and they were quick to employ capable people to deliver much of the urgent operational requirements.
The great business leaders ensure that they are not held hostage to ‘unimportant urgent’ and reserve adequate time for the very important ‘big picture’ things; vision is the most critical of these ‘big picture’ things.
This does not just apply to captains of industry; the same applies to leaders of successful small businesses. We should not be lured by the executive position in large corporate companies. There are many more small business owners and builders who make far more money than if they took senior positions in large corporate organisations. They have several distinct advantages in their business operations, including their freedom to dream, to take holidays, and to change almost anything without being accountable to shareholders and auditors.
Partnering up with success
A small business client in the northern suburbs of Perth has long since reached his financial saturation. This is where he could not hope to spend all of his wealth in this lifetime and quips he will have to rely on relatives to get rid of it all for him. He has (at last count) more than 15 businesses in which he has a significant share, but in nearly all of these (apart from his real estate agency, his property rental roll and his business brokerage) he is willing to share this with other business leaders, provided that their vision and integrity matches his.
He makes his business partners feel uneasy about where they presently are heading and want to shift to a higher level of activity, profit, market share, etc…. Most of his partners come to him for money to finance their small business operations, but end up with something far greater than just an increase in profits. Darrell has a way of building their vision to a point where they understand they were aiming too low. In nearly every case, their gift of equity to him still gives then a greater company value than they would have had if they achieved what they set out to do and he eventually owns a chunk of their enterprise that still represents more than they originally had in most cases.
Most of us have heard the story of the senior QANTAS exec who commissioned feasibility on a low-cost airline. Although the numbers all worked, his bosses killed off the idea so they did not dilute their brand. He recognized the opportunity and sought a partner with vision. He found one in Richard Branson and Virgin Blue was born.
Your Personal Vision
It is important before developing a clear business vision however to be clear about your personal vision. It is critical that your personal vision is congruent with the business vision because your drive to pursue the business vision will be dictated largely by your personal reasons for wanting business success.
It always fascinates me that many people will dedicate more time and energy to envisioning and planning for a three week annual overseas holiday than they will to their own life. They ream over the details to ensure that everything goes absolutely smoothly for those three weeks only to abandon themselves to ‘the urgent’ when they return from holiday. Sit down and really consider what you want from a personal perspective and what you ‘don’t want’, and make sure you document this; something magical happens in the subconscious when things are documented that allows for your desires to come about.
Once you have determined, detailed and documented your personal vision you will be far better situated to see your business vision clearly in a way which will ensure that your these two respective visions are congruent.
Your Business Vision – Starting With The End In Mind
We have all heard the statement ‘start with the end in mind’. This is the very essence of developing a vision, as it demands that we understand in detail the outcome that we are aspiring to achieve. We need to define our destination.
When setting about the task of determining your business vision it is best to start brainstorming and capture everything that comes to mind in terms of ‘what we want to be’. Pretend that you have already achieved your vision and see with clarity the specific details that make the vision and capture these details in documentation. The more specific and clear you are in this process the better.
Try answering the following questions to provide some shape and form to your vision:
What does the business look like?
What is its size (revenue, profit, staff, geography)?
What is the business known for?
How do we measure our success?
Why are we important?
What don’t we do?
What is the working culture? (how do employees feels about the business?)
What solutions do we provide to solve what problems for our customers?
What is my role? (owner’s roles?)
What do customers, employees, industry peers and the community say about the business?
The better you can answer the questions above the greater clarity you have for your business vision. By definition, your vision must be five years out or beyond and must be a stretch that represents real growth and evolution and serves all stakeholders.
In many ways, your vision of who you will become is one of your greatest assets. This is so because it defines how you identify yourself as a business; your business identity. How you see yourself will determine your conduct, your alliances and the level of game that you play as an organisation, it will contribute to your mission and will determine your values.
Once you have clarified your vision and it has becomes real, its value also becomes tangible in the sense that you can actually trade on it. For example, in recruiting the best staff, in negotiating with preferred suppliers and vendors and even in acquiring key customers a vision, which resonates, can have a positive impact that starts the relationship off on the right foot.
Clarity Brings Focus and bringing detail to your vision is the key factor behind being able to identify strategic objectives so developing a full and coloured vision is critical in ultimately developing action plans to step your way to success. You vision identifies what success means.
Vision Statements
A vision statement is just the tip of the iceberg breaching the ocean of possibility as it often represents a far greater and deeper vision than can be expressed in a condensed statement, which is typically a paragraph long. Many business owners misunderstand and underestimate the significance of a vision statement as ‘just words’ when these particular words represent the desired future and destination for the organisation in question.
A company’s vision statement should play a central role in driving the business forward from both the internal perspective of uniting and focusing those who are charged with the responsibility of delivering in the company’s name and the external perspective of boldly stating to the world at large what the ultimate objective is.
However, the true power of a vision is not so much in the wording itself, but in how much your vision truly reflects the aspirations of your organisations stakeholders (owners, employees, client’s) and how much it is embodies in your whole organisation. This means that the vision needs to be shared and owned by those who are responsible for delivering it, your employees. Share your vision statement with every new
