New York Science Journal 2013;6(6)
Vision Analysis of Iranian top companies compare with top global companies
Mohammad Haghighi1, Hamed Khorasani Toroghi 2, Amirhesam Behrooz 3
1 Associate Professor, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 MSc of Executive Management of Business Administration, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Email:
3 MSc Candidateof Executive Management of Business Administration, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: Vision is a noble goal that describes the organization's future. Organizations try to portray a desirable future withdeveloping a vision. An appropriate vision for the organization is like a rout guid and it can stimulate employees to achieve organizational goal. In this research, vision at the top Iranian and global organizations will be compared in a qualitive analysis.The top 100 Iranian companies listed by the Ministry of Industries and Mines were selected as top interior companies. Wereferred to companies listed by Fortune Magazine for selecting top 100 global companies as well. We found vision statements through visiting corporate websites. To analyze and compare vision of Iranian and global companies,7 features and 4 key factors were used. In the research, BHAGs at the vision level were used for classifying corporate vision. Finally, the concept of green vision consists of three categories: social responsibility, environmental sensitivity and organizational ethic raised and the world's top companies and the Iranians were studied.
[Mohammad Haghighi, Hamed Khorasani Toroghi, Amirhesam Behrooz. Vision Analysis of Iranian top companies compare with top global companies.N Y Sci J 2013;6(6):44-49]. (ISSN: 1554-0200). 7
Key word: Vision statement, Top Companies, BHAG, Green vision
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New York Science Journal 2013;6(6)
1. Introduction
Vision is the futureimageoftheorganizationthat organization is intendedto create it (Mirvis et al., 2010).Vision formulation is considered as an important task of leaders and pillars of strategic planning in organizations. A vision can be an effective bridge between the present and the future, and it is essential to develop strategies (Dabaghi and Malek, 2010). Suitable organizational vision communicates with the minds and hearts of employees and gives them the feeling of important and existence (Andersen, 1987).Exact vision orients organization, and helpsto create innovative strategies, improve the organization's culture and with create challenge, remove steady state from employees and agencies(El-Namaki,1992). John Gatlyng also knows vision as a powerful tool for change (Stevenson, 2005). Ruyla and Rodriguez (2011) during a research on Spanish corporate showed that having a vision on R&D teams can help to create the new products. Another study on 148 employees and 214 customers showed that there is a direct relationship between attributes and organization vision and employees and customers’ satisfaction (Kantabutra and Avery , 2006).One of the new concepts that the vision statement and the mission of the organization is Green features that focus on Social responsibility, environmental sensitivity and moral behavior. Corporate social responsibility has gained importance in recent years; organizations are facing increasingly under pressure to quit activities that harm society (Yozgat & Karatas, 2011). However, the environmental crisis and the scarcity of resources, has developed much concern and is due to the need to understand the environmental standards of the organization's activities (Ehteshami and Ekrami, 2012). Adherence to moral and ethical values is one of the most important things that should be considered in the organization and these principles form part of official policy and unofficial culture of the organization (Saleh Nia and Tavakoli, 2009).Considering the importance of the organizational vision statement in this article, we have tried to study vision features top companies in Iran and other country, to express their differences and similarities and then, we classified this vision into some category. And we will examine three categories of corporate: social responsibility, environmental sensibility and ethical issues.
2. Literature Review
Des (2010) defines vision as the goal of inspiring and long-term and macro. According to the online Cambridge Dictionary, vision is the ability of a country, community andindustry to portray desired future (Lang and Hehal-Lang , 2010). Leader must have a desired subjective picture of organization future. This is the vision of the organization. Visionis favorable conditions that don’t exist at current time (Campbel and Yeung, 1991). To further distinguish it from the mission and values of the organization, the following definitions of these three statements are brought together:
Vision: is a picture of the future that we're trying to build.
Mission: To answer the question of why we exist.
Values: Practice organizations to achieve their vision (Mirvis et al., 2010).
It follows from the above definition that, contrary to the mission, vision is future oriented, and this is the main difference between a mission statement and vision (Raynour, 1998). Much researchhas beenconductedtodetermine the characteristics ofagoodvision.Laewoodand others(1995), on acomprehensive studyon331managersandexecutives set 26organizationsfeatures and Leadersoforganizationswhowantedin aLikertscaleoffiveoptions foreach ofthese featuresin writing theorganization's vision. Thus 10most importantfeatureswere introduced:Pragmatism, respond tothe competitive environment, long-term vision, itspurpose, thepart to the whole, focused, strategic, formed by theleader of theorganization, flexibleand programmed.Brown (1998) knows summarized, implementations, being focused, understandable andinspiringfeaturesasapropervisionandfrom the perspective ofthe Levine describingfuture successis themaincharacterof effective vision(Foster and Akdere, 2007). Kantabutra(2008) as quoted byBaum, sevenfeaturesofthe visionis necessaryto definethe following: brevity, clarity, futureorientation, stability, challengeandSummarizationand inspiring.KazufskyandFylan(2010) in their studywith regard to FortuneMagazine's top companies have examinedto four characteristic,lookto the future,themarket, the clarity andunderstandabilityconsidering withchange.
