User:Visionairs 2014/sandbox

In the literature concerning leadership, vision has a variety of definitions, all of which include a mental image or picture, a future orientation, and aspects of direction or goal. Vision provides guidance to an organization by articulating what it wishes to attain. It serves as "a signpost pointing the way for all who need to understand what the organization is and where it intends to go" (Nanus, 1992). By providing a picture, vision not only describes an organization's direction or goal, but also the means of accomplishing it. It guides the work of the organization. Vision is a picture of the future for which people are willing to work.

However, vision is more than an image of the future. It has a compelling aspect that serves to inspire, motivate, and engage people. It is a force that provides meaning and purpose to the work of an organization. Vision is a compelling picture of the future that inspires commitment. It answers the questions: Who is involved? What do they plan to accomplish? Why are they doing this? Vision therefore does more than provide a picture of a desired future; it encourages people to work, to strive for its attainment.

To assist leaders in developing an appropriate vision, Nanus (1992) maintains that the "right vision" has five characteristics:


 * attracts commitment and energizes people,
 * creates meaning in workers' lives,
 * establishes a standard of excellence,
 * bridges the present to the future,
 * transcends the status quo.

Successful and unsuccessful examples
There are plenty of great examples all around us, from centuries of great and poor leaders. When you focused on business, this could be easier to measure success or failure with “figures” and numbers”. In the section below, you will find significant examples of the impact of a vision (or the lack of vision) on the leadership of these business leaders.

Unsuccessful examples

Tommy Sopwith, the founder of The Sopwith Aviation Company, began the storied airplane business in 1912. Contracted by the British government during the First World War, the company built 16,000 aircraft and employed 5,000 people. It was one of the largest aircraft manufactures of the first two decades of the 20th century. Sopwith was too slow to realize that most airplane manufacturers would need to convert their products to appeal to the commercial market and failed to adjust to the civilian world in time. Sopwith closed in 1920 (only 8 years running its company). Sopwith’ vision was false in two dimensions :
 * Tommy Sopwith / Sopwith Aviation Company
 * 1) He thought that the military market could continue longer, but war always ends.
 * 2) He did not understand early enough that people will use commercial airplanes to travel.

This is a good example because we will see after the opposite in the same company. John Sculley is the guy who fired Steve Jobs from Apple. Sculley was hired to be Apple’s CEO in 1983. Because of his significant business experience and marketing acumen, which included the top job at PepsiCo and introduction of the Pepsi Challenge, the board hoped Sculley would bring a proven management style to Apple Sculley believed more in expensive marketing campaigns than in product development and innovation. Unfortunately, his marketing heft did not compensate for his insufficient product management skill and market vision During his tenure, he invested heavily in a number of failed ventures, including Apple’s Newton, an early PDA-like device, cameras and CD Players. And in 1993, Sculley’s lack of knowledge and vision regarding the technical details of the products built by Apple and its competitors cost him his job.
 * John Sculley / Apple

Eastman Kodak was founded in 1880 and for much of the 20th Century was the gold standard of the film and camera industries. The company continued to dominate the consumer and enterprise photo world until 1984, when Fuji began selling film similar to Kodak’s for 20% less than Kodak’s price. Kay R. Whitmore, the company’s CEO from 1990 to 1993, assumed that its brand would win out over price, and continued to charge premium rates for its film. He was wrong. Even though Kodak scientists invented the first digital camera and first mega-pixel camera, Kodak failed to commit the company entirely to the digital world. Kodak assumed that its high-profit film business would continue to dominate the market. Kodak tried to bridge the period between the decline of film and digital products with instant cameras, launched in 1987. This helped the company remain profitable in the film business for another 15 years. Whitmore, it could be argued, had a window from the early 1990s until later in the decade to use the company’s brand and R&D prowess to retain the firm’s lead in the imaging business. Kodak failed to adapt to the new reality, or rather it adapted in a half-hearted way. In the 1990s, it came out with Photo CD, a quasi-digital quasi-analog bridge product while most of the new competitors coming from Asia provided full digital cameras. With each passing year, the core audience for Kodak’s film, film paper, and the cameras that use them disappeared.
 * Kay R. Whitmore /Eastman Kodak

