Where’s the Vision?

I’m searching for the visionaries. Where have they all gone?

Crafting a true vision for your brand/business seems to be the exception, not the rule these days. Too many companies are jumping into product ideas without a firm sense of purpose and path.

When Apple launched the iPod, Steve Jobs had a true vision for the product. The iPod wasn’t ever just going to be an MP3 player. From its inception, it had a much bigger footprint. The iPod was a vehicle for reshaping our relationship with content - all media content. What looked like a music player was really a blueprint for a total media revolution. It didn’t take long for iTunes to fundamentally reshape the music industry. It didn’t take long for the video iPod to offer television. The brand plan was more than a strategy, it was a vision for creating an industry.

This foresight is too rare. And I fear that as consumers play a bigger role in cocreating and codesigning the products and brands they love (a business initative I am 100% behind), more companies will misunderstand the relationship between a product idea and a vision for a business. Consumers will do a great job of informing and shaping innovation, but we cannot outsource to them the path for the brand. That job must be done by someone within the company, someone with vision and a clear purpose.

Vision is a critical factor in successful innovation. Don’t let it get run over by a pipeline of semi-related extensions. You can operate without a clear vision in the short run. But it will always catch up with you in the end.