Читать книгу Formula 1 for Business - O'Connor Daniel - Страница 16

Vision, mission, and values are the foundation on which great efforts in organisation are built. Whether in the competitive arena of the racetrack, on the fast-paced business racetrack or some other human group effort, these three elements are critical in driving your collective resources towards a successful outcome.

It is all too commonly the case that owners and managers of small to medium enterprises (SME’s) dismiss the significance of vision, mission, and values as mere ‘fluff’ when considering the future plans of their organisation. Seldom in fact do we find an appropriate level of focus and commitment directed towards these things when embarking on a commercial venture and this may be one of the key factors in the low level of success in the world of the SME. After all, it is difficult to succeed on a journey for which there is no clear destination (vision), no stated ‘reason to be’ (Mission), and no set of rules to govern behaviour and decisions (values).

Each of these form an integral to the success of any business or group effort whether or not they are boldly and formerly stated or subtly communicated and understood through commitment to action.

All great journeys, projects, and endeavours begin with a vision. Initially this may take the form of a vague and nebulous dream but long before there is any consideration of planning for action there is always considerable time and energy devoted to refining this dream into a clear and distinct set of possibilities; a vision.

If you have a drivers licence you may be a car enthusiast. If so, your vision of you as a driver most probably started before primary school. Most boys dream of driving a car long before they are old enough to own one. They may start with a toy car or tricycle and graduate to a go-kart. I still recall the very first time I was able to slip into the driver’s seat of a car and turn the wheel while I pumped away at the pedals.

There was no risk of me setting this car in motion, as it was without wheels (and possibly an engine) in my Uncle’s back yard. I can still recall the smell of leather and the shine of the chrome strip across the top of the dash that joined the glove box to the single dial on the driver’s side. For that brief moment, I was in charge and I could go anywhere…

A business vision is a seductive image of an ideal future, one that is seen clearly enough to be articulated in a form which will provide inspiration and motivation to all those who are willing to share it and accompany the leader on the journey towards attaining it. Every great person and business that started with a vision has provided real excitement and passion because their vision represented a ‘destination’; it establishes clearly, where they were headed by answering the question ‘where are we going?’

Steve Jobs revealed his vision of technology’s future to Inc. Magazine in 1989 (after famously being fired from his own company in 1985) in an interview. He spoke about “the big insight”, as he called it, that he and others had had in the 1970’s regarding the importance of putting computers into the possession of regular folk. He believed in the enormous creative capacity of individuals - if given the right tools. He proposed, “a thousand people with microcomputers will always outperform one person with a supercomputer” and that “because people are inherently creative, they will use tools in ways the toolmakers never thought possible, and then they will share what they’ve learned”. This revealed an extraordinarily accurate vision of the future for personal computing.

In 1997, the year when Jobs returned to Apple, at the World Developers Conference he said “We’ve tried to come up with a strategy and vision for Apple—it started with: ‘What incredible benefits can we give the customer?’ and did not start with: ‘Let’s sit down with the engineers, and figure out what awesome technology we have and then figure out how to market that.’” Going right back to the 1970’s, and 80’s Steve Jobs has had a rich vision for the future which has actually shaped what is now the present, where individuals enjoy the benefits of tools which Apple pioneered. Jobs always had a strong response to the ‘where are we going?’ question and there are thousands of followers who would love to have the opportunity to work with him and share his vision of the future.

For organizations like Steve Job’s Apple, having a vision and communicating it to the team provides the focus, energy, enthusiasm and commitment to get things done; the right things. Because it is necessary, firstly to have a clear vision of the desired destination before it is possible to plot a course to get there. Far too many organisations undertake the challenge of developing strategy and planning before they have crystallized their vision. ‘What exactly are we looking to achieve?’ The answer to this central question will go a long way to determining ‘how’ to go about the work necessary to getting there.

Taking off on a journey without a precise understanding of where you are going is a futile exercise; like getting in your car and just ‘driving’ without knowing where you are going, you will waste valuable time and fuel, and worse still you will likely become deflated for your lack of a satisfying outcome. This analogy may sound a little silly but this is exactly what many business owners do when embarking on what is one of the most serious and significant endeavours in their life: running a business.

However, having a vision is not just the domain of world changers like Steve Jobs and Apple. Everyone is business needs a vision to fuel the fires of direction and activity. Even if only a relatively small concern, having a vision in business usually determines the difference between measured success and mediocrity.

A friend of mine in Bunbury, Western Australia, has a cleaning business and her vision when starting out, was to have it run under management providing her with a specific income and freeing her time to do other things. Having that focus on a vision which is meaningful to her has allowed her to achieve it within record time and now she holds the privileged position of being able to spend her time how she wants and can expand the vision to even greater heights.

