A clear vision makes or breaks a startup
“How can I make this world a better place?”, asked the student. “The question is dangerously self-important and futile”, said the master.
While many start-ups are chiefly out there to make money, the primary source of motivation, in most cases, is the impact that they can have on the world. When a team takes on this journey, starting from a hazy sense of purpose to build something that can outlive all of them, a vision can power them more than anything else.
Having a clear vision can add so much value to the business that it is worth investing your time in before you even start. This is true even if the team decides to change the central business idea along the course of their journey.
In these notes, I’ve outlined 5 functional benefits of having a clear vision for your enterprise. Please feel free to comment/suggest an improvement:
- Improves decision making:
Having a clear vision directly improves the speed and quality of your decisions. This is largely true because once there is a fundamental agreement on important ideas, it is easy to build on top of that. Otherwise, every important decision will involve re-discussion on the fundamental ideas. Additionally, having a sense of where you are going also makes it easier to identify a clear yes or no. - Increases trust in leadership:
When aligned on a central vision, leadership is more likely to make coherent decisions over time, and avoid compromising on important issues. Even when faced with hard choices requiring to reverse previously made decisions, they will have better reasoning which could keep the team aligned with the core mission of the organization. Also, leaders who are genuinely passionate about the core mission gain invaluable respect from the team. - Directs culture when growing:
As an organization grows in size, the interactions between employees and multiple departments grow exponentially. While a lot of the culture of any organization is accidental, the part under control can be directed by a strong sense of the vision and values. This encourages people to respect and emulate certain behaviors. - Creates an opportunity to contribute:
When you are scaling, there is a process of continuously discovering what works and then trying to do more of it. In this journey, a lot of roles concerned with doing more of what works could get mechanical in nature. However, if the employees taking on these roles are clear about the organization’s vision and important milestones, they can contribute beyond the requirement of their roles and initiate new ideas that align with the vision. - Attracts like-minded partners:
At all stages, an organization is also a part of a larger ecosystem. The ecosystem comprises of customers, potential employees, investors, business partners, and other stakeholders. By making your vision clear to the ecosystem, you make it easier to attract like-minded partners. Also, if you are successful, more people want to contribute to the vision which leads to further development of the ecosystem.
