If you were making horse-drawn carriages then it did not matter how much you improved efficiency, because automobiles were going to put you out of business. If you were making CDs, better production did not help because music downloads were going to make CDs obsolete.

The message is that innovation beats efficiency. You have to improve what you are doing but you also have to find entirely new and better ways to do it.

The lateral leader invests in painting a picture of where the organisation is headed. At GE, for instance, the vision is ‘we bring good things to life’. The Ford Motor Company vision is ‘to become the world’s leading consumer company for automotive products and services’.

Vision statements should be short and inspiring. They should avoid vague and woolly clichés about outstanding customer service. The vision should not be restricted to today’s type of business. It must set a goal that gives employees enormous freedom in finding ways to achieve it. 

An example to illustrate this is pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline’s mission ‘to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer’. It does not define its mission in mundane terms of drugs or medicines or markets, but in inspirational terms of helping people do more, feel better and live longer. 

To construct a corporate vision you need to consider four components. These are your purpose, your mission, your culture and your values. 

The purpose is the fundamental reason for the existence of the organisation. The mission expresses the purpose as a strategic goal. The culture defines the style of the organisation – how it does things. The values are the beliefs of the organisation – what it stands for. These four elements underpin the vision, which is an inspiring statement of the destination of the company. It is a challenging but achievable dream.

The vision does not have to be defined in detail. However, it must be recognisable as something ambitious but achievable for the enterprise. 

When in 1961 President Kennedy famously set out the goal of a moon landing he did it with one simple sentence: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth before this decade is out.” The vision was clear. The timescale was set. The challenge was thrown down. It was accepted and accomplished.

Painting a scene that is desirable, challenging and believable is the task of the lateral leader. If you can do this then there are three big gains for the organisation: 

First, people share a common goal and have a sense of embarking on a journey or adventure together. This means they are more willing to accept the changes, challenges and difficulties that any journey can entail.

Second, it means that more responsibility can be delegated. Staff can be empowered and given more control over their work. Because they know the goal and direction in which they are headed they can be trusted to steer their own raft and to figure out the best way of getting there.

Third, people will be more creative and contribute more ideas if they know that there are unsolved challenges that lie ahead. They have bought into the adventure so they are readier to find routes over and around the obstacles on the way.

One important outcome that can be derived from the vision and the strategic goals is the innovation objective. This expresses the specific targets in terms of new products, processes, partnerships etc which the organization needs to support its goals.

These targets become the metrics that are used to measure creativity and innovation in the company. Note that the objectives do not specify how the goals will be achieved – that is left to teams who will be assigned these objectives. The objectives set ends, not means. They contain some measurable elements and timelines but are otherwise loose so as to give maximum flexibility.

Just painting the picture is not enough. It quickly fades from view if it is not constantly reinforced. If you want the vision to endure then you must communicate it in many ways.

To be an effective leader you have to meet people at all levels in the organisation, reinforce the message, solicit their buy-in and gain feedback on their views and concerns. Great leaders take time to meet staff, especially new recruits. They illustrate the vision, the goals and the challenges; explain to staff how their role is crucial in fulfilling the vision and meeting the challenges. They inspire people to become crusading entrepreneurs finding innovative routes to success.

Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE, was an outrageous champion of the corporate vision. This is how he describes it in his book, Jack: Straight from the Gut: “Whenever I had an idea or message I wanted to drive into the organization, I could never say it enough. I repeated it over and over at every meeting and review. I always felt I had to be ‘over the top’ to get hundreds of people behind an idea.”

Many managers make the mistake of thinking that communication is a one-way process. They repeat their message but they do not solicit feedback. It is only by consulting either in small groups or individually that you can fully understand whether the message has been received and what concerns and issues it has generated.