Corporate Vision Statements: Alcoa

For some reason, vision statements are a passion of mine. The interest started by creating core values and a mission statement for a software company.  Then, the vision statement became a topic of interest.  Vision statements may be a challenging thing to create.  They can pose challenges on a personal level and even more challenges on a corporate level, unless... they don't, (I'll explain in another post.)

The Vision

For now, let's take a look at the vision statement for the industrial company Alcoa.  For a moment, let's set aside any geopolitical issues about multi-national conglomerates and just look at a few published words.  This vision statement was discovered by chance.  We (the family) were driving through Lafayette, IN and passed the Alcoa location. Looking at the highest structure on the Aloca property, there is a huge blue banner that reads:

Vision: Advancing Each Generation
You may be asking yourself, "That's great, but why is the vision statment interesting?"  To explain, Alcoa has an annual revenue of over 20 billion dollars a year and has over 60,000 employees.  That is a lot of people!  Contrast this with the fact that some organizations with far less people, completely struggle, wrestle, and ultimately fail to create a vision statement that inspires anybody to do anything.

With Alcoa, we have enough people to make a decent sized town and there is a concise statement that is there to guide it all. Also, Alcoa puts it out there confidently.  It is mounted on the highest building they have and is easily readable for all to see.

Another aspect I like... it's only three words long!  The three words have the ability to answer the following questions... Who is the group? Alcoa! (an unstated, but an implied reference.) What are we doing? Advancement! Who are we doing this for? Future generations, which could mean for the benefit of Alcoa employees, the shareholders, or the people in general.

The thing I like the most about the Alcoa vision statement... it speaks to the future. It is a massively forward looking statement.

In Conclusion

I was glad to see such a bold statement while driving through Lafayette.  It got me thinking about a few additional questions, such as:

• How did Alcoa create the vision statement?
• What sort of discovery process did they go through?
• Did they have outside help?
• What affect has it had on the employees and culture of Alcoa?
• What are some of the un-expected outcomes from having a clear vision?

On a personal and professional note, I would ask the question to anyone that reads this blog post... "What vision statement would you post on the tallest building for all to see?"

If there are any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.  Until next time...

Thanks for visiting!
Jer