How Growth, Success, and Time Disconnect Companies from Their Vision

Growth is exhilarating. Time, relentless. Together, they pose one of the greatest challenges to any organization: the risk of losing sight of its vision. While it’s easy to associate a Vision Disconnect with the chaos of rapid scaling, the truth is that it can happen to companies that aren’t growing quickly—or even at all.

Time is a quieter culprit. It erodes clarity, wears down conviction, and tempts companies to experiment their way into confusion. As businesses navigate the demands of day-to-day survival, even those that have yet to scale can lose sight of their "why." The result is the same: a fractured organization losing sight of the very purpose that once gave it life.

Growth, Time, and the Vision Disconnect

When growth accelerates, companies often prioritize immediate market pressures over their foundational "why." But even without growth, time takes its toll. The relentless search for traction or solutions, endless pivots, or experiments (“tacks,” to borrow a sailing term) can all dilute a company’s sense of purpose.

Companies risk disconnection in three key ways:

1. The Erosion of Purpose As organizations chase immediate needs, they fail to nurture the long-term reason they exist. Purpose becomes an afterthought, a relic of the early days. Staff members often develop their own interpretations of the company’s purpose, leading to varied—and sometimes conflicting—visions when interviewed. Without active reinforcement of the vision, the strongest or loudest voices win, creating internal misalignment that undermines collective effort.
2. The Strategic Drift Without a clear vision, companies lose the ability to sequence their actions effectively. Strategy—a coherent sequence of events that drives both low-level and high-level decisions—becomes scattershot. Like an untamed vine, this drift spreads everywhere, choking focus and coherence.
3. The Vanishing Story Vision is the lesson of the story a company tells, the unifying narrative that inspires its people and customers. When vision is lost, the story disappears, leaving behind disconnection and disarray. Story is the most powerful tool humans have ever created to build the future. Without it, companies are adrift, losing the very tool that galvanizes teams, connects stakeholders, and accelerates progress.

How Companies Lose Their Vision

1. The Seduction of Experiments Experiments are essential for growth, but without clear objectives and alignment with the company’s vision, they can lead to confusion and trend-chasing. When experiments result in change, companies must be intentional about implementing and communicating that change to maintain focus. It’s not about doing fewer experiments—it’s about ensuring every one is purposeful and tied to the bigger picture.
2. The Drift of Time Even without dramatic growth or change, the mere passage of time can lead to vision erosion. Small deviations, compounded over years, can leave a company unrecognizable from its original purpose. As a company grows and takes on more staff, it becomes more crucial (and more difficult) to ensure a shared vision and story. Without constant effort, alignment fades, and individuals create their own versions of the company’s identity.
3. The Chaos of Scaling Rapid growth pulls companies into the immediacy of operational demands. They prioritize scaling what works today but often don’t have time to ask whether it aligns with their long-term goals.

Vision as Strategy

To reconnect with vision, companies need to treat it not as an abstraction but as the foundation of strategy. Strategy isn’t just a plan; it’s a sequence of events that ensures coherence across all levels of the organization.

By anchoring every decision—whether high-level or low-level—in vision and story (who are we, why do we exist, what dent in the universe are we making, and why should people care), companies can ensure that growth and time amplify their purpose rather than erode it. Vision becomes the guiding principle for what to do first, what to do next, and what to avoid entirely.

Rebuilding the Vision-Story Connection

To reconnect with vision, a company must also rebuild its story. Here’s how:

1. Revisit the Purpose Ask: Why does the company exist? What is its ultimate contribution? Make this clear and explicit.
2. Define the Sequence Translate vision into strategy. What are the first principles that should guide action? What should be prioritized, and in what order?
3. Retell the Story Craft a narrative that connects employees, customers, and stakeholders to the purpose. This story should inspire and unite, making the vision tangible and actionable.
4. Embed the Vision in Operations Ensure every process, decision, and experiment reflects the purpose. Vision isn’t just a marketing tool—it’s an operational compass, guiding how work gets done every day. This can be as simple as physically printing the vision and associated goals on a wall in the office, making it a constant, visible reminder. Visibility reinforces alignment, keeping the vision at the forefront of everyone’s actions.
5. Guard Against Drift Regularly audit the company’s alignment with its vision and story. Time and growth will always test coherence, but intentional reflection can prevent disconnect.

Vision, Story, and Sustainable Growth

Vision isn’t just what a company aspires to—it’s the lesson at the heart of its story. And stories aren’t just nice-to-haves; they are the engine of human connection and progress.

A company’s story is what galvanizes its people, connects them to its purpose, and accelerates its growth. But staff members will always develop their own versions of the story and vision unless actively guided. Without alignment, you don’t just lose focus—you lose momentum, trust, and coherence.

Lose the vision, and you lose the story. But reconnect the two, and you unlock the potential to grow with clarity, coherence, and purpose.

Because growth, time, and experiments don’t have to erode a company’s soul—they can make its story even more powerful.