Ever noticed that some concepts and management principles keep surfacing every once in a while? Yesterday, mission and vision were all the rage. Today, they are taking a backseat, albeit temporarily. Vision will be back, only in more nebulous form.

The problem with vision and mission is that they can start appearing silly in a fast-changing world. Look at some of the things very successful CEOs have said . IBM chief Thomas Watson said there would be a worldwide market for five computers at the most. In India, so many have predicted that its population would turn out to be its biggest millstone. J.R.D. Tata often said that checking population growth was a historical imperative. Instead, our population is being looked upon as a key asset now. As the world is greying, India will supply young workers.

Because vision and mission are so misunderstood, it may help to attempt a definition. According to Daniel N. Robin, founding principal of international management consulting and training firm Daniel Robin & Associates, vision defines a desired future and helps guide all who accept and understand it. Mission is the motivational aspect of vision: It defines and clarifies “why does the vision matter?” and implies a set of governing values or principles.

All these combine to make corporate culture. Today, as organisations increase in size and complexity, there is often a written code of ethics. Companies in India are also appointing ethics officers, though their job has thus far been largely limited to responding to the regulatory authorities.

Ethics officers and a formal code of ethics don’t make any difference in the absence of leadership. Hear out Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy on what makes a great company. Talking in Davos a couple of years back, he said: “First of all, we need good leadership. I don’t know of a single great company that has not had good leaders. Great leaders raise the aspirations of their followers; they make people more confident, energetic and enthusiastic.

People, who are motivated by great leaders, dream big, make sacrifices and achieve miracles. It is not sufficient just to have great leaders. We need a mechanism to identify, train, empower and mentor successive generations of leaders.

“Second, we have to create a grand, noble vision which elevates the energy, enthusiasm and self-esteem of everyone in the company while ensuring that everybody sees a benefit in following the vision.

“Third, a company has to benchmark itself on a global scale in every area including sales, production, human resources, R&D and finance. It creates an open and confident environment where first-raters recruit first-raters.

“Fourth, a great company continuously measures and improves the following attributes: meritocracy, fairness, justice, openness, speed, imagination and excellence in execution.

“Finally, a great company practices an enduring value system, and follows the finest system of corporate governance.”

Somewhere along the line, even the greatest leaders can stumble. They take the wrong call. Dhirubhai Ambani tried to take over Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in a hostile environment. He failed. He should have built his own engineering company instead. Today, his eldest son Mukesh Ambani is doing just that.

But the bid for L&T was a mission. Leaders may abandon a mission or rejig it. What makes them truly great is that they do not need to abandon a vision.

All this may sound very confusing because it is extremely difficult to distinguish mission from vision. Secondly, most CEOs don’t articulate their vision. Some don’t have any, beyond the obvious one of making money.

Make no mistake, it matters. And tomorrow, as people in India get greater choice in what job or profession to pick and what company to join, it will matter even more. Only the visionaries will get the truly committed.

THE VISION OF CEOs

ZDNet on technology predictions

YouTube will go nowhere

“There’s just not that many videos I want to watch,” lamented Steve Chen, a co-founder of YouTube, in March 2005. At the time YouTube featured about 50 videos. Less than two years later, on November 13, 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Photocopiers are niche

“The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most,” IBM told the eventual founders of Xerox in 1959.

The PC was never meant for home use

Many people made this prediction, but most notably Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said in 1943: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”

Nobody will ever need more than 640KB of memory

“No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer. 640KB ought to be enough for anybody,” Bill Gates is alleged to have said in 1981.

Source: Adapted from ZDNet Australia