity, tech investments, partner strategy and toughest challenges facing the company in 2024. Here is what every Google Cloud partner should know about the company’s channel and AI strategy this year.

what is the vision of business plan

What key tech investments do you plan to make in 2024?

We’ll continue to invest in new infrastructure , data analytics, cybersecurity, collaboration and AI technologies to meet customers’ needs.

Today, we lead cloud service providers with strong differentiation in each category, and we look forward to continuing to expand these capabilities to better serve our customers.

All of these investments offer our partners and customers an unmatched opportunity with the emergence of generative AI. Our vision for generative AI has been to create a platform that allows people to build and use agents that can understand, reason and act on information in a similar way that humans do.

For example, with Gemini, we offer a powerful multimodal large language model that includes advanced reasoning skills and cost efficiency; with Vertex AI, we provide a comprehensive set of tools, models and resources to build generative AI applications; and with Duet AI, we are embedding AI across products like Workspace and Google Cloud Platform to help customers and developers streamline tasks like content creation, code generation, note-taking and much more.

what is the vision of business plan

What are the toughest challenges facing customers in 2024?

Customers are looking at how best to drive their business transformations with AI.

In my conversations with customers, they’ve shared a few challenges they face in the year ahead: first, an urgent need to get their data estates in order so they can deploy AI tools.

Second, ensuring they have the right AI skills in place to tune and ground models.

Third, training and upskilling employees who will be using these tools more often.

Finally, they want to ensure they are adopting AI in a safe and responsible manner, reducing possible risks like hallucinations.

what is the vision of business plan

What impact do you expect AI to have on the business you and your partners do together in 2024?

This will be a huge inflection point for the industry. We are already seeing a shift where customers are seeking highly specialized partners who bring very deep product expertise to the table.

Google Cloud partners are now seeing AI infused into virtually every customer engagement. We’re committed to providing our partners with the right resources, tools, support and incentives to meet this opportunity and build their own thriving AI businesses.

To support partners, we are growing our overall rewards for them moving forward.

For instance, we are substantially increasing our incentives for partners across both Google Workspace and GCP, and increasing rewards for partners who drive more workload adoption and accelerate adoption of key products like AI.

what is the vision of business plan

What’s the biggest market opportunity you and partners will tackle in 2024?

The biggest market opportunity we see is moving customers from AI pilots and proofs of concept toward larger implementations that solve real business problems.

Our partners will be critical as this pivot takes place in 2024 because our partner-led approach to services delivery means that the majority of customers implementing Google Cloud AI will do so with the support of a partner.

To address this opportunity, it’s important for partners to continue to develop deep product expertise and grow their AI services capacities. We’ve worked closely with our ecosystem for several years to equip them with the tools and programs they need to build their delivery and managed services expertise in critical areas like AI, data and security.

In fact, we’ve increased our number of certified partners by 15X since 2018.

Last year, our largest consulting and systems integrator partners committed to train more than 150,000 people to deliver Google Cloud AI to customers.

Our partners have always played an incredibly important role in the growth of Google Cloud and in customer success, and we’re committed to helping them address this significant opportunity with AI, as well as continually expanding opportunities in areas like cloud migrations, cybersecurity and data management.

what is the vision of business plan

What is the key to success for your partners in 2024?

Customers are looking for deeply skilled partners to implement solutions, execute cloud migrations, build new AI applications and more.

Channel partners are becoming “ next-generation MSPs for the AI era ,” who will focus not only on infrastructure, but also on the critical areas of AI, data and security.

The AI opportunity in particular demands deep domain knowledge. For example, MSPs now need to not only help customers train a model, but continue to retrain and refresh it, and manage complex issues like model drift on a customer’s behalf.

We’ve been working on AI for years at Google Cloud. Our partners who had invested in building deep AI product expertise were able to very quickly address the spike in customer demand for AI over the past year.

This opportunity is only going to grow, and the partners who build deep AI expertise today will be best positioned to address this market.

