The place of vision in business
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- Category: SME toolkit
- Written by with Bridget Olotu
- Hits: 695
Someone once said that twenty friends cannot play together for twenty years. It sounds unbelievable but it is true. There are people you grew up with that today you do not relate well with anymore not because you are proud or full of airs but because “water has found its level.” Sometimes, it is not intentional.
When one person lives in Ajegunle and another one lives in Victoria Island, the distance can even slacken the relationship. No matter how we try to rationalise or emotionalise it, life introduces change into every aspect of our lives and forces us to move up or move down. But I dare say that to a greater extent, our life is a product of our personal vision and determination to make that vision a reality. The beauty of vision is that it is so powerful it can make an ordinary person become extraordinary. The lack of vision can also make a promising future slip into mediocrity. Vision is what even sets people apart financially because while some believe they would succeed and achieve financial independence, others choose to live ordinary and “quiet” lives. I remember a friend who told me in school that he doesn’t want to be rich and when I asked why, he said rich people are targets for armed robbers. Vision is also self-fulfilling. You know why? The man/woman that says he doesn’t want to be rich for instance will not see the need to go to school to further their education. (The examples of drop-outs that have become stinking rich are an exception not the rule. Besides, what is education? What we refer to education is not limited to the formal one we have.) They won’t see the need to get a good job with a good pay and invest to achieve their financial targets. They can stay with a job for many years that is altogether a grind as it is low-paying. They wouldn’t mind because it corresponds with the vision they already conceived.
Conversely, that fellow that wants to live a quality life will be uncomfortable with a job, for instance, that is low-paying and may not guarantee the realisation of her financial vision. She may want to further her studies, acquire more degrees, get professional training, start a business, invest idle funds, attend seminars on investment, read financial and investment books and magazines, etc, all in a bid to actualise that vision.
Vision actually drives an individual or organisation forward! I have taken this time to explain the power and impact that vision can have on our lives so that we would appreciate the place of vision in a business. Just like you can and should have vision for every area of your life (family, finances, relationships, personal development, etc) you can and should have vision for your business. The questions you need to ask yourself are these?
1. Where do you want your business to be in the next 5, 10, 15 and 20 years?
2. How much do you want your business to be worth in the periods mentioned?
3. What products and services do you want to be producing and why, and how many products/services do you think you should be offering at the periods cited?
4. What level of technology do you want to be operating in your business?
5. What market position do you want to occupy and what market size do you want to control?
6. What assets do you want to acquire in the periods mentioned?
7. How many staff members do you want to be on your payroll during the periods mentioned?
8. How many locations do you want your business to be in the periods cited?
9. What is your marketing strategy and how will it be distinct from the competition?
10. What is your succession planning strategy and how do you hope to implement it and at what time, with whom and for whom?
These are part of the long-term strategic planning of an organisation. This is the reason some businesses will remain on the trading level, while a few others, who started off the same way, would surpass them. The story of Alhaji Aliko Dangote comes in handy here. From a trading business, Dangote Group has become a conglomerate spanning different industries and sectors. Do you still wonder why he is the only black African and Nigerian on the Forbes richest list?
Vision in business will cause the business owner to keep to the following:
1. Long-term perspective. The reason there are more traders than entrepreneurs in Africa is because of short-term thinking. Traders are short-term thinkers. They sell Garri today, rice tomorrow, tin tomatoes the day after tomorrow. This may not matter. It could be a strategy, but for most traders, there is no plan or vision that guides the business. So, they flounder in and out of different forms of businesses. Long-term perspective affects the business owner’s attitude, lifestyle, choices, behaviour and general outlook on the business.
2. Sacrifice-driven disposition. Vision makes the business owner sacrifice today’s comforts for tomorrow’s luxuries. When people criticise rich business people, I think it is unfair. These people have made so many sacrifices to build their businesses, and when they settle to enjoy their labour, people throw anti-rich and socialist dogmas to rubbish what these people took years, tears and pains to build.
3. Sustained passion. Businesses that are built on vision have sustained passion. Challenges don’t shrink true visions; troubles don’t scare real visions. When you see successful businesses today, what you see are the successful visions of men and women. Coca cola, for instance, has remained what it is for many years now. That is vision.
