I was reminded of the importance of having a clear vision this week whilst working on a project for a client. After spending some time interviewing the senior management of the company, one message was coming through clearly. Without exception, every one of the senior managers said "We need direction." When I approached the Managing Director about this, he said that usually the direction was passed down from Head Office in terms of sales numbers and EBIT. I suggested that those were targets and not what the senior managers were asking for. His response was then, "Well, the corporate vision is .....but the senior managers know that." And there-in lies the fundamental issue.
What the senior managers were asking for was to have a very clear understanding of where the local business unit was going. I think that one of the most difficult tasks confronting a Managing Director of a local operation or a GM of a business unit is to develop a vision statement for his/her unit that supports the corporate global vision and which local managers and employees can own and which importantly they believe enables them to contribute to global vision of the company. Too often, local GMs take the global vision statement, frame it and place it on a wall in the reception area and say, "That is our vision." The problem with that is first, it may have no relevance to the local operation, and secondly, there may be no buy-in from employees regardless of their level within the company.
Asking, "How can we as a local business unit contribute to the global vision and capture that contribution in our own vision statement of where we are going to take this unit over the next 5 years?" will assist in developing a statement and direction for the unit that has relevance and buy-in. The same can apply to departments within the local business unit.
There is an excellent article written by Gordon Quick entitled, "Fired Up and Ready to Go - Now What" that is well worth the read. Quick suggests and I quote,"Creating an inspirational direction for a company - a clear vision statement - is not easy. It takes a complete understanding of your business, disciplined reasoning and a dose of creativity. That's one of the reasons many companies have vision statements so vacuous that they are meaningless to the majority of employees." Having a clear vision statement ensures that employees do not prioritize personal career goals over company goals.
It never ceases to amaze me how energized people become when they have a clear direction. Execution then becomes so much easier.
ian
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