Anotherstudy,the followingcriteriawere used tocomparethe vision ofamajor corporation: ashort text, realistic, clearand understandable, appropriateand stimulating, encouragingcommitment, comprehensive, ambitious, fortheexpress exactpurpose (DabbaghiandMalek, 2010).VestlyandMintzberg(2005) inan article titledleadershipvisionstated that theorganization's vision shouldbefocusedon fourkey factors:Products orservices, markets, institutionsand ideals.Inthis paperweanalyze thecontentof thesevencharacteristicsofcorporatevision statementbrevity, clarity andunderstandability, thefuture, thechange,desirableand provocative, the ambitious andexpress exactpurpose.
ThemodelalsoVestlyandMintzberg, discussionfocusedon fourcategoriesof products andservices forcompanies, organizations, markets, and ideals.
2.1 BHAG
Another concept that we use in this article is "The BHAG in the vision". BHAG is made up of the first four letters of the Latin word meaning big, hard, ambitious goals. Malekifar and Shariat madari (2011) mention BHAGs as bomb targets (big, bold, and dramatic). Those Goalswhich will lead to an explosion of motivation and effort. BHAGs are four types:
1) Qualitative and quantitativeBHAG (Such as Ford's vision: a world leaderin the production ofmachine-madegoodsand services).
2) Defeat theenemy BHAG (such as Honda'svision ofthe seventies: Yamahawill bedestroyed).
3) Role Model BHAG (such as GirouxSport vision:BecomeaNike at cycling).
4) Internalchanges BHAG (such as Rockwell's vision: to transformthe companyfromadefense contractoras acompany thathas thebestadvanced technology andworld-wide). This BHAG is awell-establishedcorporate thattryto bring about changeand developmentin order tohavecontinuedsuccess(Collins and Porras, 1996). Usingthe aboveframeworkhelps us to classify organization vision and determine which BHAG is more used.
2.2Green Vision
Kingand others first inan article titled"Current missionstatementemphasis: beethicaland globalization " developed concept of greenmission. Theyhavethree characteristicsfor agreenmissionstatement: 1) social responsibility, 2) environmental sensitivity, and 3) ethical issues(king et al., 2010).YozgatandKaratas(2011)alsoexpanded the meaning of greencompanyabout company vision and examined the vision and mission of Turkish top 500 companies in terms of being green.
2.2.1 Social Responsibility
Social Responsibilityin general, refersto the setof activitiesthatownersand businessesdo on a voluntary basis, asausefulmemberof society.GriffinandBarneydefinesSocialResponsibilityas: a set of duties andobligationsthat organizations must doto maintainand aidthecommunity in which it operates (Rahman Seresht et al., 2009).Corporate governance, attention to stakeholders, social perception, and environmental protection are different aspects of Social Responsibility (Yozgat & Karatas, 2011). Social responsibilityby increasing thelegitimacyofits actions, increase revenue, improvesprofitabilityandcompetitive advantage, will be influenced organizational success (Rahman Sereshtet al.,2009).
2.2.2 Environmental sensitivity
Ensuring environmental sustainability as oneofthe eightMillennium DevelopmentGoalsofthe United Nationsis consideredone of theevaluation criteriaand indicatorsfor sustainable developmentin thecountriesisEnvironmentalQuality(Ehteshami and Ekrami, 2012).Experience ofdeveloped countriesshowed that,environmental standardsinthe past decade hadled toeconomic growth(Mohammad poor , 2011).
2.2.3 Ethical issues
One of the most important parameters in the success of the organization is ethics. Moralitydetermined asa systemofvalues, beliefs, principles, foundations, and thing should be doneand shouldn’t be done and good andbadpracticeis characterized on it and todistinguishwell from bad. There aremany benefits toorganizationsthatworkethicgovernmentagenciessuch asthe followingcan benoted: Given the importance ofstakeholderengagementinmoral, improverelationships andincreaseunderstanding andreduceconflictenvironment, the use of a multiplicity ofadvantages, reducingcontrolcosts, increaseemployeecommitmentand responsibility(Rahman Seresht et al, 2009).