4. Commitment to learning. Businesses that are vision-driven are also learning organisations. Like Alvin Toffler put it, “The illiterates of the 21st century are not those who cannot read or write, but they are those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” The learning curve of vision-driven businesses is high.
5. Commitment to best practices. Vision-driven businesses are committed to best practices around. When they discover that a new-found way of doing things improves their performance and efficiency, they are committed to embracing it.
6. Commitment to technology and innovation. No matter how averse you are to change, technology is forcing businesses today to conform. Imagine a business today without a GSM phone number, computer to work with and other accessories. Vision-driven businesses don’t rely on the tools of yesterday to do today’s task. They are given to rebirth, modernisation, innovation, retooling and improvement.
7. Hiring the best hands. Businesses that are built on vision templates are used to hiring the best hands. Show me high-flying organisations and I will show you employers of quality personnel. No organisation can grow beyond the calibre of people it has. Average businesses have average hands; good businesses have good hands, but best businesses have best hands with them.
8. Commitment to purpose. The question is: what is your purpose in business? Who is your business designed to serve? How are you designed to serve them? What do you serve them with? Why are you different from other similar businesses? Your purpose is what makes your vision different from others. Vision-driven businesses are committed to their purpose for as long as the business is in existence.
9. Commitment to flexibility. Vision-driven businesses are also flexible. When companies recast their vision, change some of their staff, management style and systems, acquire new technologies, change their market segment, product designs, product offerings, and others, they are merely saying they are flexible and are responding to market demands and conditions. Without flexibility, no business will be able to keep pace with the changes in the marketplace.
10. Continuous investment. Business owners who run vision-driven businesses continually invest in their personal development, stakeholders (employees, customers, etc) and in the organisation. Some individuals are richer than their businesses. Their offices or business centres are an apology, while they drive very expensive cars. When you invest in your business, it creates for you a continuous stream of income that guarantees you a lifestyle of comfort and innocent luxury.
The place of vision is important in business. Without it businesses will stagnate and nosedive; with it, businesses experience rebirth, change and innovation in line with the purpose of the business.
Articles
The place of vision in business
Category: SME toolkit Written by with Bridget Olotu Hits: 695
Someone once said that twenty friends cannot play together for twenty years. It sounds unbelievable but it is true. There are people you grew up with that today you do not relate well with anymore not because you are proud or full of airs but because “water has found its level.” Sometimes, it is not intentional.
When one person lives in Ajegunle and another one lives in Victoria Island, the distance can even slacken the relationship. No matter how we try to rationalise or emotionalise it, life introduces change into every aspect of our lives and forces us to move up or move down. But I dare say that to a greater extent, our life is a product of our personal vision and determination to make that vision a reality. The beauty of vision is that it is so powerful it can make an ordinary person become extraordinary. The lack of vision can also make a promising future slip into mediocrity. Vision is what even sets people apart financially because while some believe they would succeed and achieve financial independence, others choose to live ordinary and “quiet” lives. I remember a friend who told me in school that he doesn’t want to be rich and when I asked why, he said rich people are targets for armed robbers. Vision is also self-fulfilling. You know why? The man/woman that says he doesn’t want to be rich for instance will not see the need to go to school to further their education. (The examples of drop-outs that have become stinking rich are an exception not the rule. Besides, what is education? What we refer to education is not limited to the formal one we have.) They won’t see the need to get a good job with a good pay and invest to achieve their financial targets. They can stay with a job for many years that is altogether a grind as it is low-paying. They wouldn’t mind because it corresponds with the vision they already conceived.
Conversely, that fellow that wants to live a quality life will be uncomfortable with a job, for instance, that is low-paying and may not guarantee the realisation of her financial vision. She may want to further her studies, acquire more degrees, get professional training, start a business, invest idle funds, attend seminars on investment, read financial and investment books and magazines, etc, all in a bid to actualise that vision.
Vision actually drives an individual or organisation forward! I have taken this time to explain the power and impact that vision can have on our lives so that we would appreciate the place of vision in a business. Just like you can and should have vision for every area of your life (family, finances, relationships, personal development, etc) you can and should have vision for your business. The questions you need to ask yourself are these?
