Part 1: Creating a Vision for your Business

ave you ever asked yourself the question, “What do I have to do to succeed in my business?” If you have, you wouldn’t be alone. Fortunately, US Ivy League university Dartmouth College provides a great answer.
 
Their research showed that, to succeed in business, you must excel at four primary management practices:

• strategy
• execution
• culture, and
• structure.

 
​In addition, you must also excel at any two of four secondary management practices:

• talent
• innovation
• leadership, and
• mergers and partnerships.

 
You can forget the rest.

Hi, I’m Chris. This, my first column, is one of a series of three on strategy – one of those primary management practices. Strategy is about making a series of choices that enable you to beat the competition and achieve your business goals. This is a lot more difficult if you don’t actually know what your business goals are. As NY Yankees legend Yogi Berra said, “you’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.” So, I always start with vision.

​“Built to Last” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, has great chapters about the components of a business vision. They talk about three elements:

1. Core purpose
2. Core values
3. Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal

Core values are really the foundation of culture, so I’ll cover them in a later series on that topic.

The core purpose is the reason why your business exists. Note: as far as everyone except possibly you is concerned, your business does not exist to make you rich. That may well follow, but the sad news is your employees are not leaping out of bed in the morning thinking, “wow! I’m going to make the boss another million dollars today! Yee-hah!” An awful lot of them will, however, be energised by a core purpose that seeks to make a difference in people’s lives.
 
The way to find your core purpose is to ask “why?” at least five times:

• Why are you in this business, beyond just making money?
• Well, why do you want to do that?
• And whatever the answer is, ask “why?” again and again and again, until you come up with the real reason your business exists.

If you get stuck, watch Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk entitled “Start With Why.” Its only 5 minutes long, just search “Sinek Start With Why” or if you’re reading digitally, click here.
 
Here are some examples of core purposes:

• Disney – To Make People Happy
• 3M – Our Real Business is Solving Problems
• Johnson & Johnson – To Alleviate Pain and Disease
• Tourism Holdings – Creating Unforgettable Holidays
• The Warehouse – Making the Desirable Affordable

 
The third component of vision is the Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (or BHAG). Join me next month, when we’ll take a look at that, and a key strategic decision.