Evaluating Vision Statements: Business Strategy Assessment

This essay evaluates the effectiveness of vision statements in achieving organizational objectives. It begins by defining the key criteria for a successful vision statement, drawing on existing literature. The paper then analyzes and ranks the vision statements of American Express, Hilton Hotels, and BASF based on their clarity, distinctiveness, flexibility, and ability to inspire. The analysis reveals that American Express's vision statement is the most potent due to its clarity and future orientation, while BASF's vision statement, although emphasizing employee engagement and sustainability, lacks specific direction. The essay concludes that a well-crafted vision statement is a critical tool for connecting with stakeholders and creating a positive image for the organization. The paper highlights the importance of a clear, specific, and inspiring vision statement in driving a company's strategic direction and achieving its goals. The essay provides a detailed assessment of each company's vision statement, offering valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

EVALUATING VISION STATEMENTS
Evaluating Vision Statements
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1EVALUATING VISION STATEMENTS
Every business organization has its own foundational value system. A successful
organization has two significant components in their value system, namely mission and vision.
An organization’s mission statement reflects its philosophy and perspective, while the vision
statements frame a guideline to achieve its goals (Taiwo, Lawal, & Agwu, 2016). More importantly,
the vision statement helps the organization to communicate with its various stakeholders,
including the customers, investors and employees by providing them a glimpse of the company
culture (Oh et al., 2017). Therefore, it can be stated that vision statements are an important
element for achieving organizational objectives and goals. However, there are some fundamental
criteria that make the vision statements an effective one. Not all the companies are successful in
designing a clear and poignant vision statement.
In the following paper, three vision statements belonging to certain established
organization will be evaluated in terms of their effectiveness and success in communicating the
company objective. In order to evaluate them, first the paper will discuss the necessary criteria
for a successful vision statement following existing literature. Further, it will analyse the
statements and rank them according to their merit and adequacy.
As stated by Gamble et al. (2019), vision statements describe the course and direction of
a company’s future product-customer-market-technology focus. The authors further remarks that
a strategic vision helps the management of a company to drive its employees to a common
direction. It also enables stakeholders capture the essence of the organizational objective. For
example, the vision statement of Facebook states “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” (Facebook Newsroom, 2019). This strategic vision statement readily points out

2EVALUATING VISION STATEMENTS
Facebook’s role as a social platform where people can connect and share their views. It also
indicates the organization’s objective of serving as a mode of communication, ensuring freedom
of expression and fast connectivity (Hoffmann, Proferes & Zimmer, 2018).
A strategic vision statement should qualify certain criteria to establish its merit and
adequacy. First of all, it has to be specific and distinctive. To elucidate, the vision statement
should distinguish the organization from all the other similar companies and provide competitive
advantage over them. It should readily avoid generic statements. Further, it should be clear and
free from any crafty words (Gamble et al., 2019). The purpose of the vision statements is to
communicate the objective. Hence, it should make way for future development (Haque,
TitiAmayah & Liu, 2016). However, it should be flexible in nature, so that the management could
come up with novel problem solving strategies instead of following steadfast principles. Most
importantly, a vision statement should be inspiring.
Following the aforementioned criteria, the vision statements of three acclaimed
companies, i.e. American Express, Hilton Hotels and BASF will be evaluated.
Upon consideration, American Express’s vision statement qualifies as the most potent
and significant one. It is graphic in depicting its current position as well as indicating its future
goal. Evidently, it is future oriented and focused. Although, it is not rigid that it restricts
adjustments and change. Further, it is inspiring in the sense that it motivates the people
associated with the brand achieve the set target. Although it tends to be a little vague and broad
in its scope, its merit lies in its distinctiveness. The vision could be easily remembered as a
slogan that makes it easy to communicate.

3EVALUATING VISION STATEMENTS
Hilton Hotel’s vision statement makes it distinctive and graphic too. It indicates the
company culture and future propositions flawlessly. The vision statement presents a very
desirable and feasible goal for the company. It is also focused and future oriented in its approach,
although it seems to be not flexible. It leaves too little room for innovating future strategies.
Another major shortcoming of the vision is that it seems to be inclined to superlatives, rather
than presenting a specific approach. However, the main shortcoming of the vision statement is its
length. It is too long to remember. Consequently, the complex nature of the statement will make
it difficult to communicate. (Bowen, 2018)
The vision statement of BASF, however, seems to be the most unattractive one. First of
all, it lacks direction. It does not indicate any future goal or objective of the company. Besides,
the statement is too generic. There are several other chemical companies that are operating in all
major markets. Although it emphasizes its sustainable approach, it does not specify any company
goals or objectives. However, the shortcomings do not make the vision redundant. The merit of
the vision statement is constituted by its emphasis on employee engagement and team spirit.
Moreover, its focus on sustainability in terms of people, profit and innovation makes it a
commendable strategic vision. However, the vision statement cannot be regarded as a specific
one as it seems to cover a broad area. This might be confusing for the customers as well as the
employees. In the same notion, it can be asserted that the statement lacks the potency of being
well-communicated. At best it can be considered as an adequate one but not an inspiring vision.
Analysing the vision statements of the above mentioned companies it can be concluded
that the vision statement of an organization is an effective tool to create an image in the broader
arena of society. It helps the organization connect with its stakeholders by evoking a sense of

4EVALUATING VISION STATEMENTS
worth and future prosperity. In the light of this analysis, American Express surpasses the other
companies mentioned in the paper for its merit and adequacy, while BASF lacks the uniqueness
and direction in its approach.
References
Bowen, S. A. (2018). Mission and Vision. The International Encyclopedia of Strategic
Communication, 1-9.
Company Info | Facebook Newsroom. (2019). Retrieved 4 September 2019, from
https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
Gamble, J. E., Peteraf, M. A., & Thompson, A. A. (2019). Essentials of strategic management:
The quest for competitive advantage. McGraw-Hill Education.
Haque, M. D., TitiAmayah, A., & Liu, L. (2016). The role of vision in organizational readiness
for change and growth. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(7), 983-
999.
Hoffmann, A. L., Proferes, N., & Zimmer, M. (2018). “Making the world more open and
connected”: Mark Zuckerberg and the discursive construction of Facebook and its
users. New Media & Society, 20(1), 199-218.
Oh, I. S., Blau, G., Han, J. H., & Kim, S. (2017). Human capital factors affecting human
resource (HR) managers' commitment to HR and the mediating role of perceived
organizational value on HR. Human Resource Management, 56(2), 353-368.

5EVALUATING VISION STATEMENTS
Taiwo, A. A., Lawal, F. A., & Agwu, E. (2016). Vision and Mission in Organization: Myth or
Heuristic Device?. The International Journal of Business & Management, 4(3).