1. Where do you want your business to be in the next 5, 10, 15 and 20 years?
2. How much do you want your business to be worth in the periods mentioned?
3. What products and services do you want to be producing and why, and how many products/services do you think you should be offering at the periods cited?
4. What level of technology do you want to be operating in your business?
5. What market position do you want to occupy and what market size do you want to control?
6. What assets do you want to acquire in the periods mentioned?
7. How many staff members do you want to be on your payroll during the periods mentioned?
8. How many locations do you want your business to be in the periods cited?
9. What is your marketing strategy and how will it be distinct from the competition?
10. What is your succession planning strategy and how do you hope to implement it and at what time, with whom and for whom?
These are part of the long-term strategic planning of an organisation. This is the reason some businesses will remain on the trading level, while a few others, who started off the same way, would surpass them. The story of Alhaji Aliko Dangote comes in handy here. From a trading business, Dangote Group has become a conglomerate spanning different industries and sectors. Do you still wonder why he is the only black African and Nigerian on the Forbes richest list?
Vision in business will cause the business owner to keep to the following:
1. Long-term perspective. The reason there are more traders than entrepreneurs in Africa is because of short-term thinking. Traders are short-term thinkers. They sell Garri today, rice tomorrow, tin tomatoes the day after tomorrow. This may not matter. It could be a strategy, but for most traders, there is no plan or vision that guides the business. So, they flounder in and out of different forms of businesses. Long-term perspective affects the business owner’s attitude, lifestyle, choices, behaviour and general outlook on the business.
2. Sacrifice-driven disposition. Vision makes the business owner sacrifice today’s comforts for tomorrow’s luxuries. When people criticise rich business people, I think it is unfair. These people have made so many sacrifices to build their businesses, and when they settle to enjoy their labour, people throw anti-rich and socialist dogmas to rubbish what these people took years, tears and pains to build.
3. Sustained passion. Businesses that are built on vision have sustained passion. Challenges don’t shrink true visions; troubles don’t scare real visions. When you see successful businesses today, what you see are the successful visions of men and women. Coca cola, for instance, has remained what it is for many years now. That is vision.
4. Commitment to learning. Businesses that are vision-driven are also learning organisations. Like Alvin Toffler put it, “The illiterates of the 21st century are not those who cannot read or write, but they are those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” The learning curve of vision-driven businesses is high.
5. Commitment to best practices. Vision-driven businesses are committed to best practices around. When they discover that a new-found way of doing things improves their performance and efficiency, they are committed to embracing it.
6. Commitment to technology and innovation. No matter how averse you are to change, technology is forcing businesses today to conform. Imagine a business today without a GSM phone number, computer to work with and other accessories. Vision-driven businesses don’t rely on the tools of yesterday to do today’s task. They are given to rebirth, modernisation, innovation, retooling and improvement.
7. Hiring the best hands. Businesses that are built on vision templates are used to hiring the best hands. Show me high-flying organisations and I will show you employers of quality personnel. No organisation can grow beyond the calibre of people it has. Average businesses have average hands; good businesses have good hands, but best businesses have best hands with them.
8. Commitment to purpose. The question is: what is your purpose in business? Who is your business designed to serve? How are you designed to serve them? What do you serve them with? Why are you different from other similar businesses? Your purpose is what makes your vision different from others. Vision-driven businesses are committed to their purpose for as long as the business is in existence.
9. Commitment to flexibility. Vision-driven businesses are also flexible. When companies recast their vision, change some of their staff, management style and systems, acquire new technologies, change their market segment, product designs, product offerings, and others, they are merely saying they are flexible and are responding to market demands and conditions. Without flexibility, no business will be able to keep pace with the changes in the marketplace.
10. Continuous investment. Business owners who run vision-driven businesses continually invest in their personal development, stakeholders (employees, customers, etc) and in the organisation. Some individuals are richer than their businesses. Their offices or business centres are an apology, while they drive very expensive cars. When you invest in your business, it creates for you a continuous stream of income that guarantees you a lifestyle of comfort and innocent luxury.
The place of vision is important in business. Without it businesses will stagnate and nosedive; with it, businesses experience rebirth, change and innovation in line with the purpose of the business.