A behind-the-scenes look at the Twitter company retreat that brought Jack Dorsey out of his shell

  • Jack Dorsey once led a Twitter company retreat to boost employee morale and set a vision for the company.
  • The 3-day event featured strange wellness routines, dance parties, and a special message from no-show guest Elon Musk. 
  • The following is an excerpt from " Battle for the Bird ," a new book by journalist Kurt Wagner. 

Insider Today

Jack Dorsey sat on the floor with his legs crossed and his back straight, silently meditating on a stage inside one of San Francisco's largest convention halls.

High above him, the blue lights inside the Moscone Center had dimmed. Behind him, a white Twitter bird sat motionless in the middle of a giant, purple video screen.

Had Dorsey opened his eyes, he would have seen nearly all of Twitter's 3,500 employees facing him in their own noiseless trance. From the convention center floor where they all sat looking up at the stage, Dorsey was just a silhouette, like a statue of a skinny Buddha.

It was July 31, 2018, the first day of #OneTeam , Twitter's first-ever company-wide retreat. Dorsey had asked everyone to spend 10 minutes meditating together before a full day of presentations from company leadership.

Almost all of Twitter's global employees had flown to San Francisco for the three-day event.

The entire morning had been an homage of sorts to Dorsey's unique, personal lifestyle. His mother, Marcia, was the first person onstage to welcome everybody, a nod to the fact that she posted the same "good morning" tweet from her home in St. Louis every day.

Besides meditation, Dorsey told people that he started each day with three things — "salt juice," sunshine, and movement — and now Twitter's employees were doing the same.

Under their chairs were brown paper sacks with water bottles, pink Himalayan sea salt, and lemon juice, which everyone combined to make Dorsey's "wake-me-up" cocktail. Dorsey pressed a button with his foot and shot flames up from the stage to replicate sunshine, and everyone got some movement when a surprise "flash mob" erupted on stage featuring several of Twitter's senior executives in choreographed dance. The morning even included a brief concert from one of Dorsey's favorite rappers, Jay Rock, who was done and off the stage well before 10 a.m.

For years, Twitter's sales organization had held a popular annual off-site, and other teams at the company were eager to follow suit. Twitter's executives decided it was better and cheaper to roll all these various proposals into one mega-event.

What emerged was a full-blown corporate retreat to set a proper vision and rebuild morale.

Twitter had been through two rounds of layoffs, a failed sales process, and the first 18 months of Trump's presidency since Dorsey had returned; it felt like everyone could use a boost.

Dorsey handled much of the vision-setting during his 90-minute keynote to kick off the week. Twitter, he said, had a mission to "serve the public conversation," corporate-speak for helping people communicate about the things going on around them. This meant keeping Twitter "healthy" and earning people's trust, he said, but also "uniting profit and #purpose" and "being #fast, #free and #fun!"

The framing was cheesy, but the idea was simple: Twitter was the place people went to talk about what was happening in the world. One of Dorsey's slides included his belief that Twitter would one day "serve" more than 1 billion people per day. (At the time, Twitter had just 122 million daily users.)

Employees spent much of the next couple of days in various breakout sessions, where company leaders shared updates and outlined strategy for their respective teams.

To coordinate the event and help create the agenda, Twitter turned to Leslie Berland. As the company's head of people and chief marketing officer, she oversaw Twitter's internal culture and its external reputation. She'd joined Twitter from American Express a few years prior and was both high-energy and vocal about how much she loved working at Twitter.

More than anyone in Twitter's upper ranks, she had a knack for coaxing Dorsey out of his shell, and doing so became an important part of the #OneTeam program. The more relatable and accessible Dorsey was to Twitter's growing employee base, the more likely employees would be excited to work at the company.

It wasn't that Dorsey was unapproachable — quite the opposite, in fact. He would regularly respond to random emails from rank-and-file staffers and often worked in the Twitter cafeteria or outside on the ninth- floor balcony where anyone could walk up to him with a question.

But Dorsey was still an introvert, a billionaire, and a celebrity CEO who wasn't always eager to bask in the limelight. Employees who had meetings with him were surprised at how little he said, and when he did speak, his deep, monotone voice could give off an air of apathy.

