What are Company Aspirations?

November 10, 2010

This is a part of a series that was created to help you define what you aspire to be as a company. This series will walk through the process, necessary roles, in addition to guides for each role to define your aspirations quickly.

During the early years of a company’s life, the founders and senior leaders generally focus on product development and customer development. During this period of formation, the team is working out its basic product, initial value proposition, market focus, and initial go-to-market approaches. Once the product and customer development has reached a reasonable point of maturity, the team then begins to turn its attention toward company development.

One of the best steps an organization can take at this point is to become an aspirations-driven company (sometimes called a mission-driven or vision-driven company). An aspirations-driven company is one whose leaders make clear the organization’s mission, vision, values, and priorities; these aspirations, in turn, serve as a guide for all employees and market participants involved with the company.

To be truly effective, aspirations have to be more than just words on paper. The management team must be committed to expressing and living the aspirations on a daily basis.

Over the next several weeks I will share guidelines to show leaders who are ready to identify, express, and live their company aspirations exactly where to begin. To start things off, I will define company aspirations.

Founder & Partner

As the founder of OpenView, Scott focuses on distinctive business models and products that uniquely address a meaningful market pain point. This includes a broad interest in application and infrastructure companies, and businesses that are addressing the next generation of technology, including SaaS, cloud computing, mobile platforms, storage, networking, IT tools, and development tools.