April 2015: Editorial advisory board

Any tips for creating a company vision statement?

Landscape Professionals

Chris Joyce

Joyce Landscaping, Cape Cod, Mass.

“First of all, don’t make it complicated or it will fail. Secondly, include input from all areas of the company. When you have openly invited participation, your team will have buy-in, believe in the vision and it will become part of your culture.”

Adam Linnemann

Linnemann Lawn Care & Landscaping, Waterloo, Ill.

“Have the team as a whole sit down to talk about where they want the company to go. Vision is in the future. This needs to be analyzed and key words need to be written down and used in the vision statement. Next, develop a mission statement, which is a daily process or goal to try to reach the vision. This process doesn’t happen over one or two meetings, it should be worked on for several months and molded to a final statement. Vision, mission and core values can change, so updating your statements is always possible.”

Industry Consultants

Kevin Kehoe

3PG Consulting, Laguna, Calif.

“First, your vision is not your mission. A vision is a future state desired. A mission is the purpose behind the vision and what drives culture. (Vision = what you want to be; mission = who you want to be.) Employees need to know what the future holds and the vision should answer that question. Vision should include the type of service or customer experience you want to provide and to whom. The difference between your customer experience and everyone else’s and the result of delivering that customer experience. For example, ‘We’ll be known as ‘y’ (the ‘go-to people’ for complex irrigation installs.) and we’ll achieve growth of ‘x’ and opportunities of ‘z’ for our employees (so they can live great lives and stay with our team for the long haul.)'”

Phil Harwood

Pro-Motion Consulting, Farmington, Mich.

“Have leadership teams engage in visioning exercises together and focus on a specific time frame.”

Frank Ross

3PG Consulting, Alpharetta, Ga.

“Organize an offsite managers’ retreat. Bring in a facilitator for awesome results!”

Jeffrey Scott

Jeffrey Scott Inc!, Trumbull, Conn.

“Check out the cover story!”

Jody Shilan

FromDesign2Build.com, Upper Saddle River, N.J.

“It should inspire. It should be an extension of your own personal values. It should be achievable every day. It should focus on success, not money.”