How To Write A Vision Statement

Writing a vision statement for an organization can be tough because it requires thoughtful analysis of why your work exists and future implications, long after the current people are no longer in charge.

We think a good vision statement was written by John Deere.

John Deere Vision Statement = “We conduct business essential to life. Running for the people who trust us and the planet that sustains us, we create intelligent connected machines that enable lives to leap forward.”

How to create a vision statement begins with quick answers to the following questions:

• Why do we care about what we do?
• What’s the goal of everything that we do as it relates to our community or industry?
• What values guide us as we do business?

Vision Statement examples can be found in the Missionstatements.com library by organization or business category. Click here to get to the main library page.

Missionstatements.com exists to offer help to those asking, “How to write a vision statement?”

We have a Mission and Vision Statement Guide that you can download for $5 here.

A vision story

There once was a gal that owned a used car lot. No matter how good or bad the economy was, she consistently did well. She sold every kind of car and truck available.

Her old customers came back and new customers enjoyed discovering what she had for sale. By any measurement, in a very competitive industry she enjoyed long-term success.

One day an old friend stopped by the lot. As they were talking, the old friend expressed her admiration for the continued success of the car lot. “How is it possible,” she said, “that you always know what type of car will sell?”

The car dealer smiled and said, “Because, I don’t sell cars. I sell happiness.”

Most people would think that the car dealer’s vision —her reason for being in business—was to sell cars.  But her vision of making people happy drove her mission, which was too offer the best deals on cars in her town. The vision had nothing to do with the external form of her product. Her vision was something beyond the obvious: she wanted to make customers happy.

If the car dealer had a vision statement, it might have been this: Bring happiness to my customers.

Vision is about values and why you do something

Many people stop with a mission statement, which is typically no longer than a sentence or two. It helps employees and owners alike to elaborate on the mission statement by including descriptions or assertions of values, vision, or goals. The vision can be presented in narrative form, as bullet points, or as a list. Your vision statement may describe how the organization plans to fulfill the mission. A vision may also elaborate on the relationship the company is striving to create with the community in which it operates as well as assert values.