3. Methodology
Qualitativecontentanalysiswas usedinthis study. Inthis way- somecallita narrativeanalysistechniques-aimsto examinethe contents ofthetext. Qualitativecontent analysis ofqualitativedatais any establishment of quality and quantity data that can consider a large volume ofqualitative datatoidentifythe hashingandinnermeanings(Mohammadpoor, 2011).Content analysishelpsachievemultiple wordsin atext intheclassification offinitegroups(Yozgat & Karatas, 2011).Content analysisisgenerallyusedwhenyou wantawritten orrecordedstatementwhichto be analyzedIn terms ofoccurrenceandnumber of occurrencesof specificeventsorissues(Hooman, 2010).This researchanalyzesthe vision forIran and the world's top companies arecompared. Our analysisconsistsoffour parts: 1) review thevision; 2) concentrationof vision on theproduction, organizations, markets and ideals; 3) classification ofthefour types ofBHAG inthe introduced corporatevision; 4) the amount of companies’ consideration totheir being green of vision.To collectdata related toIran's top companies, top 100 companiesin Iranare presentedeach yearby theMinistry of Mines was selected. Also the firstissue ofFortune100 companiestheworld's top companieswereselected.Inorder to achievethe visionweseethecompany's website. Consequently, the prospect of 47Iranian companies and31globalcompaniesobtaineddatawere subjected toqualitativecontent analysis.Separately(in Iran) only7Features ofthecompanies’ vision presented, analyzed and compared. Thecompanyfocusesonfourcoreproducts andservices, organizations, markets and ideal.
Then thevisioncategorywas classifiedinthe4 BHAGs(quantitative -qualitative, defeat the enemy, Role Model and Internalchanges). Finally,the greenfeaturesofthe visionin terms of threecategories ofcorporatesocial responsibility, environmentalsensitivityandmoral behavior wasexamined.
4.Data Analysis
Table 1 shows the results of company’s vision.
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New York Science Journal 2013;6(6)
Table 1: Number of global and Iranian companies
TOTAL(200) / Global Companies(100) / Iranian Companies(100)78(39%) / 31(31%) / 47(47%)
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New York Science Journal 2013;6(6)
As you see 47% of Iranian companiesand31percentofglobal companies report their vision statement throughtheir website. More effortsinthis regardshow thatIranian companieshaveintroducedvision. In total, 200 companiesvisit thewebsite ofthe Iraniansupremeand universalvision statementwas obtained in78(39%). InTable 2, the results of theanalysis of thefeaturesyou'll seecorporatevision statement.
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Table 2: The results of the analysis of vision features
TOTAL(78) / Global Companies(31) / Iranian Companies(47)67(85.9%) / 27(87.1%) / 40(85.1%) / brevity
49(62.8%) / 17(54.8%) / 32(69.1%) / clarity andunderstandability
49(62.8%) / 21(67.7%) / 28(59.6%) / FutureOrientation
46(59%) / 17(54.8%) / 29(61.7%) / Involves Change
57(73.1%) / 25(80.6%) / 32(68.1%) / Inspirational
36(46.2%) / 19(61.3%) / 17(36.2%) / ambitious
41(52.6%) / 18(58.1%) / 23(48.9%) / Clear destination
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Fivecharacteristics brevity, future Orientation,Inspirational, ambitious and Clear destinationhasbecome clearer thecompany's global vision. And two characteristics clarity-understandability and involves change more consider in Iran’s global vision.Mostofthe differenceisrelated totheambitious that globalcompanies attributemore importance toit.So that only thetop37percentof Iraniancompaniesareconsidered these qualitiesto developintheirfuture visions. While19companiesfrom31globalnote ambitious feature in developingtheir vision. Havingthisambitiousvisioncouldbeone reason for thesuccess of thecompaniesinthe world.
A total of 85% of the corporate vision features of brevity, clarity and understandability of 62%, 62 percent considering future, 59 percent to change, and,desirableand provocative 73 percent, 42 percent the ambitious andfinally 52percent express exactpurpose. It seems thatmostcompanies(85.9 percent)are consideredbrieflyfeatures in theirvision.Table(3) shows companiesconsiderationtofourcategories ofproducts/services, organization, market and ideals.
