Establishing The Right Vision For Dramatic Business Growth

There’s a big difference between incremental growth and scaling up your business for dramatic growth. Often that difference begins with your vision. Bold vision drives you to make decisions that transform the way you operate. If you don’t have a big, bold vision there is no reason to scale up. How can you develop a vision that lets your company scale up to operate at a higher level?

Big Vision That’s Attainable

A vision is more than just a good idea. Lot’s of companies have good ideas for products and services. But it’s a crowded market space. If you really want explosive growth you have to stand out. If you want to be big you have to think big.  That’s why we talk about developing a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) that grabs the attention of your own people—and of your potential customers.

That doesn’t mean coming up with a ridiculous vision or something that isn’t attainable. It does mean stretching yourself and your company beyond what you’ve done so far. Increasing sales by 10 percent isn’t really much of a stretch. It’s not a bad goal, but it’s not visionary. Improving profitability by 5 percent is admirable as well, but it doesn’t require radical change. Big visions, on the other hand, require big changes. Ask yourself how big your vision is. How different would you like your company to be in 5 or 10 years?

Vision Needs to Be Clear

Before people in your company can buy into a big vision they have to understand it.

Yes, your vision can (and should be) somewhat flexible. Things in business are in constant change. One challenge with creating a compelling vision is that what your customers demand tomorrow may be very different than what they’re asking for today.

Still, your vision needs to be clearly defined. If your employees don’t understand exactly what the vision is, they won’t commit to it. How do you know if your people “get it”? Here’s a look at three tests for your corporate vision. Your vision drives your strategy—and everything else in your business.

Your Vision Needs to Be Unique

When we think of visionary leaders we think of people who did things differently.  Doing the same things the same way isn’t visionary. Microsoft and Apple didn’t just do business the same way everyone had been doing it. They radically changed the way people approached personal (and business) computing. Amazon wasn’t just another online shopping site. They revolutionized the way that people shopped.

Counting the Cost of Your Vision

One reason many businesses fail to grow is that they don’t count the cost of their vision. They really don’t have a grasp of what it’s going to take to make that jump to the next level. Counting the cost is about more than just spending more money. Scaling up is about doing everything at a higher level. You can’t just do more of the same thing and expect different results. You need to transform yourself and your business.

A Great Business Coach Helps You Define, Clarify, and Achieve Your Vision

A great business coach helps you turn a great idea into a compelling vision that can drive your business to new heights. He or she can help you formulate, articulate, and clarify your vision. As an “outsider” your coach can point out gaps in your thinking that others within your organization might miss.

A great coach, however, does more than simply help you cast your vision. He or she helps you achieve your vision. That involves creating a specific strategy for accomplishing your goals. It means helping you take a hard look at your people to make sure they are equipped to make the changes you need to make. It involves taking a close look at your finances to ensure you have enough cash to fund your growth. And it includes creating systems that allow you to monitor your execution.

How Can a Business Coach Help Your Business?

I mentioned that a major key toward achieving your vision is having the right strategy. If you click on the “Assess Your Strategy” button below, you can take a very quick (2 minute) assessment of your existing strategy. While this quick assessment won’t solve all of your strategy issues it gives you an overview of the things a business coach will address to help you formulate a winning strategy that can make your vision a reality.

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay