Core Values-Purpose-Goals Vision
Anchor strategy in enduring values, a clear purpose, and long targets.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
The Core Values-Purpose-Goals Vision model defines organisational vision through three components with different time horizons. Core values state the principles the organisation protects. Purpose describes why it exists and the impact it seeks. Goals translate that foundation into specific 10-to-25-year targets. Values and purpose should be exceptionally durable, while strategies and tactics can change as conditions change. Writing the three components gives teams a stable filter for local decisions: a department can create plans confidently when it knows which principles, purpose, and destinations those plans must serve. Without that definition, teams may produce competent tactics that point in incompatible directions. The framework therefore creates consistency at the vision level while preserving adaptability in execution.
Origin
Nick Bare applied Jim Collins's vision model from Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 when resetting BPN's ten-year targets.
Core principles
- 01Vision combines values, purpose, and long-term goals.
- 02Values and purpose should be far more durable than tactics.
- 03Long targets give teams a stable direction for local decisions.
- 04Strategy and tactics should be tested against the vision.
How to run it
- 1
Define Core Values
Write the few enduring principles that guide behaviour and cannot be traded for short-term gain.
Pro tip Choose values that can decide real trade-offs.
Watch out Generic virtues that never change a decision are not useful values.
- 2
Clarify Purpose
State why the organisation exists beyond its current products and revenue.
Pro tip Make it durable enough to survive product changes.
- 3
Set Long Targets
Choose specific 10-to-25-year outcomes that express what the organisation intends to become or achieve.
Pro tip Make targets concrete enough to constrain present choices.
Watch out Do not mistake near-term operating plans for vision.
- 4
Align Strategy
Require teams to show how proposed strategies and tactics serve the values, purpose, and goals.
Pro tip Use the written vision as a decision filter in planning reviews.
- 5
Preserve the Layers
Adapt tactics and strategies as evidence changes while keeping values and purpose stable unless a rare fundamental change is warranted.
Pro tip Label each decision by its layer before revising it.
Watch out Constantly changing goals leaves teams unable to coordinate.
In the wild
BPN set ten-year targets that include becoming the world's most respected and trusted endurance consumer brand, being known as the Nike or Apple of endurance performance, and building the G1M Sport line to $100 million in revenue by 2035.
→ Teams can build present strategies and tactics against a stable long-range direction.
Common mistakes
Changing Every Layer Together
Treating values, purpose, goals, strategy, and tactics as equally temporary creates organisational drift.
Keeping Vision Implicit
Teams cannot reliably align their plans with a vision that leaders have never clearly defined and written down.
Is it for you?
Best for
Established organisations coordinating multiple teams around a long-term direction.
Not ideal for
A very early idea still seeking evidence that the underlying problem and market exist.
From the transcript
“there's three components to vision. It's core values, purpose, and goals.”
“Core values and purpose shouldn't change more than one time every 100 years.”
“your team then can then go operate and create strategy and tactics knowing that they are aligned with the core values, the purpose and the…”
From the episode
Nick Bare: The Mindset That Built a Multi-Million-Dollar Business
Nick Bare