Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ is the perfect example of a vision, a picture of the future painted powerfully and inspirationally. Every person in his audience could see this future could be better than the present. As an owner-manager, your job is to create and communicate a vision of the future that your people can buy into. King’s dream was so powerful some people laid down their lives for it. I’m not suggesting your staff should be prepared to die for your vision, but the most successful businesses’ leaders are those who can see and articulate the exciting future possibilities.
Against the odds
The spur for Karan Bilimoria – now Lord Bilimoria – to set up Cobra Beer in 1990 was that he could not find the right kind of beer to drink with Indian food. Despite the UK being the world’s most crowded beer market, he decided to brew the perfect beer to drink with curry, and so Cobra was born. Even when Bilimoria was delivering the first cases to Indian restaurants in a battered 2CV, he had a big vision: he wanted Cobra to be the first global Indian brand.
In recognition of the ongoing battle to grow in the face of competition from huge international brewers, Bilimoria added the phrase: “To aspire and to achieve against all odds”, as a way of setting out his own philosophy and inspiring his staff. This remains the Cobra vision and it seems to be working – Cobra is now available in almost 50 countries and the company regularly wins awards for its approach to people management. One recent survey voted it number 35 in the 100 best small companies to work for, with more than 90% of staff feeling excited by where the business is going and inspired by Bilimoria’s leadership.
Just as in Bilimoria’s case, it is the power and passion of your vision that will translate paper goals and strategies into reality. Vision creates momentum. It pulls people through the uncomfortable process of change by offering the picture of a better world. It gives people a meaning and purpose.
A vision also allows you to stay focused on what you do best, so you can keep growing. Tristram Mayhew is founder and ‘chief gorilla’ of Go Ape, a company that operates high-wire forest adventure courses. “If you communicate your vision properly and everyone buys into it, you can move forward intuitively,” he says. “You can make future decisions against this benchmark to ensure you keep in line with your ‘main thing’. Apart from anything else, it keeps you on track.”
Brand values
Go Ape’s vision is “creating adventures; encouraging others to live life more adventurously”. Mayhew also wants the business to be the best high-wire adventure company in the world. He runs the business based on a set of values that underpins everything. These are: to keep adventure in adventure; to challenge, surprise, excite; to encourage “I can’t” to become “I can”; to be socially and environmentally responsible; to
create worthwhile,
well-rewarded jobs; and to do the right thing.
The vision and values were distilled from years running the business after start-up. “We were always working based on these values and vision, but until this point we had not articulated them,” explains Mayhew. “It was important to do this before we were about to push off and grow big. If we were to grow and keep our integrity, then we had to get everyone on board and signed up to this vision, and embed these values in our DNA.”
With his management team, Mayhew hammered out what he calls “the brand coordinates”. At the core was adventure based around serious fun. They defined what they wanted to achieve with a Go Ape experience: rush; wonder; and tribe (a feeling of being part of a team – and this includes customers). Now, when the team looks at new ideas or opportunities, they reflect back on these values.
Go Ape’s vision has influenced all parts of its business. First, it led to a more ambitious business strategy. “We realised that if we were built on adventure, then we should be adventurous as a business,” recalls Mayhew. “Accordingly, from having seven courses in 2006, we decided to expand to 40 by 2012.”
It has also changed Go Ape’s recruitment methods. “By looking at our vision and values, we realised that we didn’t just need gnarled mountaineers as instructors, we needed people who were interested in people,” says Mayhew. “Now we naturally recruit people who fit in and have far fewer employment issues.”
Your vision
So how do you go about articulating your vision? Writing a formal company philosophy can be quite easy, but it’s far more difficult to create a relevant and inspiring vision. First, it must be shared by everyone in the company. Indeed, in a business with a strong vision, any employee at any time can probably tell you what the company stands for. This is more achievable if you involve your people in its design.
Second, your company vision should be transformational, describing a future far better than today. Third, it should be inspirational and passionate, based on deeply held beliefs. Fourth, it should be straightforward and easy to communicate, while looking to the long term. Finally, it should be constantly communicated
and reinforced in day-to-day work by everything you do and everything you say.
