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Vision & Strategy

Your vision is your dream of what you want the organization to be. Your strategy is the large-scale plan you will follow to make the dream happen. Your tactics are the specific actions you will take to follow the plan. Start with the vision and work down to the tactics as you plan for your organization.

Your vision should be the anchor that holds all the rest together. Strategy is a long-term plan, so it may need to change in response to internal or external changes, but strategy changes should only happen with considerable thought. Changes to strategy also should not happen until you have a new one to replace the old one. Tactics are the most flexible. If some tactic isn't working, adjust it and try again.

• Vision: What you want the organization to be; your dream.
• Strategy: What you are going to do to achieve your vision.
• Tactics: How you will achieve your strategy and when.

Key Question - Does your company have a clear Vision and Strategy?

Vision

A vision is an over-riding idea of what the organization should be. Often it reflects the dream of the founder or leader. Your company's vision could be, for example, to be "the largest retailer of cars in Manchester", "the maker of the finest chocolate candies in Liverpool", or "the management consultant of choice for non-profit organizations in the Northwest." A vision must be sufficiently clear and concise that everyone in the organization understands it and can buy into it with passion.

Strategy

Your strategy is one or more plans that you will use to achieve your vision. To be "the largest retailer of cars in the Manchester" you might have to decide whether it is better strategy for you to buy other retailers, try to grow a single retailer, or a combination of both. A strategy looks inward at the organization, but it also looks outward at the competition and at the environment and business climate.

In other words, strategy is about:

• Where is the business trying to get to in the long-term (direction)
• Which markets should a business compete in and what kind of activities are involved in such markets? (markets; scope)
• How can the business perform better than the competition in those markets? (advantage)?
• What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence, facilities) are required in order to be able to compete? (resources)?
• What external, environmental factors affect the businesses' ability to compete? (environment)?
• What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and around the business? (stakeholders)