How to Screw Your Business in One Easy Step

No, it’s not very goddess-like to use such language but turbulent times deserve forceful measures.

With small businesses under the gun to stay afloat and corporations flailing about trying to understand new media whilst restraining marketing budgets, innovation and bold ideas, there is one nugget of wisdom that separates the winners from the losers.

Align your STRATEGIES with your VISION. 

If you don’t, you’re screwed.

Why? Because strategies that are not connected to a clearly articulated vision end up wasting valuable resources, monopolizing time you don’t have, and to a lot of “running in place.” 

I see and read about many organizations that tie their strategies to their mission (which by definition is a broad and simple statement and does not provide enough strategic direction), to objectives that are not aligned with a clear vision, or worse they recycle strategies from last year’s plan that may not yet have panned out but seem worth plugging away at or simply allow companies to “stay the course” regardless of their effectiveness. 

Have you “been there?” Ever been asked to put a fresh coat of paint on a strategic plan without the C-Suite first reevaluating the company’s vision for the next five years and struggled to feel confident that the strategies are the right ones? I have.

So let’s use a very basic example to demonstrate why you need a mission to be in business but you need a clearly articulated vision to be successful:

Giovanni’s Tavola Italiana:

Giovanni has always wanted to bring his love and knowledge of the best of Italian food to Chicago, and he has raised the capital to finally do so.

His mission is to create a restaurant that serves the finest Italian food from his roots in Southern Italy, using only the freshest, most authentic ingredients.  Now let me stop and ask you this – is this mission enough to create a successful restaurant?  I think it’s enough to create a restaurant, but not necessarily a successful one.  After all, how many restaurants do you think have a mission exactly like this one or very close to it?  And how many restaurants go out of business every year?  Exactly.

But Giovanni is different because he has a clear vision – a clear picture in his head of “who” he wants this restaurant to be – what will make it unique, how it will meet a specific need and how its unique personality will express himself.

Giovanni wants his restaurant to be where the elite – the hoity toity so to speak, come for very upscale, special dining experiences.  He envisions his patrons as wealthy Chicagoans, the political elite, well-known athletes, and other less-wealthy patrons who will splurge for very special occasions. 

Giovanni can literally picture these people in his mind seated in his restaurant loving every morsel of their experience.  He can smell and taste what this experience is like and because of this, his strategies will be very clear to him.  What do I mean by this?

• It’s Giovanni’s vision – and not his simple mission – that will dictate where to build this restaurant – it will obviously not be in the suburbs and will likely be in a chic part of town easily accessible by his desired clientele
• His pricing strategy will be appropriate to his vision
• His plating strategy will flow from his vision (how much food to serve on a plate and how to “enhance” the plate with decorations made of sauces and herbs, etc…)
• His promotional strategy will be clear – he won’t be promoting to the “masses”
• His decor will flow from his vision
• His hours of business will meet the unique needs of his patrons who tend to eat dinner very late at night or want a place to go after their game/ society function, etc… for dinner, dessert and upscale cocktails

Etc…you get the idea…

ALL of these strategies become absolutely obvious when Giovanni creates and can clearly articulate to others (those who will help him implement his strategies) his vision of “who” his restaurant is.  His strategies are entirely different than they’d be if he wanted to be a gathering place for large, Italian families after Church or during the week for their family meals, right?  That’s why having that clear vision is so important…

His mission was not enough to provide clear strategic direction and objectives – such as “to be the most popular Southern Italian restaurant in Chicago” – without a vision are not enough to lead to clear strategies either. 

Your business needs a clearly articulated vision in order to have strategies that will enable you to bring that picture of “who” you want your business to be to life.

Perhaps most importantly, strategies aligned with a clear vision provide:

•  the mechanism to ensure that all of your resources – including your employees – are being dedicated to the right strategies
• clear insight into what is currently distracting your from moving towards your vision and the ability to eliminate these distractions
• easy visibility to what is not aligned with your vision (perhaps a promotional strategy no longer makes sense based on the vision, etc…) and a justification to cut that out of your operations
• YOUR ROADMAP TO SUCCESS AND PROFITABILITY  

Now I realize this is a very basic example but I implore you to think about these principles in the context of your own business so that you can make very important, strategic changes!

Are you unknowingly screwing your business?

Please share your thoughts and insights in the comments…I would be honored to read them! 

(I’d also be honored if you’d consider subscribing here!)

Photo is screw by KevinDooley.