Much of the material in this chapter is based on extensive research at Stanford and the article “Organizational Vision and Visionary Organizations” (California Management Review, Fall 1991). We need not go into all of the theoretical underpinnings and background research of the framework here. The essence of it is that a good vision consists of:

1. CORE VALUES AND BELIEFS

1. PURPOSE

1. MISSION

As Ted Turner said:

People don’t call themselves visionaries. People get called visionary. All I am is Ted Turner.

The task before you is not to be a single charismatic individual with vision. The task is to build an organization with vision. Individuals die; great companies can live for centuries.

If you’re a company of one, your mind-set is to build your business around your life, not the other way around. For me, being a company of one means not having to bother with infinite growth, since that was never the purpose of my working. Instead, I just focus on maximizing work in a way that works for me, which can sometimes mean doing less.

Part 1: The oblique world

3. The profit-seeking paradox

George Merck and Robert Johnson created great businesses which, in consequence, made remarkable amounts of money for their shareholders. ICI and Boeing were more successful as profit-making companies when they ‘served customer’s internationally through the responsible application of chemistry’ or ‘ate, breathed and slept the world of aeronautics’ than when they tried to ‘maximise value for our shareholders’ or ‘go into a value based environment’.

He was searching for a way to meld them together. He emerged from the fog clear in his mind to define the core purpose of the company in terms of ideals he learned studying Plato and other philosophers. He rejected conventional business school dogma that the purpose of a company is to maximize shareholder wealth, replacing it with the purpose to provide a place for people to flourish and to enhance the community. To be clear, the company would also seek to grow profits and generate robust cash flow, but mainly as a necessary means to fuel the core purpose.