Mentor Graphics Corporation is a slowly recovering witness to the power of vision to weaken a company. I was one of the company’s founders, and I became the author of more and more ambitious visions that seemed for years to strengthen us, to sweep us to the heights like Cinderella. More recently, I discovered that these same visions nursed an illness that was turning us into a pumpkin.
A version of this article appeared in the March–April 1992 issue of Harvard Business Review.