Successful examples

Ma became a billionaire not just through brilliant management but also by leading his company in a big, brash way. From the day in 1999 when he founded Alibaba in a Hangzhou apartment, he has exhorted employees to "think big" and "work for their dreams!" He did that himself and built Alibaba into the world's largest online business, with some 100 million shoppers a day and higher revenues than Amazon and eBay combined. He had the courage and the vision that China will be an incredible Internet place, just like the rest of the world. 15 years later, we can see that he was right.
 * Jack Ma / Executive chairman, Alibaba Group

Bezos is an extremely rare combination of visionary and master builder -- 20 years ago seeing something no one else could see : “the future of commerce “and then turning it into the world's No. 2 Most Admired Company (after Apple) on our list, with a recent market value of $174 billion. Prospective employees are still drawn to his vision; though he's highly demanding, thousands aspire to work for him. That's one way to know a great leader when you see one.
 * Jeff Bezos / CEO, Amazon

"We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people, and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams." Steve Jobs Steve Jobs' vision of a "computer for the rest of us" sparked the PC revolution and made Apple an icon of American business. But somewhere along the way, Jobs' vision got clouded -- some say by his ego -- and he was ousted from the company he helped found. Few will disagree that Jobs did indeed impede Apple's growth, yet without him, the company lost its sense of direction and pioneering spirit. After nearly 10 years of plummeting sales, Apple turned to its visionary founder for help, and a little older, little wiser Jobs engineered one of the most amazing turnarounds of the 20th century. When he came back in 1997, against all odds, Steve Jobs pulled the company he founded and loved back from the brink. Apple once again was healthy and churning out the kind of breakthrough products that made the Apple name synonymous with innovation. But Apple's innovations were just getting started. Over the next decade, the company rolled out a series of revolutionary products, including the iPod portable digital audio player in 2001, an online marketplace called the Apple iTunes Store in 2003, the iPhone handset in 2007 and the iPad tablet computer in 2010. The design and functionality of these devices resonated with users worldwide. These innovations, born from an incredible vision of consumer electronics, have reshaped the music market, the mobile phone industry and the personal devices market with tablets.
 * Steve Jobs / Co-founder of Apple Computer Inc.

Sources:
 * Business Insider : 15 worst CEO in history
 * Fortune : The world's greatest leaders
 * Entreprenuer.com / Steve Jobs: An Extraordinary Career

Importance of communicating the vision
Does any of the following statements seem familiar to you ?


 * You need to focus on…
 * Our top priorities now are …
 * Our new goals are…

Then it is very likely that for your organization urgent things comes first and organizations may sink into chaos and become a follower. Thus being a leader is difficult and many of them forget about forward thinking statements such as vision as an overarching goal over daily urgent matters.

Leaders must carve out time from urgent but endless operational things and spend time on more important matters that are looking head and need to know what’s new, what’s next, what’s better. These shall not be the leader’s own view but a shared one. Therefore, the only visions that last and are successful are those that are shared and created by listening closely others that are impacted e.g. employees, shareholders, etc. and then finally communicated.

Communication of the vision should be explicit and implicit. Explicit by carefully defining and explaining the intentions and directions. Implicit by adequate behavior. The challenges comes here that many leaders assume that people know their vision and the exact meaning of it is very obvious. Very often then they learn that things are unclear, rumors are spread, people lose their focus, attrition gets high and projects fail.

All in all, don’t let people guess what the leader has in mind about the vision. The power of clear communication is tremendous. It effectively aligns the organization’s commitment and energy around a clear, well-understood, shared vision of the company’s real goals, priorities, and opportunities. It allows to play in the champions league.

Relationship between leadership style, vision content and personal attributes
There is a relationship between leadership style and vision content, affected by personal attributes of leaders :

Leadership styles

 * Transformational leadership / charismatic leadership: leadership style that involves the formulation and articulation of an evocative vision, provides inspiration to motivate collective action, demonstrates sensitivity to environmental trends, and displays unconventional and personal risk-taking behavior ;
 * Transactional leadership: leadership style using goal setting and contingent rewards to influence followers;
 * Laissez-faire: leadership style where all the rights and power to make decisions is fully given to the worker.