Dorsey was generally much better at communicating in writing than in person, but he looked surprisingly comfortable and confident on stage at #OneTeam. The event was a chance for people to see Dorsey in a new light, and a chance for Dorsey to win over his employees.

For the most part, the plan to humanize Dorsey worked.

He quickly became the star of the three-day show alongside his direct reports, a group simply referred to as "Staff." Employees found his morning routine to be weird, but also endearing and personal. His parents, Marcia and Tim, told childhood stories about their quiet, artsy son and became instant celebrities in their own right, posing for selfies and exchanging tweets with employees well after the conference was over.

Dorsey's meditation session had been uncomfortable since most people didn't know what to do with themselves during 10 minutes of total silence, and drinking the salt juice was the closest thing to a cult that most employees would ever be a part of.

But they also saw more of Dorsey over three days than many of them had in their entire Twitter tenure, and he spent the week chatting with people in the halls and posing for photos. By the end of the week, the catering staff was walking around the conference center with trays of salt juice for people to drink.

On the final night of the off-site, Twitter threw a massive party.

Bruce Falck, the man in charge of Twitter's advertising products, breakdanced onstage in front of the entire company. Several other executives who reported to Dorsey competed in a lip-sync battle with choreographed dances and matching costumes. Ned Segal , the CFO, wore glowsticks around his neck and bright orange suspenders; JP Maheu, the head of US ad sales, sported a giant gold chain and a backwards hat. At one point Berland was spotted in the DJ booth high above the throng of dancing employees.

As everyone headed home or to the airport the following morning, it felt like the end of summer camp. Employees swapped inside jokes on Twitter and tweeted about how much they loved their jobs, many adding the hashtag #lovewhereyouwork. Employee attrition at Twitter had always been higher than industry average, but for the next several months, Twitter's HR department noticed that almost nobody left the company.

Del Harvey, the head of Trust and Safety who had been at Twitter since 2008, was effusive with praise. "In all my time at @Twitter, I'm not sure I've ever seen folks so energetic, enthusiastic, & ready to collaborate as after #OneTeam," she tweeted . By the time everybody got to work on Monday, offices around the world had salt juice stations set up in the kitchens and cafeterias.

The week did have one major disappointment, though.

Rumors had circulated that Dorsey had arranged for a special guest speaker — another famous celebrity and die-hard Twitter user.

On the final day of the off-site, before the dance party and lip-sync battle, Dorsey broke the bad news to everyone that the scheduling hadn't worked out.

"So there has been a buzz about an outside speaker that we were going to bring here to speak to us about our service and what we're doing and where we could be better," Dorsey said while pacing the stage. "Unfortunately, he got extremely, extremely busy and isn't able to make it."

It was true that Musk was busy. Earlier in the year, the Tesla CEO had been sleeping on the floor of his car factory to try to increase production of his newest electric car, the Model 3. Most days he didn't even take the time to shower or change his clothes. By early July, things had gotten better, but he still had "one foot in hell" and was mentally drained by the stress. "It's been super-hard. Like there is for sure some permanent mental scar tissue here," he said at the time.

As a consolation, Dorsey read the company his direct-message exchange with Musk from the day that he asked him to come and speak. Musk had replied that he hated speaking events but would make an exception for Twitter. "I do love Twitter and I think it is a force for good," he told Dorsey.

The audience cheered when Dorsey read the exchange out loud, and Dorsey himself seemed flattered. "That's pretty amazing," he admitted.

He promised Musk would come back some other time. "BATTLE FOR THE BIRD: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk, and the $44 Billion Fight for Twitter's Soul" by Kurt Wagner. Copyright © 2024 by Kurt Wagner. Reprinted by permission of Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.

Kurt Wagner is an award-winning business and technology journalist covering social media for Bloomberg, where he has worked since 2019.

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Watch: 5 ways Elon Musk shook up Twitter as CEO

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    A mission and vision statement ( more commonly called a mission statement or a vision statement) is a brief sentence that declares the goals that a business plans to achieve in the future. Like a compass guides a ship, it guides a business to success by providing continuously inspiring its stakeholders in their daily operations and strategic moves.

