Visualization-the Third Stage
Because of a lack of vision, businesses can go under and/or be unsuccessful. Vision happens in three ways. Past, present, and future. Over the years, I've come across businesses with varying degrees of vision. Some can't learn from their past mistakes, others do not have a clear sense of where
they are going in the present, and still others are so stuck in the present that they are caught by surprise when the markets they are part of change rapidly leaving their business outdated and no longer relevant. The later outcome is also what separates the good businesses from the great businesses. More on Future Vision
Not being "ahead of the curve" is what makes many once successful businesses history. Here are some elements of a business that stays ahead of the trends:
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A culture of proactivity vs. reactivity. A culture of proactively is a culture that keeps score of where they are successful
and where they need to improve. Successes are celebrated and areas of improvement are worked on with specific actions in mind. A culture of proactively also is consistently and actively seeking to improve itself and grow itself idealy before problems arise. A culture of reactivity is passive and simply waits until problems appear and then reacts with new policies and procedures that will hopefully solve the immediate problems. ¡1
Improvising through various approaches and methods. A few examples of this are"intersectional innovation" and "creative destruction." A perfect and familiar example of intersectional innovation is the cell phone. Original cell phones were rather large phones
with the idea to make calls on a cordless unit and within certain frequencies. Many years later the ideas of combining a camera, internet access, and many other features added to the cell phone. Creative destruction involves active improvement or even replacement of products, services, or ideas. A great example of creative destruction is digital vs. film photography. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but digital photography seems to almost always be used now. If you were a photography business, it would probably been necessary to do what is called a "pivot" or a "shift" in order to maintain competitiveness in the market when digital started coming out. The one exception to this "rule of thumb" is if
your business creates its own individual niche, in the film photography industry for example, it may be safe to stay the course. ¡2
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Preparing for future change. Everything in this world is subject to change. Starting with the preparation stage of the business, setting aside time to keep up with current market trends that affect your business and setting aside extra money for the costs of potential shifts or pivots in a business is a wise move. Reassessing your business model from time to time. This could be an annual ritual or monthly or whatever works. Sometimes it just makes sense to continue doing what you are doing if
what you have been doing seems to be working and probably will continue to work in the future. Other times when things are not working or changes in the market will affect your business, it becomes necessary to reassess and modify your business model.
In Summation Vision is the third action stage of growing a successful business. This involves creating a culture of productivity vs. reactivity, improvising through various methods and approaches, preparing for future change, and reassessing your business model from time to time. Relevancy What areas of vision does your business need to grow in? Do you learn from past mistakes? Do you stay on track with vision in the present? Do you have a culture of proactively vs. reactivity? Are you
improvising through various methods and approaches? Are you preparing for future change? Are you reassessing your business model from time to time in order to PAV the way for your business in the future?