Vivid Vision: how to align your company around a shared future

Executive overview

Most employees build blindly — they make bricks without knowing what they're building. The CEO's job is to describe the future with enough clarity that every person in the company can see it.

A Vivid Vision is a 4–5 page written document describing exactly what the company looks like, acts like, and feels like three years from now. It replaces vague strategy with a shared picture that attracts the right employees, customers, and investors — and repels the wrong ones.

When everyone can see where you're going, alignment happens without instruction.

Writing the Vivid Vision

• CEO leaves the office, finds an inspiring environment, and projects three years forward
• Describes every aspect of the business — operations, marketing, culture, customer feedback, physical space — as if it already exists
• Describes what it looks like, not how you'll get there (the contractor builds to the blueprint; you don't need to explain the plumbing)
• Start with a mind map, then organise into bullet points, then write a first draft
• Get a copywriter to polish the final document so it reads with energy
• Roll it out to employees, customers, suppliers, and potential hires — in multiple languages if needed
• Post it on the wall with a specific date to create tension and urgency

Why it works

• Functions as a magnetic force: attracts the right people, repels the wrong ones
• Employees become excited because they can see what they're building — the Sagrada Família story vs. making bricks
• Investors and banks fund companies whose Vivid Vision makes the strategy legible
• Customers sign early deals to be part of what's coming (the Solo/Starbucks lid example)
• Sebastian Tondur (MCI Global): $110M → $512M in three years after rolling out his Vivid Vision

The four corners of the jigsaw puzzle

1. Vivid Vision — the photo on the box; the starting point
2. Core purpose — your "why"; filters every yes and no decision
3. Core values — max five, no explanation required, you'd fire someone for breaking them
4. One-year plan — the tactical roadmap driving towards the vision

Hiring the right people

• Be so clear on the behavioral traits you need that you can spot the wrong candidate from a mile away
• At College Pro: three core traits (leadership, attainment, tenacity) + two abilities; every interviewer recites the definitions word for word
• Use a group interview (6–8 candidates) to screen for cultural fit and leadership first; skills second
• Send candidates the Vivid Vision and ask for a 2–3 minute video on why they want to join — energy is immediately obvious
• Hire for attitude and skill; "hire for attitude, train for skill" is no longer enough
• Use a scorecard not a job description: "won Olympic gold across three strokes" vs. "fast and competitive"
• Every new hire should raise the bar — the next person in must be better than at least half the existing team

Keeping and losing the right people

• Use the Jack Welch 2×2 matrix (results vs. core values) every six months for everyone who reports to you
• Low results + low core values: fire immediately
• High results + low core values: fire too — the cost of the wrong person is 15× their annual salary
• Low results + high core values: check they're in the right seat before training
• High results + high core values: handcuff them individually — find what matters most to that specific person
• Remove toxic people fast; a single bad employee poisons culture and drives out A-players

Attracting talent before they're looking

• The best candidates already have jobs — they must be pulled in, not found on job boards
• Decoys: compelling leadership bios (Tinder profile, not government resume), Glassdoor and Indeed reviews, office environment, benefits
• Systematically collect employee reviews: ask groups of five, follow up three times, take resistant employees for coffee to find out why
• Job postings written by the functional lead, then rewritten by a copywriter — treat them as sales letters

Culture and communication

• Daily huddle: keeps the whole company on the same metrics page; run it every day without exception
• Management by walking around: sit with employees and look at their actual work, not just ask "how's it going?"
• Celebrate every milestone — entrepreneurs always drive forward and forget to acknowledge how far they've come
• Employees first, customers second — the CEO's job is to be the chief energising officer
• When employees bring problems, listen; they want to be heard, not just solved