Ron Johnson, who ran operations and retail at Apple, explains how to write a vision statement that actually means something. He shares Apple's examples: iPod was "1,000 songs in your pocket," the iPhone was "reinvent the phone." The clearer and simpler you make it, the more your team will move in the same direction.
Chapters
Okay, so let's start with the first one you hear a lot, vision. Okay, mission, vision. Why is it you are doing what you're doing? The shorter that can be communicated, the better, because people understand. I'm sure Tim sees it all the time. Someone comes in with a startup concept, and if they take a long time to explain what they're trying to do— They haven't thought it through. But if you take time to think it through, you can probably come up with pretty good meaning for what you're trying to do. It's like Steve was brilliant at this. You know, I remember when we launched the iPod. I was at Apple when we kind of created the iPod. You know, it was 1,000 songs in your pocket. That's very clear what it does. It's not some high-tech device that connects to the internet that has saw— you know, it's all your music with you all the time. 1,000 songs in your pocket. A lot of people could get up in the morning and go create that iPod. And that vision actually became the marketing campaign when we launched the product years later after it was invented. Reinvent the phone. That's a pretty bold vision, right? But you kind of know what it is. When Apple decided to do a phone, Remember, we were a computer hardware company, a Mac maker losing market share. Had a little music player, a little $199 device that got market share, not a lot of revenue. Pretty good revenue, not killer. When we went after the phone, it wasn't to build a phone to make money. The meaning, the vision was we're gonna reinvent the phone. Well, that's a pretty bold, audacious thing. I think a lot of people on the iPhone team could go to work every day knowing they're about a project that's going to reinvent the way we use a phone. And that in order to reinvent something, you've got to rethink every aspect of it from the interface to the software, everything, to how it's sold, to how it's priced. But reinvent the phone. When we launched our retail stores, most people that retail do retail stores, it's we're going to generate revenue. We're going to You know, sell hardware, sell Macs. Well, our vision for the retail stores from day one was we're going to enrich lives. Sounds kind of soft, but that's why you have all those people in blue shirts every day who works hard at the Apple Store, because they're on a mission to enrich people's lives. And this is not like a little idea. That's the meaning of working for Apple in the stores. And every employee there, that's why they're there. But in each of these cases, you boil down the mission to something so simple that you can't make a mistake on your path. Does that make sense? And then if it's perfect, it will have great meaning for people who do it. It has great meaning to go, I'm gonna wake up every day and reinvent the phone. I'm gonna wake up every day and change someone's lives for the better. Those are the kind of things that get you up in the morning. Does that make sense? So if you're in a company or involved with something where the vision's kind of this intellectual, you know, business plan, it's probably not going to be great. Great visions connect to the heart. You got a head, you got a heart. You got to bring them together or you're not going to have meaning. Okay? So really take time to get the vision right. And that's for your personal life too. Why are you here? Why were you put here? What are you trying to do in your life? You know, I bet if you talk to Dean, he's got something about, I'm here to improve people's health. Well, that gets him up in the morning, right? That's a really other-centered, great mission. We can all think of that, you know. I like to have grown to become a— I'm here to create. I like to create things. That's one word. I wake up, how do I help create things? And I didn't discover that till I was 35. I didn't think I had a creative bone in my body, but I actually have a couple, I guess. But it took a long time to figure that out. But figure out your mission, have it have meaning.