A Harvard university study concluded that we need vision for three main reasons:

 To clearly perceive what is possible: To focus on a vision is to consider the possibilities and to reach for an inspired future. Once the desired possibility is perceived, recognising the details allows for the formation of a clear vision, which will in turn allow for the development of strategy and goals.

 To overcome the drift effect: With vision comes purpose; without a vision we lack purpose and we tend to drift aimlessly. Vision is critical to overcome this ‘drift effect’.

 Because having a vision is the key to creating effective change: To effect positive change in any field it is necessary to focus on the ‘desired outcome’; the clearer the vision of the person or the business, the greater the success that entity will experience.

If you do not have a vision for your business, you are on a journey without a destination akin to a rudderless ship and you will wander aimlessly looking for answers only to return to what you already know. I remember an old saying that goes something like: ‘when you not aiming at anything you hit nothing a hundred percent of the time’. Having a clear vision is the first step towards being able to identify the targets you are ‘shooting at’.

Many business owners are so short-sighted because their focus is on doing ‘urgent’ things and as a result, they can hardly see past tomorrow.

Urgent versus Important

We have seen so many businesses which simply do not have a clear vision and it is a prime contributor to their eventual and inevitable struggles. Many people who have come from having a job (even those from lofty corporate positions) to driving the wheels of entrepreneurialism fail to recognise the importance of clearly defining their vision and then fall prey to the ‘urgent’ things at the expense of the ‘important’ things.

When you really look, the urgent things are rarely the important things and the important things are often not urgent. The seemingly urgent things such as emails, phone calls, customer needs, and administration can all be streamlined or delegated. However, the important things like dedicating time to refining your vision and building strategy to define how to achieve the vision will never be done if you do not make them priority and schedule time for them; time, that is uninterrupted and non-negotiable. When all said and done there is nothing more important than having a clear vision so allocate time to building and maintaining it.

When you think of ‘visionary’ people, it is natural to conjure up images of great folk such as Bill Gates, revolutionising the significance of the personal computer, or Henry Ford, who envisioned a world where everyone would want one of those newfangled mechanical buggies (and people though he was insane!), or Richard Branson, who continues to extend the Virgin brand across countless industries. However, ‘vision’ belongs to us all. We were all designed to create our own possibilities and ‘business’ provides the ultimate platform to achieve our dreams.

The people referred to above are well known for building an organisation around their vision, which provided the driving force for the business to flourish and prosper. They all dedicated significant time and energy to conjuring a detailed vision which would define their organisation, they spent time on strategy and they were quick to employ capable people to deliver much of the urgent operational requirements.

The great business leaders ensure that they are not held hostage to ‘unimportant urgent’ and reserve adequate time for the very important ‘big picture’ things; vision is the most critical of these ‘big picture’ things.

This does not just apply to captains of industry; the same applies to leaders of successful small businesses. We should not be lured by the executive position in large corporate companies. There are many more small business owners and builders who make far more money than if they took senior positions in large corporate organisations. They have several distinct advantages in their business operations, including their freedom to dream, to take holidays, and to change almost anything without being accountable to shareholders and auditors.

Partnering up with success

A small business client in the northern suburbs of Perth has long since reached his financial saturation. This is where he could not hope to spend all of his wealth in this lifetime and quips he will have to rely on relatives to get rid of it all for him. He has (at last count) more than 15 businesses in which he has a significant share, but in nearly all of these (apart from his real estate agency, his property rental roll and his business brokerage) he is willing to share this with other business leaders, provided that their vision and integrity matches his.

He makes his business partners feel uneasy about where they presently are heading and want to shift to a higher level of activity, profit, market share, etc…. Most of his partners come to him for money to finance their small business operations, but end up with something far greater than just an increase in profits. Darrell has a way of building their vision to a point where they understand they were aiming too low. In nearly every case, their gift of equity to him still gives then a greater company value than they would have had if they achieved what they set out to do and he eventually owns a chunk of their enterprise that still represents more than they originally had in most cases.

Most of us have heard the story of the senior QANTAS exec who commissioned feasibility on a low-cost airline. Although the numbers all worked, his bosses killed off the idea so they did not dilute their brand. He recognized the opportunity and sought a partner with vision. He found one in Richard Branson and Virgin Blue was born.

Your Personal Vision

It is important before developing a clear business vision however to be clear about your personal vision. It is critical that your personal vision is congruent with the business vision because your drive to pursue the business vision will be dictated largely by your personal reasons for wanting business success.

It always fascinates me that many people will dedicate more time and energy to envisioning and planning for a three week annual overseas holiday than they will to their own life. They ream over the details to ensure that everything goes absolutely smoothly for those three weeks only to abandon themselves to ‘the urgent’ when they return from holiday. Sit down and really consider what you want from a personal perspective and what you ‘don’t want’, and make sure you document this; something magical happens in the subconscious when things are documented that allows for your desires to come about.

