If you search the term “business vision statement” you get about 44 million results. Despite this, the term “business vision” is not well understood. I know many people struggle to identify their vision. It happens in all walks of life and most notably George Bush Senior, former president of the USA, is identified with his problem with the “vision thing”.
Bush’s lack of “the vision thing” as president, was seen as a key factor in his defeat in the 1992 presidential race and even today, the vision quote is still commonly cited in biographies of Bush.
The official U.S. Senate website says:
“Bush…suffered from his lack, of what he called ‘the vision thing’, a clarity of ideas and principles that could shape public opinion and influence Congress. ‘He does not say why he wants to be there,’ complained columnist George Will, ‘so the public does not know why it should care if he gets his way.’ ”
“The vision thing” has gone on to become a shorthand figure of speech. It is now used as a description “for any politician’s failure to incorporate a greater vision in a campaign, and has often been applied in the media to other politicians or public figures.”
This could easily be applied to business owners thus: “for any business owner’s failure to incorporate a greater vision into his reason for doing business” because to paraphrase George Will on George Bush “if he does not say why he wants to go there, why should his employees or customers care if he gets his way.’ ”
The problem with vision is that it is such an abstract concept to grasp and certainly when I first confronted it I had no idea how I could go from the blank screen in my head to something that answered the hardest question you could ask. Why?
It's always interesting to see people’s responses to the “Why” question, many look at you and you can just see that they are thinking “what’s he on about” or “how is this relevant to my business success?” When they do answer, too often the response is about customer service and good value. Valuable those these things may be, they do not constitute a vision.
Staying Ahead of the Hammer – How to build and manage you business for long-term high growth Description:
This book has been written recognising that there are precious few texts available on this subject and fewer still that look at how business mechanics are impacted by high growth.
It has been written to explain two key ideas. Firstly, that being successful in high growth is more about developing the business as a whole, rather than it just being an issue of sales growth. To achieve high growth consistently, you as the business leader, have to learn to manage multiple functions within the organisation and keep them in balance to support continuous sales growth.
Secondly, to get business owners, leadership teams and management alike, to look forward and be proactive in directing their business. It’s about getting your head up from the detail of your business and looking out to see what’s likely to impact your business in the future. This often requires a massive change in peoples thinking, it’s about having and implementing a can do attitude and being confident the information you have about your business is accurate. The conclusions that you can draw from that information will allow you to make the correct decisions about moving your company forward. You’ll be confident that you can address potential problems and meet challenges far more effectively than those of your competitors who will only react to events rather than anticipating them.
The book is built around seven key areas which describe in some way all parts of the business. They are Vision, Culture, Strategy & Planning, Talent Management, Financial and Management Reporting, Business Systems & Processes and Business Development.
This route through a business is based on my model for developing a High Growth Business. Vision is the Keystone which supports the other areas. Culture is critical in supporting your vision and setting the behavioural attitudes for your business. The next stage is to develop your strategy and build an implementation plan. From then I look more at the operational aspects in particular talent management. People are a critical success factor for a High Growth Business and understanding how to develop and nurture talent is a vital skill. We then follow a more traditional route through a business, looking at finance and in particular using financial information to help forecast the future. Business systems and processes look at how to systematise your business and how to develop a results, rather than efforts based business by using KPI’s. Finally, and perhaps surprisingly for some, we look at business development. My logic for this is very much experienced based, in that most High Growth Businesses don’t have too much of a problem with sales, rather they have a problem serving the sales they are winning.
Some chapters relate directly to the leadership and management skills that owners need to drive growth, whilst others look at the detail of the business. What makes this book different and of interest to you is that I have tried wherever possible to view issues from a high growth perspective, as well as explaining how an issue impacts on the business. For each key area, I have also included practical advice, often supported by easy to use tools, to help you to more easily manage those high growth issues.
Each Chapter is self-contained, so you can dip into the book at any point and go to the problem which may be causing you the most trouble immediately. There is nonetheless a theme which recognises that all these areas are interconnected and that in addressing one area you will get positive improvements in others.
The main chapters include a summary section and a space at the end for you to add notes as you see fit. Also as you go through the book you will be presented with a number of tools to help you address particular problems. You can get free access to these tools by going to www.managinghighgrowth.com/downloads.
Managing a High Growth Business is not easy. There are many things, as a business owner, you need to consider and act upon otherwise you have the potential to be overwhelmed. Most successful owners quickly recognise that their job is no longer to perform what the business does, but rather to manage the business as a whole. This requires not only the development of new skills in leadership and management but also a change in your habits and attitudes. This will become apparent when we discuss the issues around, vision, culture and talent management. However for those owners who are prepared to make those changes, the rewards can be great both financially and in the recognition of the fact that you have achieved something extraordinary.
