Vision for dummies and Toyota land

A recent lively discussion about what vision and mission are got me thinking – with all the rhetoric out there, perhaps we need an easier way to navigate the maze of literature and meaning that has cluttered up these terms.

So here is my take:

• Vision is the point in the distance you are heading towards.
• Mission is what you need to do to get there.
• Promise (purpose) is the reason you take the journey in the first place.

Now that’s not so hard is it?

Have a look at your own statements. Do they fit this framework? Do you even have the third leg of the stool (many don’t). Without it you will never have the reference and inspiration you need to keep going when the vision seems out of reach and the mission has a mountain size barrier in the way.

From a brand standpoint the last piece – the promise – is the most important. The promise is the piece that anchors the brand and gives everyone something to rally around. If you want to explore how to find your promise, try this blog post.

And so on to Toyota…

It’s been a tough couple of weeks in Toyota land (and brand). When one of the hallmarks of your brand is Quality with a capital Q and your cars start accelerating into rivers without warning (among other places), and you recall hundreds of thousands of them but only under government pressure, and then a different model starts to have braking problems… well it starts to feel like the wheels have fallen off along with the capital Q.

CNN is reporting that in the most recent snafu with Prius brakes, Toyota was aware of the problem and started implementing the fix back in January. Great if you bought your Prius after January. Not so good if you didn’t.

In reality, Toyota’s standards may still be as rigorous as they have always been (though that is looking doubtful). Things will go wrong, it’s how you respond that shapes the damage done and this is where Toyota has hit the skids (okay enough with the driving analogies). In the past, when problems have occurred, Toyota has been quick to respond and so this latest foot dragging is being viewed as puzzling by the industry, analysts and customers.

Whether it is new leadership, PR’s caught asleep at the wheel or any number of other internal issues, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that people are wondering whether they can trust the brand, and once lost, trust is very difficult to get back.

The lesson in all this for any organisation is if you have a problem – any problem – don’t try and hide it – it will come out. Don’t go for the cheap fix – it will end up costing you more. Fess up! Let people know what is going on and what you are doing to remedy the problem, as soon as you know about it.

There are some infamous stories that provide great lessons of what to do and not to do in these situations. Let’s hope Toyota gets their response together and become a “what to do” – right now they are pretty firmly in the “what not to do” column.

If you want to delve more deeply into Toyota’s woes – here is a great article on Knowledge@Wharton.

See you next week.

Michel Hogan is a Brand Advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations recognize who they are and align that with what they do and say, to build more authentic and sustainable brands. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment.