Do you have a competitive vision of where your business and/or career will be in three years, five years and ten years?
Current situation of business vision in companies
Today, many leaders don’t think about where they are going with their business. They are making some profits and they keep the business. They are staying in the chair. They don’t look at the market, competitors, local and global changes in the economy, regulatory environment, technology, services and customer demands. They have a short-term business policy. Why?
Because they are forever reacting. They are reacting to memos, to telephone calls, to demands from customers, to people knocking on their doors, to pressures from their own leaders or bosses, to problems that should be solved immediately, to the latest regulatory and bureaucratic issues. They are busy each day. They are filling in forms, looking at the computer, signing the forms, writing the reports, dictating the memos, sitting in the meetings, making conference calls, attending the committees, visiting different departments, idling in traffic jams, wasting time in seeking parking places and waiting in airports and losing time in waiting the reports. Clearly, they rarely create the time and space to think, search, read, learn, understand, develop, improve and take action for today and the future. Of course, if they have enough capability for all of these!
On the other side, I see that some great leaders lead people very effectively and they perform all of the necessary actions that should be done to grow the business in a continuous manner. The main reason is their excellence in people management, competitive intelligence, preparation of vision statement and strategic plan and also innovation management.
I see that many companies are hiring poor people due to their weakness in people search, selection and hiring process.
Prepare a clearly articulated vision of success
Where do you want your business in the future? Did you establish your goals and aspirations? Did you prepare a vision statement?
A vision statement includes the essence of where you want to take your business by keeping and increasing the growth, profitability and customer value and insights for you and your people to achieve your competitive business goals in the long-term. Answer the fundamental question, ‘Where we are going?’
Prepare a clearly articulated vision of success and communicate it to all of the people within the organization.
It should show the picture of what success will be in a certain period of time in the future. A great vision is inspiring. Clearly, the vision is not a strategic plan. The vision articulates where we are going and the strategic plan tells us how we are actually going to get there. At first, define the vision and then prepare your strategic plan.
Clearly, the vision needs to guide actions and plans across the organization and at all levels, and leaders have to demonstrate that it is guiding their actions and decisions and provides that people are committed to doing it.
Lessons that you have to apply for achieving competitive success in business
- Make regularly competitive intelligence and sector analysis. Improve the vision statement systematically according to the local and global changes in the market, technology, services, regulatory environment and customer demands.
- Develop and maintain an engaged, trained and developed, adaptable, skilled and satisfied workforce.
- Explain the context and the vision to the organization. So that people know what it is, what it means and its importance for them.
- Making people believe the vision is achievable.
- Business strategy and vision should reinforce each other. The vision should generate competitive engagement and commitment.
- Take suitable actions that people support the vision and use it as their guide in their actions.
- Define the principal milestones that need to be taken to help people move towards the vision.
- Deliver services at a high level that meets the company’s needs. Build an organization that builds opportunity and spirit in a quality and innovative environment and its vision challenges the people to always strive for excellence in customer loyalty.
- Encapsulate the vision through four key directions; shape the future, sustain your environment, grow your business and competitive success.
- Achieve a financially sustainable organization.
- Provide a safe working environment.
- Provide excellent customer service.
- Ensure truly effective leadership.
- Apply appropriate and competitive technology and information systems that enhance service delivery.
- Develop and implement better planning, business and resource management, processes to support excellence in business and customer loyalty.
- Lead the people by example, provide clear direction, build organizational alignment, organizational agility and operational excellence and focus on sustainable achievement of goals.
- Understand what customers and market value, now and into the future and use this to drive organizational design, strategy, products, services and if necessary for healthy disengagement on time.
- Systematically and continually improve the system. Develop agility, adaptability and responsiveness based on a culture of continual reconfiguration, effective lean and process management , innovation and learning management.
- Behave in an ethically, socially and environmentally responsible manner.
- Focus on sustainable transient competitive advantages, customer values and competitive outcomes.
Conclusion
- Poor leaders work with the poor people. They have poor vision. Don’t forget that we are living in a complex and a hypercompetitive business world. If you continue to work with such leaders and people, your final place will be the valley of death due to their poor visionary actions.
- Companies should work with the truly effective leaders and/or experts and also right people to achieving a competitive growth, profitability and customer value. Such leaders and/or experts have the capability to prepare a competitive vision. They know how they will implement this vision and achieve a track record of success in the long-term.
- Companies have to be innovative and progressive as they strive to achieve their vision. This will be achieved by commitment to; encouraging best practice, being creative and allowing acceptable risk-taking in their business operations.
- Great leaders and/or experts develop and implement great vision. This will create transient competitive advantages, competitive productivity, low cost, high growth and profitability and excellence in customer loyalty.
Where are you going? How do you create a vision of success? Answer them!