Here's my practical guide to creating one
Firstly, what is a vision architecture? It's not to be confused with Enterprise Architecture which is related to tech platform design and development, or Brand Architecture which is to do with branding, visual standards and other guidelines that sit within a brand bible. It’s important to understand the distinction.
A vision architecture is a high-level strategic business and brand planning framework that succinctly and powerfully captures the leadership’s vision for the business and brand. It is a concise canvas that provides a holistic overview and aligns all actions of the organization. The business model, internal culture, enterprise architecture, product design and development, commercial strategy, OKRs and brand development among others will all be guided and inspired by the Vision Architecture.
I’ve never been a fan of the MVM (Mission, Vision, Values) statements as they tend to be long winded, lofty, generic declarations that lack specificity. They are generally not memorable, relatable or actionable. They tend to get buried in Annual Reports or stuck up on walls in offices and become wallpaper that people subliminally ignore.
A vision architecture on the other hand is a governance framework that can be easily communicated and updated at regular intervals as the business evolves. It is a helpful tool for solopreneurs, start-up founders as well as an alignment tool for senior leadership of large organizations to capture their vision and purpose.
The benefits of having a vision architecture are discussed below:
Expresses the DNA of the brand and business
Governs internal culture and employee experience
Helps define customer experience
Brings clarity and focus to decision making
Defines the mission and high-level goals
Inspires creative and innovative thinking
#1 Expresses the DNA of the brand and business
Some organizations have well written ‘mantras’ or self-explanatory slogans that state what they stand for and all entities engaged with the organization can clearly and consistently articulate what that is and is not. But unfortunately many don’t. When asked, you’ll often hear various versions of the vision or the values or the mission. A vision architecture acts as a single source of truth and provides a consistently articulated statement of the company’s vision for the future. It guides the definition of all aspects of internal and external branding, language, tone and style, visual and other forms of communication. It guides how the brand and business interact with customers and other stakeholders at every customer touchpoint. In other words - how the organization looks, speaks and behaves.
#2 Governs internal culture and employee experience
The values of the organization will reflect those of its founders and leaders and frame the culture of the organization. Culture can be formed by design or by default and is a complex subject in itself. Having worked for organizations that employed people from over 165 nationalities and cultural backgrounds, the subject of culture was always high on the business and brand management agenda. Is the culture inclusive providing a sense of belonging? Is it caring and nurturing? is it bold, ambitious, fast paced, efficient and productivity driven? is it's image and personality congruent with it's values. Either way, a culture that is designed tends to govern itself in terms of how employees behave when no one’s looking.
#3 Helps define customer experience
It defines the value proposition for the ideal customer and sets the standard for the customer experience. The quality and consistency of how the brand behaves at every customer touchpoint is key and the vision architecture guides how the product or service is delivered to meet and exceed customer expectations. It helps define the service personality whether that be human or technologically driven.
4# Brings clarity and focus to decision making
Helps keep the organization focused on the core business or their niche. It is easy to meander off track under the guise of expansion, diversification or capitalizing on new opportunities. This can lead to risk and failed ventures. So, defining your category and the ecosystem within which the company operates, provides the guardrails for a variety of decisions to be taken and risks assessed very quickly.
#5 Defines the mission and high-level goals
It guides the definition of objectives and key results (OKR) frameworks as all company objectives (macro and micro) will either cascade from, or ladder up to, the longer-term goals. So, whether these are employee related performance or team related outputs, the OKR frameworks and metrics that matter will always be informed by the vision architecture. In a world where there is so much data available, it is key to define what data is important and useful for the organization to analyze. It helps to frame the right questions and establish the right metrics for success.
#6 Inspires creative and innovative thinking
It is largely an inspiration piece that sets the tone for all other business planning, encouraging a mindset of creativity, ambition and drive and painting a positive future outlook for all members of the organization.
Start with Why before you jump to How and What.
I've always been inspired by Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle - Start with Why. He talks about purpose and value and why purpose driven organizations win. This is even more relevant now than ever before with customers willing to pay more for brands that have a strong sense of purpose.
Building out a vision architecture follows a process starting with ‘Why’ and will answer the following questions. These will then be distilled down and crafted into a very succinct one-page articulation and visualization. This is usually the output from a series of design thinking workshops held with the leaders and decision makers within an organization.
Why do we exist?
This is a statement of purpose and the organization’s reason for being. It is a simple and action oriented, specific statement of intent. A well-written purpose statement connects the brand with both internal and external audiences on a deeper emotional level. They create a cult-like sense of belonging and identity.
Who do we serve?
Identifying in broad terms who your audience is, either by a trait or mindset that they display or giving them a creative and inspirational ‘name’ works well and should seamlessly be incorporated into your purpose statement.
How do we win?
It is important to agree on the 4 or 5 critical actions that the company must always adhere to in order to thrive and grow. For example, these critical success factors could be investment criteria, service standards, product innovation or tech adoption. They will be specific to the industry and market you are operating in.
How do we behave?
Clearly articulating the values that the support your purpose is critical, but these shouldn’t just be words thrown up on a wall. They should be defined in terms of behaviors. This governs how the brand behaves at every customer touchpoint and ensures that the experience is consistent. This will have an impact on people, process and technology and consequently the customer experience.
What business are we in/not in?
Defining what the business does and delivers as well as what it does not, is very important and helps you stay focused on core strengths and expertise. It this is not stated, the risk of stepping into territories that are not aligned with the business purpose and goals is high. This also helps make decisions on a whole range of issues such as partnership associations, diversification strategies, new markets etc.
What’s the Mission?
This will outline the specific high-level brand and business goals. Typically, the brand goals will be aspirational and visionary while the business goals will be ambitious growth targets with timeframes attached.
Here’s my free strategic blueprint. Crafting an inspirational and powerful vision architecture requires big picture thinking, an innovation mindset and creativity.
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If you are an aspiring solopreneur or an entrepreneur and need strategic business and brand advice or even an intrapreneur who wants to catalyze change within your organization, visit brandcrib.com and join the community. Alternatively email me on georgette.kolkman@brandcrib.com. I’d be happy to help.
I hope this year brings you success, prosperity, personal growth and positive change.
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