Vision content

 * Inspirational elements: elements that express optimism about the future, confidence in achieving results and highlighting the intrinsic needs that can be met;
 * Instrumental elements: emphasis on extrinsic goals, goal setting and outlining time frames for accomplishments of goals.

Personal attributes of leaders

 * Need for social approval: an individual’s tendency to seek approval from relevant others ;
 * Self monitoring: the ability to accurately identify followers’ needs and values and regulate the own behavior to reflect a consistency with these needs and values;
 * Need for social power: an individuals’ need to have positive influence, impact or control over others.

Relationship hypothesis
Studies of Berson et al. (2001) and Sosik et al. (2007) have delivered proof for the following hypothesis:


 * 1) Transformational leadership is more positively related to inspirational vision elements than transactional leadership or laissez faire leadership;
 * 2) Transactional leadership is more positively related to instrumental vision elements than transformational leadership or laissez faire leadership;
 * 3) The positive relationship between transformational leadership and inspirational vision elements is stronger for leaders:
 * 4) *with a low need for social approval, and/or;
 * 5) *who are high self-monitors, and/or;
 * 6) *with a high need for social power.
 * 7) The positive relationship between transactional leadership and instrumental vision elements is stronger for leaders:
 * 8) *with a high need for social approval, and/or;
 * 9) *who are low self-monitors, and/or;
 * 10) *with a high need for social power.

Talents to be a Visionary

 * 1) Relentless curiosity - an insatiable hunger to learn, to question, to search for better answers, and to articulate his ideas in pictures, and propose new possibilities.
 * 2) Seeing more - he observed things differently, using all his senses to appreciate richer detail, to align perspective and perception, and thereby to understand his subject better.
 * 3) Thinking bigger - appreciating art and science, logic and imagination, he was able to think more broadly, embracing rigorous analysis whilst also trusting his intuition.
 * 4) Making connections - to connect the unconnected, to embrace the fusion and intersection between the natural and physical world, the tiniest seeds to the stars above.
 * 5) Embracing paradox - thriving on ambiguity and uncertainty, creating mystery and depth, be it the contrast in his sketches, or asking questions without obvious answers.
 * 6) Courageous action - always seeking to prove his hypothesizes, to experiment and test, to make his ideas tangible, and to do what nobody has done before.
 * 7) Enlightened mind - constantly renewing mental and physical fitness, exploring new worlds to spark new ideas, not being a slave to work but living a full life.

Persons
Examples why he was a great visionair:
 * Mahatma Gandhi - - Gandhi's vision was of a free India based on religious pluralism.
 * Leonardo da Vinci - - Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.
 * 40 years before Nicolaus Copernicus, he proclaimed “il sole no si muove” – the sun does not move, dismissing the belief that the earth sits at the centre of the universe.
 * 60 years before Galileo, he suggested a “large magnifying lens” could be used to study the surface of the moon and other celestial bodies.
 * 200 years before Isaac Newton, he proposed the theory of gravity, that “every weight tends to fall towards the centre by the shortest possible way”, and that the Earth must be spherical.
 * 400 years before Charles Darwin, he argued that man and monkey had the same origins, and how evolution has shaped the natural world around us.
 * Steve Jobs - - Jobs received a number of honors and public recognition for his influence in the technology and music industries. He has been referred to as “legendary,” a “futurist” and a “visionary,” and has been described as the “Father of the Digital Revolution,” a “master of innovation,” “the master evangelist of the digital age” and a “design perfectionist.”
 * Tim Berners-Lee - - A graduate of Oxford University, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, in 1989. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.
 * Douglas Engelbart - - In 1963, Engelbart set up his own research lab. He called it the Augmentation Research Center. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s his mlab developed an elaborate hypermedia—groupware system called NLS (oNLine System). NLS facilitated the creation of digital libraries and storage and retrieval of electronic documents using hypertext. This was the first successful implementation of hypertext. NLS used a new device to facilitate computer interaction—the mouse. (The mouse was not adopted for general use until the 1980s when Apple computers began using them)."By 'augmenting human intellect' we mean increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems. Increased capability in this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the following: more-rapid comprehension, better comprehension, the possibility of gaining a useful degree of comprehension in a situation that previously was too complex, speedier solutions, better solutions, and the possibility of finding solutions to problems that before seemed insoluble. And by "complex situations" we include the professional problems of diplomats, executives, social scientists, life scientists, physical scientists, attorneys, designers—whether the problem situation exists for twenty minutes or twenty years. We do not speak of isolated clever tricks that help in particular situations. We refer to a way of life in an integrated domain where hunches, cut-and-try, intangibles, and the human "feel for a situation" usefully co-exist with powerful concepts, streamlined terminology and notation, sophisticated methods, and high-powered electronic aids." (Douglas Engelbart)

