A corporate vision is one of the most important aspects of a company. As I talk about in my forthcoming book, corporate vision is the means to visualize your optimal future state of being. It’s what you wish to achieve over the life of the company, which you hope will be long and prosperous.
When creating this vision, looking five and ten years out along the horizon is necessary because you want to figure where the company will be at that time, what it will be doing, and how it will be doing it. Knowing what you know about your assets, this seems relatively doable…until you throw disruptors in the mix.
By disruptors, I’m specifically speaking about those of the technological sort: social media, cloud, mobile, big data and analytics. At this current state of the game, the very way we operate as human beings has been radically changed by these innovations: we leave cookies across the Internet that provides more information than ever to companies that want to understand and influence our behaviour; we become engrossed with the rapid flow of life conveyed via social media; our entire lives can be managed on our mobile devices; and cloud technology has revolutionized the very way we do everything from shop to work – anywhere at anytime. When looking at your corporate vision, does it really make sense to pay attention to them?
You’d better believe it does.
The optimal future state of all companies now includes a pathway to and through these disruptive technologies. We must understand how they affect our employees (and the wider talent pool), our workplaces, our customers, and our shareholders. Mobile and cloud change everything from the delivery of services to workplace configuration; social media becomes a tool that is useful to build a powerhouse brand and communicate with employees and customers on a real-time basis; and big data and analytics can make even the least savvy product developer instantly primed and ready to know what the customer wants and how they want it delivered before they even know to ask for it. Big data and analytics will also change how we understand and manage people, and give people new tools with which to manage themselves.
Utilized properly, these seemingly unsettling technologies can become our best tools for building a powerful future. We need only harness them correctly.
Now is the time for HR departments to become fully engaged with what these tools can do. And to build capacity at our companies by using them. The world is ripe with research, and a bit of time spent building a base of expertise can help you create a business case as to why the old corporate vision might need to be taken down from the shelf, brushed off, and looked at again, this time with an eye to a technologically advanced future. Bring your thoughts to your Chief Information Officer, and discuss the best delivery models for their services. Bring in the C-suite and have a robust discussion around the impact this will have on all aspects of the company, from Marketing and Supply Chain, all the way to Customer Service, and yes, inside HR itself. No stone should remain unturned; the future is coming far too rapidly.
When changing corporate vision, be sure to find a balance of new guard and old. Don’t fear these technologies. Look to them to find a new vision, one that embraces change and becomes endlessly agile while remaining steadfast to the core values of your organization. Technological disruptors are only destructive if you remain rigid. Adapt and ride the lightning, and the world will be your oyster.
Is it time to retool your corporate vision to embrace these emerging technologies?
The answer is a resounding yes.