Discover why you need to be “Visionary” to take the right people along that journey with you

Want to grow? Thinking of scaling up? Discover why you need to be “Visionary” to take the right people along that journey with you. Operations are never a sexy subject, but having a “clear vision” for them is also vital. When mapping and locking down your vision for the future you need to ask yourself the 4 vital questions below.

1. What is going to make your company tick?

2. What will it need to be scalable?

3. What will it take to deliver a predictable, quality customer experience?

4. What sort of people will you need to attract in order to deliver your vision?

Get a clear picture of what this will look like in the future and write it down. Many business leaders are called “Visionaries”. This is because they had great clarity on a simple concept and were able to communicate it in such a way that inspired others to make it happen.

So, are you getting a clear Vision for your business yet?

Even the most beautiful of statues started as a big lump of rock. All you need to do is to discard anything that doesn’t look like your vision of the statue. One thing that that might help you to do this is to visualise the point in the future when you might choose to exit from your business. It might be in just three years’ time. If you were writing that prospectus now, how would you be describing the business to prospective purchasers?

Key Questions to ask yourself are:

• What size has it grown to?
• Who is a part of your business?
• What is the business delivering?
• What is it’s position in the marketplace?
• What are competitors saying about you?
• What industry recognition have you attracted?
• What are customers saying about you?
• What do your offices look like and where are they?
• What will realising the sale of this asset help you to achieve next?

Of course, the last thing on your mind might be an exit strategy, but sometimes this process can help the fog to clear a little. Whatever you write down as your Vision, you are not carving it into a tablet of stone. As time progresses, you will learn from the dynamics of your business, from what your competitors are doing, gain greater clarity from what is happening in the marketplace and from the feedback of your customers and staff. So do not fall into the trap of doing this once, then forgetting about it.

Make a note in your diary to revisit in three months’ time and check that it is still accurate.

Your Purpose, Vision and Values (which we will be looking at shortly) are the ECG of your business. Without them, there can be no pulse or respiration – and you know what that means! Your vision has to excite you and be an inspiring expression of what you are planning to become and achieve.

It also has to be sensitive enough to notice change and trends, and flexible enough to accommodate them.

I know I am harping on at this, but as you can see it is my passion.

If I can get you as excited as I am about this stuff, I know the difference it will make to your future. This is why it is so important, at the start of any enterprise, to have complete clarity. Everything worthwhile starts with Vision and Purpose, and it is not just for your benefit.

Vision and Purpose help to paint a picture to your employees, suppliers, partners, investors and customers about your quest. It gives them the opportunity to align themselves with you and to help by contributing towards reaching your stated goals.

People will follow you through the building-of-the- foundations stage because they have a clear picture of what the completed building will look like.

…Tommorrow I will share a case study of an awesome business that we helped with Strategy. Stay tuned. But if you can’t wait you can fast forward by downloading a FREE Chapter from my “Strategy on a page book”. Link below in the comments.