There's a vision thingy underway at NAB - 8 words allowed.
"We back the bold. Who move Australia forward."
No joke it seems, nor is it a vision cliché the bank is ready to promote.
NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn outlined background and thinking on this vision to commentator Richard Gluyas in The Weekend Australian.
"Our intention was - and … still is - not to talk about it outside because we need to own this ourselves and let it seep into the organisation, which will probably take another 18 months," Thorburn said.
The Australian reports the NAB board agreed in June.
Nicholas Gruen, CEO of Lateral Economics, in an email commented: "it is amazing how much such 'visions' get down to a rhetorical choice of a word."
In a recent pair of essays Gruen denigrated much of the practice and approach to strategy that pervades large (and small) organisations, arguing that "a great deal of what passes for strategic thinking is a kind of anti-thinking.
"What's striking about apex statements, (whether of the 'mission', 'vision' or the 'where do we want to be in future' type) is how little they imply for the details of the organisation's strategy," he wrote.
Thorburn told the newspaper that one catalyst for the purpose project was the industry's loss of trust.
"We think this is a 50-year statement that won't change," he told the newspaper.