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    A vision statement can be a highly effective tool to keep an organization on track, and unite the organization's team — from investors to employees — toward a shared purpose. It can also have a positive impact on a company's well-being.

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    A vision statement shares the long-term goals, produces a narrative for marketing, and creates a strategic framework. It also builds alignment and connection between the business and its people. A vision statement should only be a few sentences but have everlasting power in its meaning.

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    Write the Executive Summary. This section is the same as in the traditional business plan — simply offer an overview of what's in the business plan, the prospect or core offering, and the short- and long-term goals of the company. Add a Company Overview. Document the larger company mission and vision.

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    A business vision statement is a company's future aspirations defined clearly by an executive or team of executives. A vision statement can portray how business executives see the company serving the greater community. The statement is simple and inspires innovation for the company to strive to accomplish.

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    A vision statement is an essential component of any strategic plan. Understanding how to write a vision statement can help you plan an organization's future, motivate stakeholders, strategize for the organization's growth, and guide parties to make intelligent choices for long-term success. ... A business vision is a statement that describes ...

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    Jul 8, 2022,07:00am EDT Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Curtis Jenkins, author of Vision to Reality. He has helped dozens of small businesses accomplish their vision. Learn...

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    Your business's mission statement is more permanent than an objective in a business plan. It must be applied consistently over time. The mission statement serves as a reminder—to you, your employees, and your customers—of the main purpose of your business. To avoid vague, fuzzy mission statements, review your statement for useless comparisons.

  18. Create your business vision statement

    A vision statement is an important part of your business strategy. It provides you with insights on where your business is heading by providing long-term direction. Your vision statement also aligns with the mission, core values and culture of your business. A vision statement answers three key questions:

  19. What Is a Vision Statement? + 21 Top Examples (2024)

    4. United By Blue. Vision statement: A world without waste. Sustainable goods brand United By Blue is another example of a brand with an environmentally conscious vision statement. United By Blue cleans up one pound of trash from the world's waterways for every product purchased, in effort to support its vision.

  20. 5 Best Vision Statement Examples For Your Business Plan

    October 25, 2023 4 Min Read → Download Now: Mission and Vision Statement Templates Example 1: A vision statement by Microsoft To help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

  21. How to Conduct Vision Planning in Your Organization

    A vision statement, which provides support for a strategic plan, typically outlines an organization's overall goals and states the purpose of the company's existence. An effective vision statement is specific and concise and should leave nothing open for interpretation. Vision statements often reflect the core values and mission of the company.

  22. Simple Business Plan Template (2024)

    This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and ...

  23. Vision Statement in a Business Plan

    A vision statement is a written proclamation that outlines the meaning and goals of your company for all parties involved, particularly workers. It outlines the long-term outcomes that your business hopes to achieve. Because it explains the company's overall objective, a vision statement is important.

  24. Understanding Muhammad Ali Pate's bold vision and strategic plan for

    When he was announced as Minister of Health and Social Welfare at the inception of the present administration, the consensus among the broad spectrum of stakeholders was that Muhammad Ali Pate was the best thing to have happened to the nation's health sector in a long time.. Indeed, it was, for him, a veritable homecoming—not only to public service but to the self-same ministry he has now ...

  25. Delivering Copilot for everyone

    With a simple sentence or two, you will see a budding entrepreneur turn a fledgling idea for a new product into an actionable business plan, a filmmaker's concept into a rich set of storyboards, and a fantasy football player's team come to life with a mascot image they can edit inline.

  26. Google Cloud CEO On Huge Investments, AI And Challenges In 2024

    What key tech investments do you plan to make in 2024? We'll continue to invest in new infrastructure, data analytics, cybersecurity, collaboration and AI technologies to meet customers' needs

  27. Inside Twitter's Company Retreat: an Excerpt From the New Book Battle

    Jack Dorsey once led a Twitter company retreat to boost employee morale and set a vision for the company. The 3-day event featured strange wellness routines, dance parties, and a special message ...