Developing a vision for your business is the first step. It’s
this process that enables you to visualise where you want your business to go,
not just in the next year, but in the next 5 years, 10 years, or even
longer. When you embark on your planning
you can break this down into smaller chunks and targets in individual year,
quarters, months, days, but a vision isn’t about the everyday, so think big and
think long term. Your vision can then
inform your day to day running of your business because, like a guiding light
in the distance, you will always have a point of focus leading you in the right
direction.
If your vision is going to inform the running of your
business, it must be clear and it should be specific; no woolly ifs, buts or
maybes and no vague or non-descript aims, and it should be aspirational; this
is not the place for humble humility.
Take Apple for example, their vision and mission statement is, “To make
a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.” Now love or loathe Apple, this vision for the
company to ‘advance humankind’ is clear, specific and aspirational and you can
well imagine the boffins in the development workshops and research labs
standing around their latest prospective product quizzing each other, “yes, but
will this advance humankind?” Simply, if their answer is “no” then the team
will know it’s time to get back to the drawing board!
Which leads us to the next crucial step in building your
vision for your business; your vision should be articulated and shared with
your team so that you can all share in it, become invested in it and motivated
towards it. A vision achieves nothing
scrawled on the back of an old envelope or crumpled post-it note stuffed down
the back of a desk drawer! Commit it to
paper, share it, display it and strive towards it every day!
To
read more on developing a vision for your business and planning to achieve your
business dreams, catch the next instalment of this week's blog on Tuesday.
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