6 Dangers of Running Your Business Without a Clear Compelling Vision of the future.

Have you clearly articulated your company vision of what your company should become in three to five years?

Being part of a family business for 20 years, we always grew, we always appeared to be moving forward. But as we scaled to ￡4-5M with more and more people on board it grew increasingly hard to keep everyone motivated and moving in the same direction. Entering the world of constant recruitment, fighting with staff retention and struggling to attract the right people.

I know something needed to change! I had to change! - It was ultimately our Vision and Values that made the biggest difference.

A well-defined vision needs to become the basis for all business strategies and decisions, large or small. Without a company vision, your business can’t develop a coherent strategy that leads toward the desired results. Your Board or senior team can’t weigh short-term plans against long-term goals.

Ultimately ALL decisions should only be made by asking, “Does this move us toward our business vision?”

Yet, Soooo many businesses that we come across now "wing it" with vague company visions, and cost/benefit analyses for isolated decisions, and they more often than not fail as a result. Maybe they've just forgotten that original vision or just been beaten down by fighting so hard over the years that vision no longer fits. Signals or signs of a lack of company vision are present long before eventual failure, but you will never see them yourself. You can see it in the indecision at the management level, lack of direction among middle managers, and confusion, delays, and mistakes on the front lines. This causes unrest and agitates the people on the coal face, this was the biggest reason that good people left our business.

The consequences of not guiding your business with a clearly articulated business vision can be seriously harsh.

Here are six examples of how a lack of company vision can impact your business:

1. Chaotic organisational structure

Should your business be hierarchical and traditional? Or, should it have a flatter, modern structure with more employees being able to contribute to key business decisions? When key players or managers leave, should they be replaced? Or should the organisational structure evolve based on the business’ progression toward its goals? These are critical questions that cannot be effectively answered without a clear company vision.

2. Without a "why," managers have no direction

Managers guide their teams effectively when they know where they are heading. Employees want to understand the reasons for managerial and executive decisions, and being able to provide reasons is essential to motivating and engaging a team. If a manager can’t answer a "why" question, he or she feels rudderless. Vision gives your managers the "why," and guides their time and resource allocation. From there, they can apply their training and talents to guide the employees who execute on the company vision.

3. Employees disengage

Anyone in your business needs to feel a sense of purpose; it’s what unifies them, energises them, and enables them to feel engaged in daily activities. Without strong employee engagement, your business cannot achieve anything and the rot will set in (Trust me). Eventually, you will lose the best talent to your competitors. It’s also so much harder to attract new talent or better engineers without being able to sell a clear and compelling company vision.

4. Budgeting happens "on the fly"

Without the ability to bounce potential resource allocations against a long-term company vision, your business investments are made based on the owners instincts and hunches which may not be in alignment. Waste becomes inevitable. Planning and strategies arise from a clear company vision, and effective budgeting follows. If funds are dispersed "on the fly," your business may be short on money for necessary ongoing investments in payroll and invoice payments; you may be unable to strike when opportunities are presented that would align with a vision.

5. Overextension

Managers may add new services thinking that they're doing the right thing without a unifying company vision. After all, adding measurable, incremental value to the business determines their worth. But each manager trying to add value in ways that aren’t complimentary and don’t form a coherent strategy leads to overextension and an inefficient business that customers can’t understand. For example, we developed a whole range of AC units which nearly destroyed us, One manager thought it was a good idea and convinced me that it would pay, we lost thousands!. Lack of vision towards a common goal allowed me to get distracted and set us back again.

6. Wasted profits and lack of appeal to investors

Two of the crucial strategies that emerge from a clear vision are how to grow profit margins and where to invest profits. Without a clear business vision from the company’s top leaders or owners, you can’t arrive at key financial metrics to achieve, or prioritise for reinvesting. This means you can’t sell a direction and long-term business forecast to investors. If investors consistently pass on your business, growth prospects dim dramatically, and it can be hard to even start to begin thinking about Succession or a Sale when the time comes.

So what does your business intend to be in three to five years? If everyone in your organisation isn’t able to answer this question quickly, it’s time to define, communicate, and execute a clear company vision to take your business forward with confidence.

Conclusion

Success in business is not just about reaching a certain level of revenue or profit, quite the contrary - It's all about people. It’s about having a shared vision, a compelling vision and a common goal that motivates and inspires every single member of the team. Without this shared vision, the business will inevitably stagnate, decline and certainly won't be moving forwards.

I've learnt the hard way over the last 20 years, that success can be far more harmful than those early days struggles. But by rediscovering the vision, effectively communicating it to the team, leading by example, and fostering a shared purpose, they can overcome this obstacle and take their business to new heights.

THIS - is what we do at SUMMIT

We work with you and your teams to redefine what that compelling vision of the future looks like, yeah sure, we'll set some goals. But the magic is working together as a team, get your board together in the same room, plan this stuff together. Get your managers involved.

Interested?

Then get in touch here - SUMMIT - East Lancashire . We offer free a 90 minute Business Mapping Session, so that we can understand what you're trying to achieve.

This is so achievable. Trust me "I did it", so can you. It's all about re-framing your purpose and your mission and then sharing your journey.

PEOPLE.DO.WORK