Once you have determined, detailed and documented your personal vision you will be far better situated to see your business vision clearly in a way which will ensure that your these two respective visions are congruent.

Your Business Vision – Starting With The End In Mind

We have all heard the statement ‘start with the end in mind’. This is the very essence of developing a vision, as it demands that we understand in detail the outcome that we are aspiring to achieve. We need to define our destination.

When setting about the task of determining your business vision it is best to start brainstorming and capture everything that comes to mind in terms of ‘what we want to be’. Pretend that you have already achieved your vision and see with clarity the specific details that make the vision and capture these details in documentation. The more specific and clear you are in this process the better.

Try answering the following questions to provide some shape and form to your vision:

 What does the business look like?

 What is its size (revenue, profit, staff, geography)?

 What is the business known for?

 How do we measure our success?

 Why are we important?

 What don’t we do?

 What is the working culture? (how do employees feels about the business?)

 What solutions do we provide to solve what problems for our customers?

 What is my role? (owner’s roles?)

 What do customers, employees, industry peers and the community say about the business?

The better you can answer the questions above the greater clarity you have for your business vision. By definition, your vision must be five years out or beyond and must be a stretch that represents real growth and evolution and serves all stakeholders.

In many ways, your vision of who you will become is one of your greatest assets. This is so because it defines how you identify yourself as a business; your business identity. How you see yourself will determine your conduct, your alliances and the level of game that you play as an organisation, it will contribute to your mission and will determine your values.

Once you have clarified your vision and it has becomes real, its value also becomes tangible in the sense that you can actually trade on it. For example, in recruiting the best staff, in negotiating with preferred suppliers and vendors and even in acquiring key customers a vision, which resonates, can have a positive impact that starts the relationship off on the right foot.

Clarity Brings Focus and bringing detail to your vision is the key factor behind being able to identify strategic objectives so developing a full and coloured vision is critical in ultimately developing action plans to step your way to success. You vision identifies what success means.

Vision Statements

A vision statement is just the tip of the iceberg breaching the ocean of possibility as it often represents a far greater and deeper vision than can be expressed in a condensed statement, which is typically a paragraph long. Many business owners misunderstand and underestimate the significance of a vision statement as ‘just words’ when these particular words represent the desired future and destination for the organisation in question.

A company’s vision statement should play a central role in driving the business forward from both the internal perspective of uniting and focusing those who are charged with the responsibility of delivering in the company’s name and the external perspective of boldly stating to the world at large what the ultimate objective is.

However, the true power of a vision is not so much in the wording itself, but in how much your vision truly reflects the aspirations of your organisations stakeholders (owners, employees, client’s) and how much it is embodies in your whole organisation. This means that the vision needs to be shared and owned by those who are responsible for delivering it, your employees. Share your vision statement with every new employee and ensure that it resides in a prominent place where existing employees can be reminded of it. It is one of the best ways of having staff ‘sing from the same song sheet’ in recognising that they are all working for a common cause.

Here are some examples of vision statements:

“Democratise the automobile”… Ford in the early 1900’s

“To become the world’s leading Consumer Company for automotive products and services”… Ford more recently

“A personal computer in every home running Microsoft software”… Microsoft

“To be the number one athletic company in the world”… Nike today

“Crush Adidas”… Nike in the 1960’s

It must be said that some people easily often confuse ‘Mission’ statements with a ‘Vision’ statements. For example when conducting research I founds that many websites out there claim that Nike’s vision is: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the World”, however this is clearly a ‘Mission’. Always remember that a vision statement is by definition something that you want to become, something you want to achieve, an alluring picture of a beautiful future – whereas a Mission statement is about why an organisation exists, defining its purpose (we will talk more about this soon).

When your vision becomes clear and a greater focus than your past, your future becomes more valuable than your past and great things begin to happen. Make the time to focus on your vision, create it into a detailed picture, and savour all the details. Do this and you will be rewarded a hundred fold more, than simply doing the work that your business does.

Mission

As referred to briefly above ‘Mission’ is all about explaining the ‘purpose’ for the business and defines ‘why we exist’. Unlike ‘Vision’ which is focused on the future look, shape and feel of an organisation, ‘Mission’ defines what a business is here to ‘do’ in the here and now.

In defining your company’s ‘Mission’, you should be answering the following questions:

 Why does the business exist?

 Who is our customer?

 What are we committed to providing to our customers?

 What promises are we making to customers?

 What is our Unique Selling Proposition?

 What wants, needs, desires, pains and problems do our products / services solve?

