Thou must have clarity of vision! As the leader of your solopreneurship, small to midsized manufacturing or service business, or your startup, you’ve been told that you must have a clear vision of the future.
What does being “visionary” really mean in this global economy, where economic mood swings can occur daily?
Talk about short cycle time.
Business vision, or foresight, boils down to developing your business strategy to be nimble and flexible, while also being robust. That tack translates into remaining in touch with all of the factors that can catalyze or thwart your growth and sustainability now and over the next three years.
Even if there are unanticipated economic and industry vertical mood swings.
Is your business based on hindsight, short-sightedness or foresight? Do you react to the daily fires you fight because your focus is on making monthly payroll rather than sustaining your business over the next three years?
Businesses based on short-sightedness and hindsight means you are constantly fixing things that are broken, instead of developing proactive and anticipatory processes and practices to predict and prevent their occurring.
Developing your professional foresight isn’t a matter of scaling a tall mountain on your own and taking a 20 mile view. Foresight does involve surrounding yourself with smart folks who just may be smarter about some stuff than you are.
Foresight involves collaborating with your team and synthesizing your collective insights about your business and financial models, your marketplace and your value propositions.
Foresight involves including, rather than marginalizing, the folks from those pesky quality, IT and engineering professional disciplines who traditionally don’t communicate very well with the folks in your organization who speak business, marketing, sales and finance. You know who they are.
Developing foresight means connecting visionary thinking back to the tactical processes and practices that need to be in place in order for them to “happen.”
Developing foresight means becoming a realistic visionary.
Developing foresight and business vision includes thinking beyond Plan A and even Plan B. Business and manufacturing vision is a consideration of all input and throughput required to create the outcomes necessary for building, expanding and sustaining your business.
Business and professional vision is founded on your decision to:
- lead rather than follow;
- collaborate rather than work in a vaccum;
- assume risk and accountability for your insights and decisions; and
- move 1 millimeter outside your current comfort level.
What will your choice be? Foresight, short-sight or hindsight?
Babette N. Ten Haken, President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC, catalyzes business transition, startup growth, and professional development. She works with non-traditional sellers like engineers, manufacturers, and technical startups to create sustainable business models and revenue strategies. This post was created for the ASQ Influential Blogger program. The opinions represented in this post are my own and do not necessarily represent those of ASQ. To read more about business strategy and your professional development, visit my Free Resources page.
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