Companies

 * 3M - In 1969 Neil Armstrong took man’s first steps on the moon wearing space boots with soles made by 3M. Now, an $18bn market leader, 3M describes itself as “the innovation company”. Not only does it focus on “practical and ingenious solutions that help customers succeed”, but also on transforming markets and customer behaviour itself. 3M’s innovation techniques are legendary. These include the insights that spark new products – the choirboy that inspired the Post-It note, and 10% of every week’s hours dedicated to “bootlegging” – working on crazy ideas from which 30% of new revenues emerge. It’s innovation process consists of parallel approaches to concept, product and market innovation.
 * Nintendo - “Leave luck to Heaven” is the English translation of Nintendo. The keiretsu’s first idea was handmade hanfuda cards, followed by a taxi service and love hotel. Eventually, this evolved into playing cards and today a $85 billion video game company like no other. From the double-screen, hand-held Nintendo DS to the all-conquering collaborative action of the Nintendo Wii, the Kyoto innovator continues to reshape its industry. However it is not just about electronics, but about the aesthetics of design and human interaction that sets Nintendo apart. Japanese culture Shibui means unobtrusive beauty. Wabi sabi is the reflection of inner perfection and simplicity.
 * Pixar - When it comes to producing breakthroughs, both technological and artistic, Pixar’s track record is unique. Toy Story in 1995 was the world’s first computer-animated feature film and was followed by blockbusters likes of Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles and WALL•E. Every story and characters is created internally by a closely-knit community of artists and engineers. Pixar started in 1979 as the Graphics Group, a part of Lucasfilm until it was bought by Steve Jobs in 1986. He shaped the company into what it is today, and continues to oversee its development since being acquired by Disney in 2006. Pixar and Disney Animation Studios now collaborate constantly pushing the technological possibilities of animation.
 * Virgin Galactic - Richard Branson’s Virgin Group needs little introduction – from his early pioneering music business he leapt into the aviation world without any idea about running airlines. But quickly found people to help. Championing the customer, challenging existing markets, became a Virgin speciality – and succeeded in everything from finance to cosmetics, mobile phones and TV. What is there left to do, mused Branson to first side-kick. “Go to space” replied Will Whitehorn, who set about building Spaceport America, testing SpaceShipOne,. With the help of rocket scientist Burt Rutan, Virgin is launching space travel for the masses, at a fraction of the cost, and carbon emissions, of NASA.

Read more

 * How to Communicate Your Vision Like Steve Jobs and the Best-of-the-Best (http://www.peterstark.com/2011/communicate-vision-steve-jobs/)
 * Developing and communicating a vision (http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/leadership/leadership-functions/develop-and-communicate-vision/main)
 * To lead, create a shared vision (http://hbr.org/2009/01/to-lead-create-a-shared-vision/ar/1)
 * Communicating Your Vision by Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), Talula Cartwright and David Baldwin (Mar 19, 2007)
 * McKinsey's Marvin Bower: Vision, Leadership, and the Creation of Management Consulting by Elizabeth Haas Edersheim (Feb 24, 2006)
 * Do Lead: Share your vision. Inspire others. Achieve the impossible (Do Books) by Les McKeown (May 21, 2014)
 * The Tools of Leadership: Vision, Inspiration, Momentum by Max Landsberg (Jan 1, 2009)