Author: Sanjeev Chib
Part I:
I’ve always known, in the back of my mind, why I started the business and where I see the business going. But I never truly formalized it and wrote it down. This is probably true of many business owners. Many have argued that having a written down vision and mission statement (and yes, there is also confusion on what these mean) is a waste of time and we should just “get on with it” and run the business.
Back in the 80’s (last century), large corporations were dishing out millions to high-priced consultants just to come up with brilliant vision and mission statements for their company. This fad appeared to have fizzled out quickly. Why? Perhaps because developing a strong vision and mission (for your business or yourself) that will inspire and motivate others is truly a personal journey and requires a personal reflection into your passions and inspirations. Something high-priced consultants would never be able to achieve. Developing a vision and mission statement for simply the sake of developing a vision or mission statement is pointless.
So Why Bother?
I came across this quote recently:
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitation, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
- Patanjali (First to Third Century B.C.)
Although written over 2000 years ago, I believe these words still ring true today, in both business and your personal lives. It reminds me of the old Jerry Maguire movie where Jerry woke up in the middle of the night, inspired, and wrote out a long mission statement. He titled it “The things we think and do not say”.
That got me thinking. As I said, I’ve always known, in the back of my mind, why I started the business and where I see the business going. But this doesn’t allow me to communicate the message, the purpose of the business and our values to the rest of the team, our partners, or to our clients.
Whether you are a one-person travel company, or have a large number of agents, I believe that having a formal vision and mission for your travel business (or any other business) should give you a long-term purpose and help inspire and drive you and your staff to stretch and grow. The vision and mission should bring a common purpose that you and your staff believe in, motivating and inspiring them in their daily lives. The vision and mission give you a means to measure the success of your business against. So I sat down to try and formalize our vision and mission.
Passions and Inspirations:
Does your vision have to be huge to be worthy? Absolutely not! However, I believe that your vision and mission should be driven from your passions and inspirations. This may not be as easy as it seems. Should this be an individual exercise or done as a team (if you have one), capturing the passions and inspirations of the entire team and translating that into your company’s vision and mission statement. I don’t have the answer as to which is a better approach (let me know your thoughts), but in our case, I decided to go it alone.
What worked for me was to take some quiet time away from any disruptions. I went to a place where I could play some quiet background music and have no disruptions from phone calls, e-mails, or family. This time allowed me to reflect deeply into what mattered to me the most. I reflected on two ideas (which I found on the Franklin Covey website), which made me think about what drove me and made me happy:
-
I thought back to a moment in my life when I truly felt really excited about life. I reflected on what I was doing at that moment, who I was with, what I was feeling, and most importantly, why I felt excited.
-
I asked myself, straight from my heart, if I could never fail, what would I do?
Of course, the answers to these are very personal. But from this, I was able to identify the elements that drove me and made me happy. My passions and inspirations. And through this, I found a clearer vision for the business. I then set out to formalize my vision and mission statements.
In the next part, I will share with you what I came up with in terms of our vision and mission statements.
