Organizations often confuse vision with the vision of either the founder, chairman or a single person driving the organization. While it is true that the description or the articulation of the vision is done by an individual, an organization's vision is the vision of all it's employees. This very important distinction is necessary for the vision to succeed. Very often it is seen in organizations that the vision is usually a financial / quantitative goal - while this may be the vision from the shareholder's point of view, how about the other stakeholders. Sometimes a vision that, say for example, goes after quality or innovation, also results, albeit as a byproduct, in the achievement of financial / quantitative goals.
This understanding is necessary because the vision for an organization needs to be matched by abilities, resources, attitude and conviction. A vision that is too aspirational, irrelevant or abstract will not find favor with all stakeholders and thus have no buy in. If there is no buy-in, there is no achievement.
The vision translates into the mission - a roadmap with specific milestones, measurement criteria, roles and responsibilities. Where you want to go is half the battle won. There are any number of routes to get there - but still they need to be clearly drawn - again keeping in mind the abilities and resources. Both vision and mission are critical for the elements in an organisation strategy. They serve as a guide in formulation of company objectives.
Does your organization have a strategic plan? If yes, have you revised or updated your strategic plan in the last three year? How often do your review your plan? Is it strategic or tactical or is it just numbers? Our experience shows very little time is taken to implement a thoughtful, meaningful and actionable strategic plan.
The process of creating a Business Plan begins with the company vision
- Define the company vision – where does the company wants to be/look like/function in the next three to five years. This is evolved through a Group Process facilitated by Lakshya
- Identify the “gap” between where the company is today compared to the vision
- Facilitate a SWOT exercise [internal and external to the organization]
- Defining what are the internal and external resources required to achieve the vision
- What are the major projects / minor projects to be under-taken
- Define the key milestones at an organizational, functional / department level
The business plans are formulated for a year with a focus for 3 to 5 years.
We cannot emphasize enough on the importance of implementation of plans. More than 99% of the time, plans do not work - not because they are bad ideas but because they are badly executed. Reasons could be very many but the primary reason is that the person ideates is not the person who implements and the person who implements often does not own the idea and hence does not take the responsibility / accountability.
The key to success is to focus on doing the right things and getting the right results. Deployment of the business goals into objectives directs the team to do what they should do rather than what they want to do by aligning all activities to the strategic vision of the company. The objectives are broken into specific, measurable, actionable plans.
This process lays the path for achieving the business strategy of the company. It ensures ownership, focus, direction and commitment through the involvement of everyone and becomes an organisation wide effort.
Business reviews help keep plans and execution on track. Business reviews should be a mixture of quantitative and qualitative inputs and achievements. Everything cannot be numbers and everything cannot be intangible. Striking the right balance between both is essential for a good review. And more importantly the inputs and achievements are decided beforehand and hence serve as a reference and guide. The business plan would obviously include various scenarios of achievements and thus review is very important to reach the vision.
