Vision Change Analysis

By:
HR 587 Managing Organizational Change

K Milburn

4 June 2011

In business a vision is a well articulated view of how a company sees itself as well as an image of how a business wishes model itself during the long-term future. Business visions should be realistic and perceived as accomplishable by the people within an organization. The president of Mentor Graphics; Gerard Lageler (1992), may have had a point when he said “Grand, abstract visions can be too inspirational and that is why the company may wind up making more poetry than products.” Over the years Mentor Graphics changed its vision numerous times but eventually returned to a model that reverberated the goals of their original vision. A vision statement should not just be words to post on a wall but serve the function of defining an organization’s values and their purpose. The vision statement should inspire employees to achieve the goals of the company and though achieving those goals prove to why they should do business with the organization. Initially Mentor Graphics’ unarticulated vision was to “Build Something That People Will Buy” and in the end they found that the vision a company starts with is generally the best to follow. Over the years Mentor Graphics saw fit to continuously change their vision to match their new goals, eventually creating vision statements that where more and more grandiose, inspirational but also indistinguishable to the true goals of the company. They soon found that as much as vision can build up and strengthen a struggling organization it can also weaken a strong company. Mentor Graphics started with a vision that grew out of need to survive which flourished into almost abstract phrases representing entities to which they had no control over. Finally after years of stagnation the company realized that their vision detracted from their overall goal and restored the “Build Something People Will Buy” vision, which they began with. Mentor Graphics returned to their roots. Mentor Graphics strategic change came about Since then Mentor Graphics has adapted its vision and its current statement is; “Mentor Graphics is a leader in electronic design automation. We enable companies to develop better electronic products faster and more cost-effectively. Our innovative products and solutions help engineers conquer design challenges in the increasingly complex worlds of board and chip design”. In their new vision, Mentor presents a proclamation of who they are and why they are in business. The vision statement provides more than just a horizon to where they are headed but a statement of why their business is valuable to consumers. Throughout the company’s life, Mentor did not have such a clear image as to what they were in business to do, until they went back to the basics of their first vision statement they created. In the past, Mentor’s visions materialized out of a chaotic nature which was guided by unpredictable competitive changes and was constantly in the process of being rewritten. A mission statements purpose is to define an organization’s prime objective and means to the organization’s success. Its goal is to capture the audience of the stockholders and leadership team. Mentor Graphics mission statement is “Our goal is to help customers design leading-edge products for fast-paced markets with shorter product development cycles and minimal technology risk. In essence, we help our customers build better electronic products, sooner -- improving their profit potential.” A strategy statement is the plan that a company will use to accomplish its’ vision. During the preparation of strategies, it is essential that companies not only look internally but also externally towards their competition. One of the strategies that Mentor Graphics used to apply their vision was to find a way to track their customer feedback. The company has always considered customer feedback an important component to product development and they wanted to ensure that all ideas from customers were tracked and that the best ones were put into action. When considering all of a company’s statements ie: vision, mission and strategy, the vision statement prevails as the most important and holds the most influence. A vision describes a statement that is possible. So by developing an effectively communicated a vision, it will help drive, align and inspire those involved to reach that future addressed in the vision. A valuable lesson learned from Mentor Graphic’s story is that when making change it is important to provide clarity as to what is being changed and how the change is going to be beneficial to the business.

Ref
Palmer: Managing Organization Change Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2005 viewed on May 20, 2011
Langeler, G.H. (1992). "The Vision Trap", Harvard Business Review, March - April, 46-49.