I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Russia where I was invited to teach a course on executive presence as well as presentation and communication techniques at the brand new Skolkovo Moscow School of Management.
The students are an extremely lively and, of course, incredibly bright collection of talent from around the world. Although most are Russian, citizens from Brazil, India, Finland, Australia, USA and Kazakhstan are also represented. They are not a shy bunch either.
A vision of Moscow
One exercise I introduced them to was how to develop and communicate a compelling vision for an organization. We discussed the differences between mission statements and vision statements and then I gave them free reign to invent their own company profiles and develop vision statements for them. Company products ranged from a pill that could make you instantly sober to a weapons factory designed as far as I could tell to eradicate all other weapons! (you had to be there I guess).
They did pretty well with the vision statements too, but it was at this point that Sergey Pavlovskiy from Russia, who is seriously into creating start up companies, suggested that mission and vision statements should be replaced with a “mantra.” He pointed to the book by Guy Kawasaki called The Art of the Start in which Kawasaki says “forget mission statements, they’re long, boring and irrelevant. No-one can even remember them much less implement them. Instead, take your meaning and make a mantra out of it.”
In fact, Kawasaki’s mantra idea is the vision statement. Vision statements should conjure up the values and philosophy of a company succinctly and memorably. They are not about how to achieve the bottom line but are externally focused and express why customers will want to work with your organization. Kawasaki uses these examples of good “Mantras”:
Authentic Athletic Performance – Nike
Fun Family Entertainment – Disney
Rewarding Everyday Moments – Starbucks
They are all great vision statements as well as Mantras. Each conjures up a clear image of the organization’s goals and aspirations. They are called vision statements for good reason - they paint powerful pictures in our minds.
So thanks Sergey for introducing me to Mr. Kawasaki. No pressure or anything but I think we should all watch out for a really powerful “vision/ mantra” statement coming out of a start up company in Russia soon!
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Welcome back Howard and you’ve come bearing gifts from Moscow. Your experience got me thinking about our own vision statement/mantra. Right now it’s “Presentation and media coaching guaranteed to bring out your best” and it left me wondering if we could do better and make it snappier and more intriguing. It doesn’t really create a vision does it? I’d be curious to hear what our readers think…