Having a vision, mission, purpose, all of them has become top of the consultant pile of ‘must do’s’ for success.
What a misleading crock of old cobblers!
A vision in the absence of the resources, capabilities, and determination to get down in the weeds and do the hard work necessary, to make the tough strategic and tactical choices required to implement, will remain a dream.
Which comes first, the vision or the tough stuff?
Many businesses have grown and thrived without the vision; none have done so in the absence of doing the work. The challenge is to focus the work for the greatest tactical and strategic return, and having a shared destination is a crucial ingredient, but only one of several.
Lou Gerstner was hired from RJR Nabisco in 1993 where he had restructured the business after a highly leverage buyout, to run IBM. The former giant of the computing business had fallen on hard times and seemed likely to be broken up and sold off. In response to a reporter’s question which assumed he was hired because he had some unique vision for the revival of the fortunes of IBM, he famously said: ‘The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision‘.
The revival of IBM started from there.
Alan Mullaly became the saviour of Ford after being hired from Boeing in 2006. There was no grand vision, no set of fluffy words describing some sort of mission, just a steely determination to save what he saw as an American manufacturing icon, and the tough choices and hard work necessary to achieve that end. The choices made delivered a strategy: reduce the stable of brands by selling off all but Ford, thereby freeing up cash and simplifying the business. Make people accountable for identifying and solving problems in their workspace, investing in R&D to modernise the technology in Fords, and manage the cash weekly.
Both Gerstner and Mullaly were outsiders, neither came with the mental models that then dominated the computer or automotive industries. They remained uninfluenced by those peddling quick fix, silver bullet solutions. Both came with fresh eyes and a history of success through challenging times and recognition of the demands of true leadership through tough times.
We tend to look for the silver bullets when we look at successful people who run successful businesses. What did they do that we can copy?
While there are always lessons for the curious, there are no silver bullets, no universal solution to the unique challenges posed by different businesses.
Create a vision and a mission, perhaps a purpose, all will help give people a reason to get up in the morning, but will not replace the tough stuff at the coal face. Interacting with people, generating ideas, giving and receiving feedback, putting in place the operational foundations necessary for commercial success, and making really tough choices.
This is not an easy recipe, but it is the only one that works.
The PR friendly articulation of a vision is extraordinarily useful as a catalyst for the hard work, but is never a replacement.
