A couple of recent conversations got me thinking about the "vision thing" (as President George H Bush used to call it).

One was a session with my business partner in a new venture we're working on.  We were talking about what we wanted to achieve, and Roger said, "well, it's not worth doing if it's not generating a profit to us of [insert large number here - no, larger than that.  Roger is not a man for small dreams]".   I thought, "why not?"  And I meant that in more than a casual going-along-with-it kind of way.  Because the answer to "why not" was nothing.  There is no reason why not.  Now that's not always the case.  I remember another conversation with some business partners, and the start point was "how much do we want to make out of this?"  Alarm bells went off in my head when telephone numbers started getting bandied about, not because it wasn't possible, but because I fundamentally didn't think the partners had what it took to deliver on the numbers, and I also didn't think that there were precedents in that industry. 

If there's no substance, a grand vision is just a dangerous delusion. And that was the other conversation a week or so ago, with someone who had grand visions but was at that point staring down the barrel of bankruptcy.  She managed to avoid it, but the lesson learned was that grand vision alone is not enough, no matter how much visualising you do.  You have to be clear about the substance behind it, and be prepared to do what it takes to make the vision real.

So having established the end point, we then started working back from it.  What sort of clients would we have to work with, and who would we have to avoid?  Which services would we provide and which would we stay away from?  What's our process, from lead generation to settlement?  What's emerging is a vision of what a highly successful company will look like and how it will operate 5 years out. 

The temptation is to take on work just to get started.  We had a discussion about this: will we initially take on projects and clients who don't fit our ideal profile or will we start as we intend to end up? We agreed that we would start as we intended to proceed, and maintain the discipline.

The power of vision is that it gives us a map or a blueprint of our direction.  A map tells you not just about the directions to your destination, but by implication, roads not to take.  It tells us not just what we'll do, but what we won't do, so we won't lose a whole lot of time on what we agree are false trails.

Is it a harder road?  Absolutely.  It might take longer in elapsed time, but it will take less time on the way through.  And after all, the biggest resource we're investing is our precious time.

  Mike Ashby

9 August 2008