Mission statements are typically a paragraph long and certainly no longer than a page. They require time, thought and planning to really get to the heart of why the company exists. Most people discover that the process of developing the mission statement is as beneficial as the final statement itself. Going through the process will assist you is specifying the reason for what you are doing and clarify the motivations behind your business.

Some Tips For Developing Your Mission Statement

Involve those connected to your business. It helps to get the views of other people in seeing the strengths, weaknesses, and pitfalls you might miss. Make sure that you choose positive, supportive people who want to see you succeed.

Set aside time to develop your Mission statement. Even though the statement itself does not consist of many words, there is depth behind it, which requires exploration. It takes time to capture in words the organization’s heart and soul, which acts as a reference point to everyone, involved in the business.

Brainstorm. Throw down everything irrespective of how silly it might sound. After having exhausted all ideas then rationalise them to collate statement, which get to the purpose and then work on refining.

Use “rich descriptive words.” After you have captured the essence of what you are trying to communicate in your mission statement, continue to craft and polish it until it is the most vibrant and colourful expression of your purpose; after all this is what you are putting ‘out there’ to the world as to why the business exists.

Following are some Mission statement for high profile organisations:

“To produce high-quality, low cost, easy to use products that incorporate high technology for the individual. We are proving that high technology does not have to be intimidating for non-computer experts.” …Apple in 1984

“To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential’…. Microsoft today

“The purpose of the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is to earn money for its shareholders and increase the value of their investment. We will do that through growing the company, controlling assets and properly structuring the balance sheet, thereby increasing EPS, cash flow, and return on invested capital”…… Cooper Tyres

“We fulfil dreams through the experience of motorcycling, by providing to motorcyclists and to the general public an expanding line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market segments”….. Harley Davidson

Mission statements are clearly important in providing direction and formalising purpose for a business organisation but they are underpinned by ‘Values’.

Values

The values of an organisation represent what is most meaningful to it and sets the ‘intent’ for the business. Values help identify commitment to standards and act as a compass for determining behaviour and conduct within an organisation, both between colleagues ‘in house’ and in front of customers and the ‘outside world’. Put simply they represent what your organisation ‘stands for’ and ‘believes in’.

As with Vision, values can sadly be dismissed as mere ‘puffery’ by some less than switched on business drivers. The truth is that Values actually set the standard for conduct across a business and reminds owners and senior staff of how to set the example and be congruent. As an example, if an organisation has as one of its key value ‘respect’, then shouting at a peer or making snide, underhand remarks would be far from upholding this value. People can easily sense incongruent behaviour, which at worst will be seen as hypocrisy so it is critical once values have been identified that these values are upheld in every exchange and transaction that takes place.

It is easy to see values in action throughout the recruitment process when statements are made about the organisation and enquiries are made of candidates to understand whether he or she shares the same values. This is one of the reasons why it is far better to be overt and quite clear about what the business values are. There can be no room for ambiguity when it comes to values. Values must be stated.

Values are a serious matter and must be genuine; they must be ‘lived up to’ by those who create them otherwise there will be a credibility crisis in the eyes of the employees who are supposed to live by them. There is nothing worse than the boss who preaches respect, demands respect and yet does not exhibit any. Values are a wonderful opportunity lost to many organisations because they are either not set with enough thought or are not made to be part of the daily affairs of the business.

For some clever business owners, Values have become real business drivers and played an important part in helping the organisation stand out. Take for example Virgin Blue Airlines who’s values are ‘Resourcefulness’, ‘Innovation’, ‘Caring’, ‘ Enthusiasm’, ‘Excellence’, ‘Individuality’ and ‘Integrity’. Serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has instilled these values into the organisation from the top down and they clearly play a central role not only in ‘hiring’, but provide guidance in all-important decision-making and direction. The business has clearly benefited by taking some of the market share of main rival Qantas.

After having clearly identified, documented and communicated your business values, be sure to highlight, recognise and encourage behaviour which upholds and promotes the values. Make sure your business values are clear to employees so they can live up to them and emulate the best. If you show them the way and give them a chance, you will discover that they can be your greatest advocate.

Clearly identifying the vision, mission, and values for your business provides the necessary foundation upon which to build a successful organisation. In racing terms, they are like visualising the championship, knowing the rules, and defining the team philosophy. Only after these foundations have been laid is the competitive unit in a position to develop strategy and plans for achieving victory.

So how much of a visionary were you as a child? How much of this has been educated out of you and how much of it has actually survived layers and perhaps decades of management? Can you reach into your mind and put a spark into that “dreamer” that used to come up with ideas all the time? How hard can it be to get in touch with that creative child within us all? That dreamer may just put you well ahead of where you are aiming for, all because nobody told that child not to dare…