Frankly, the question that forms the title of this write-up is a matter of life and death. Death because, in the event you make a terrible choice on the principal person(s) that executes your vision, your business vision will die; and life because, a sound decision in this area of your vision will deliver great results which will give life to your vision and sustain it.
I have identified three key units that have to work in harmony to birth and sustain your business vision. Like the manner “heart and lungs” work effectively to deliver “more oxygen to the working muscle cells of a fit person”, is the same way these three units must deliver what is required for your business, to boost it and overcome the challenges in its way of achieving survival and profitability.
The vision itself, should not be confused for the vision carrier or with the dream team which altogether form “the Trinity of business”. While the vision could come from any of the business ideas in my book “1000+ Practical Business Ideas and Directory of Money Sources” and be abstract, the original vision-carrier is tangible but his survival in relation to the vision are tied. The vision he carries at the start is the chain that binds him to the dream team.
Once vision is destroyed, the connection between the vision-carrier and the dream team becomes dead and gone. I once witnessed this in the life of a business and I will share the experience with you.
Some years ago, a leading entrepreneur, decided to set up another company to take advantage of a new opportunity in his line of business, according to him, ”I wanted to pioneer a unit that will focus solely on taking advantage of the opportunity the internet created in my business sector” and so he did. He assembled a team and shared his vision with his dream team,they hit the ground running. As fate would have it, they hit instant success because their business model offers new and exciting opportunities for their traditional clients and “they blew”. Five years later, he stepped back and gave free rein to his successor. Afterwards, the company’s fortune nosedived and the company suddenly became bankrupt.
On investigation, it was found that the successor who met a well run company on ground, felt the company was already doing well and decided to turn his weekends to travel time to Europe to bring in cars for resale in his home country. His focus and attention, as the company leader, shifted from the original vision of the original vision-carrier to a different vision that is completely unrelated to the vision that binds the vision-carrier to his dream team and the result led to the death of the fledging company.
One of my businesses nearly suffered the same fate until we identified and removed a principal member of our dream team whose daily priority activities are not aligned with our business vision and we suddenly arrested the ‘bleeding’ in the organisation.
Today is the best time to do an audit of your business to determine if your vision is going to die or survive profitably.