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Finance for Non-Financial Managers
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to those around them at the time, I suspect. But then, their
visions were beyond the imagination of normal people of their
time. Their fervor, and I suspect more than a few carefully laid
out plans, may explain why they were able to accomplish so
much toward bringing those visions into reality. So, let’s look at
my definition of vision as I’ve just described it:
Vision is the world as you define it,
arranged as you would like to see it.
Mission—the Path to the Holy Grail
This is simpler once you understand the definition of vision:
Mission is the role of the organization in achieving the vision.
If the vision is grand enough, it is not something that one
organization can achieve by itself, although it may be able to,
as the visionaries above did. But as a general rule, the vision is
defined and the organization then does what it can to get there.

Vision and Mission in Action—a Case Study
I had a client some years ago whose world was defined (by
him) as the dental industry in Southern California. He
defined his company’s vision as a world (the aforementioned industry)
in which hazardous waste materials from dental work would not con-
tribute to pollution of the Southern California environment. For a
variety of reasons, that world did not exist when his company was
formed. Novocain, mercury, and other byproducts of dental services
did not have the regulatory controls and enforcement that more visi-
bly hazardous materials did. So it was a worthwhile purpose that was
not being effectively addressed. He then went about building a compa-
ny and a service that brought cost-effective hazardous materials col-
lection and proper disposal within reach of every dentist in his world.
Within a few years, his company was the dominant provider of that
service throughout Southern California. He may not have achieved his
mission completely, but he made great progress in that direction, and
ultimately sold his company to a larger company that wanted to use
his methodology to expand its own presence in that market.They in
effect took over the mission he had created.And, yes, he was an excel-
lent planner.