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Table 3: The results of the content analysis of visions
TOTAL(78) / Global Companies(31) / Iranian Companies(47)36(46.2%) / 13(41.9%) / 23(48.9%) / Focus On Products, Services
25(32.1%) / 6(19.4%) / 19(41.5%) / Focus On Organization
51(65.4%) / 16(51.6%) / 35(74.5%) / Focus On Markets
70(89.7%) / 27(87.1%) / 43(91.5%) / Focus On Ideals
10(12.8%) / 2(6.45%) / 8 (17%) / Focus On All
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Iranian companies haveconsideredthesefourfactors more than global companies. Focus onthetwoissuesandfocuses on themarkets,the differenceis greater. Intwoissues,Focus on themarkets and organization,the differenceis greater. From47Iraniancompanies, 8companiesand from 31internationalcompanies areonly2 companies have focused on each of the fourfactors(product / service, organizations, markets, ideals). Iranian companieshaveformulated theirvision better from global companies.
In total, 46% of corporatevisionshavetheirattention to theproducts(services) in formulate their vision. Also,32percentof companieshavefocusedonthe organization,65percentontheir markets and89percenton theideals. The majorityof companies(89 percent) have beenfocusedonideals inwritingvision statement. Alsonotethat12% of companies consider each of the fourcategories.Table (4) is classified companies vision in4groups ofboth qualitative and quantitativevision, defeat the enemy, Role Model and internalchangein the organization.
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Table 4: Result of visions classification in term of BHAG
TOTAL(78) / Global Companies(31) / Iranian Companies(47)65(83.4%) / 28(90.3%) / 37(78.7%) / Quantitative Or Qualitative BHAGs
- / - / - / Common-Enemy BHAGs
2(2.5%) / - / 2(4.2%) / Role-Model BHAGs
11(14.1%) / 3(9.7%) / 8(17.1%) / Internal-Transformation BHAGs
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Most global companies (90 percent) have been used the quality and quantity feature BHAG to develop their vision. 9% of themused change BHAG. In the case of Iranian companies theses figure are17% and 70% respect. Also, 4.2 percent of the Iranian companies have used the role model.
In total, 83% of companies elected quantity and quality BHAG, 2% role model and 14% pattern of internal change in the organization are to formulate a vision statement. It can be show that from table (5) the amount of being green of vision and their consideration to 3categories social responsibility, environmental sensibility and moral behavior. Global Companieshave more attentioninbeing green in theirvisions.
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Table5: Results of analysis of green vision.
TOTAL(78) / Global Companies(31) / Iranian Companies(47)23(29%) / 12(39%) / 11(23%) / Social Responsibility
3(4%) / - / 3(6%) / Environmental Sensitivity
13(17%) / 6(19%) / 7(15%) / Ethical Issues
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Thecomparison betweenIranian companiesand globalvision statementandmissioncan be seen that74% of the world's top companieshave statedsocial responsibility intheir vision.Thatisa high percentagecompared withIranian companiesandit shows greater attention of these companies toissues ofsocialresponsibility. The global companies focus onglobalenvironmentalissues(67 percent) intheir visions. WhileIranian companiessawvery little attentionto theenvironmentalissuesthatareparticipatingin the study, only 3of78Iraniancompaniesareconsideringit(6%).Ethical Issues Company’s global vision statementin global companiesismore evident to Iranian companies. While65percent ofcompaniesin thedevelopedworldhave expressedethicalissues in their vision, only 15percent ofIranian companieshavenoted that.
5. Conclusion:
The resultsindicatethatmorethanhalf ofthe Iranian companiesand globalvision consider six attributesof brevity,clarityandunderstandability, thefutureofchange, express exactpurpose and provocatively. But theambitiousfeatureofthecompanies’ visionismuted. Thecomparison betweenIranian companiesand global, comes to the conclusionthattheIranian companies in compare withhave less ambitious goals for them.Focus on Markets andideals andvision ofthe companyis attheappropriate level, but less than50percent ofcompaniesin Iranaregiventhetwocategories ofproducts/services. Iranian companieshave beenmore careful focus onthetwocategoriesorganization and Market, andthiswillbecome clearerinthevision statement. Theresults of ananalysis of vision based onthe BHAG shows that ManyIranian andglobal companieshave usedqualitative and quantitative BHAG to formulate their visionstatementand none of them choose defeat enemy BHAG for formulating their vision.Thistype of BHAG has been proposedforthe newcompany, while the companiesdiscussedhere are big and famous companies. However,Analysisalso revealed thatthecompany'stop companiesin Iran give great attention to social responsibility in their mission statement, but Environmental issuesandmoral behavior(ethics)has no status in theirvision statements.
Corresponding Author:
Hamed Khorasani Toroghi
MSc of Executive Management of Business Administration, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Email:
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank an anonymous referee for the valuable suggestions which considerably improve the quality of the paper.
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