Vision, Business Model, and Execution – A Framework for Change

When setting out to build, grow, or transform a business, there are always an infinite number of possible activities that you’ll need to cobble together into a meaningful path forward.  Each organization is different so the activities you select and the order in which you perform them must be matched to a synthesis of the needs of the business as it currently operates and the creation of the growth and change that will ensure its long-term success.  What has emerged for me over the years are three essential elements to provide a framework in which to organize the ideas, strategies, resources and actions needed to build a successful business.

Vision

You need to have a vision to know where you’re headed.  As obvious as that sounds, many organizations do not.  Too often, attempts at articulating a vision short-circuit into merely stating business objectives.  Business objectives such as doubling revenue in x years, or increasing net earnings at x rate, or even the more aspirational being the top 1,2,or 5 player in a market are no substitute for saying who you are going to be and how you are going to conduct business.   To be sure, clear business objectives are necessary.  They become the ultimate metric in determining the success of your vision.  Vision, however,  gives your business objectives shape and direction.  After all, if your business objective is simply to grow revenue, you could embark on a series of bake sales and car washes in order to get cash in the door.

For your vision to be more than an idea, it needs to be articulated, understood and adopted by the organization.   Effectively communicating, selling, and reinforcing the vision is an unending process.  As you dive into the sometimes tedious but necessary work to shape your organization around the vision, being able to tie the work back to it will help keep you and your team on track.

Business Model

The business model is the method by which you will apply your vision while achieving your business objectives.  It includes the normal activities of your current business as well as the initiatives and projects you undertake to move forward.  The key thing to understand here is how easy it is for your vision and business model to become misaligned, especially if your organization’s business objectives aren’t viewed in the context of your vision.   If you are planning to embark on a path that is a departure from past strategies then, almost by definition, your business model will not be aligned.   If your vision does not represent a departure, it is still easy for the business model to become misaligned.  The realities and sheer momentum of everyday business with the attendant band-aids and work-arounds that you employ to solve near term problems can drive your business model in a direction incompatible with your vision.  An even more insidious threat is the pursuit of what appear to be profitable opportunities in the short run that do not really fit into your long-term strategy.  These “opportunities” tend to fragment your business model and consume precious resources in order to create the structures (usually inefficient work-arounds) to support these one-off initiatives.  Typically, these hastily pursued opportunities don’t pan out and you are left with a more fragmented infrastructure as well as an obligation to continue to support sub-optimal deals.

Execution

Execution is effectively and efficiently performing the correct daily activities, in both operations and projects that will have your business model driving to the successful attainment of your vision.  Assuming you have successfully aligned your vision and business model and set appropriate business objectives, identifying the correct activities is reasonably straight forward.  You will find, naturally, that you have identified more activities than you have resources for.  Effective execution, then, becomes primarily a matter of disciplined, continuous resource allocation.  This is how you keep your business model from straying from your vision and how you ensure that new initiatives that support the vision become integrated into your business model.  Marshaling, managing and deploying resources in a dynamic environment means that you will need to continually adapt and adjust your activities and projects and the resources assigned.  You need to do this in a setting and context that uses your vision and business model as a framework.  This process also creates a feedback loop to ensure that your vision and business model continue to be a relevant and reliable bridge between the market place and your business objectives.

The separate articles on each element of the framework articles (listed immediately below this article’s title on the right hand menu)  go into a bit more detail on how to get started and how to integrate the Vision, Business Model, and Execution framework into your daily operating model.  Of course, this framework represents how I have processed and learned from my particular experiences.  I would love to read your comments on how you have tackled the challenges of building and growing a successful business.

Len Cavallaro

November 2012

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