Creating a Company Vision
Do you have a vision of where your company will be in three years? In five? 10? Here’s a sure-fire way to get clear about the future you want.
Hugh Kretschmer
Hardly a day passes without someone asking me for business advice. It might be a student or a struggling entrepreneur or an up-and-comer at a larger company. I'm sure most successful entrepreneurs experience the same thing. As often as not, people want that "one top tip," that single piece of advice that can put a person on the path to success. Lo, if only things were so simple. On the other hand, there is one thing I wish I had understood more clearly from the get-go: the power of visioning.
When we opened Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1982, I had never even heard the term visioning. Thirty years later, that deli has expanded into Zingerman's Community of Businesses—eight different businesses (including a mail order company and a business consultancy), with 17 managing partners, 500 employees, and revenue of $37 million a year. It's safe to say that we wouldn't be where we are without visioning.
What is a vision? It's not as mystical or out there as it sounds. A vision, quite simply, is a picture of what success will be at a particular time in the future. It encompasses answers to an array of questions: What does our organization look like? How big is it? What are we famous for? Why does anyone care about what we do? How do people who work here feel about their jobs? How do I, as the founder, feel about the business? What's my role in it? Complete the visioning process, and you'll have a clearly articulated end for your organization—something that won't change every time the market or your mood shifts.
A great vision is inspiring. It gets you and everyone in the organization excited to come to work; it's the cathedral everyone is coming to work every day to construct. This is not mere wishful thinking. A vision must also be strategically sound. You have to have a reasonable shot at getting there.
At Zingerman's, we use visioning nearly every time we start a project. For the organization overall, we have our vision for 2020 (e-mail me at ari@zingermans.com, and I'll send you a copy). We also have visions for each of our business units—and for most of the projects those groups undertake, whether it's a $6 million renovation at the original deli or a new hot-chocolate recipe we're developing at Zingerman's Roadhouse, our sit-down restaurant. Visioning is so much a part of what we do that almost everyone who works here reads at least 20 visions in the first year on the job.
To be clear, a vision is not a strategic plan. The vision articulates where we are going; the plan tells us how we're actually going to get there. We start that planning work only after we've agreed on the vision. Creating a plan without a vision… Well, I just can't quite figure how one does it. Imagine asking MapQuest to give you directions but not plugging in your desired destination.
Just to give you a small but meaningful example of a vision, here's the one we wrote for the Thursday-evening farmers' market we host in the parking lot of Zingerman's Roadhouse, on the West Side of Ann Arbor. It was written in 2005 and was designed to express our vision for the market three years later.
It's the longest day of the year; the sun is at its pinnacle of warmth and light. Throngs of people are milling around the Roadhouse parking lot, amazed and excited at the abundance of locally produced goods, ranging from several gorgeous varieties of tomatoes to handmade soap and artisan crafts, to herbs and plants, plus a very strong synergy of Zingerman's items—cheese from the Creamery, breads from the Bakehouse, and the ever-energetic Roadshow crew caffeinating all the vendors and customers. Every vendor is selling the best of what there is to offer, growing or producing themselves what they sell. There's a tangible truth patrons have come to trust—that all these products have a story and none of them traveled very far to get here. Tents and awnings cover the stalls, creating a colorful and festive mood. There are 15–20 vendors at the Market, so it's accessible and maintains variety but remains magnetic and welcoming.
The West Side Farmer's Market continues to provide our customers with the best products available and serves as a catalyst for community development by offering an educational component and a local music scene. We have space reserved for weekly scheduled acts, including local musicians, demonstrations, and educational activities. Several people recognize the Roadhouse chefs selecting vegetables from the Market's vendors for the weekend's menus at the Roadhouse. The market is a family event, where parents bring their children after school and shop for fresh produce. After shopping, families enjoy a snack at our picnic tables. Guests are thrilled with the produce, the chance to visit with neighbors, and best of all, to connect with the farmers who actually grow their food.
This year, the WSFM planning committee is helping to generate interest and support for the market throughout the area business community. Local businesses hang posters or hand out fliers about the market and participate in promotions that encourage their customers to visit. These companies recognize the potential for the market to draw additional patrons to the area and increase business throughout the West Side. These developing relationships with area businesses and the neighborhood at large are enabling the WSFM to become a more self-sustaining entity. While Zingerman's remains an active and essential supporter of the Market, the WSFM is a self-sustaining entity.
Remember, this was written before the market even existed. Actually launching the market required long struggles with the city, landlord issues, persuading growers to join us, and probably a hundred other challenges. But read our vision to anyone who comes to the market, and that person will tell you that what's described above is almost exactly what happens every Thursday evening. In fact, I checked with the market manager to see how many vendors we had at the start of the 2008 season. The answer? Twenty.
This probably sounds silly and New-Agey to people who aren't into hearing it. It did to me when I first started learning about it. But there's just no way around it—the power that comes out of this visioning stuff is huge. When we do effective visioning, we're moving toward the future we want, not just reacting to a present-day reality we don't like. If we do our job well in this regard, I believe that we keep our competitors reacting to what we're doing, instead of the other way around.
A vision also makes it much easier to handle the strategic opportunities that present themselves every day. In my experience, most organizations, and most people, pick and choose from opportunities when they arise. The calls come in every day. And then we agonize over what to do. Having a vision makes decisions much easier: The only opportunities even worth considering are those that are going to help us attain our vision.
