Develop Vision

"A visionary company doesn't simply balance between idealism and profitability: it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable. A visionary company doesn't simply balance between preserving a tightly held core ideology and stimulating vigorous change and movement; it does both to an extreme."

--Jim Collins, author, Good to Great


According to the Proverbs: “Without vision, the people perish”. Likewise, without a clear vision, a business leader cannot effectively lead an organization in today’s highly competitive marketplace.

Very few people are born visionaries—most work hard at becoming so. By carefully following trends, studying all of the factors that affect your company, your industry, your line of work, and projecting ahead, you too, can achieve visionary status.

But it won’t be easy. First, you must develop a broad view of the world—well beyond the narrow interests of your company or your industry. Look at the world. Where does your organization fit? Where does it want to be? How will your company operate in today’s political and economic climate?

Next comes the need to project your vision broadly. How will your employees, customers and shareholders buy into your vision, and how will you communicate those things to them in a way that inspires confidence and action?

All challenges for you as the leader, but not insurmountable when you develop a clear vision of what is possible, what is likely and what can be avoided. Develop a vision and let it guide your actions.

(c) 2008 Adonis E. Hoffman

The Buck Stops With You

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand."

Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States

Harry Truman epitomized responsibility in a chief executive. His now famous words, “the buck stops here,” became part of the national lexicon and changed the way Americans viewed their leaders. “The Buck Stops Here” became an instant euphemism for responsible leadership.

President Truman’s sense of accountability and his acceptance of responsibility for the actions of his administration fundamentally changed the way all chief executives were to be viewed from that point forward. It was a classic lesson in the principle that responsibility begins at the top.

In today’s business environment, leadership must come from the top. CEOs and key executives should establish the tone for the rest of the company. That’s why they’re paid the big bucks. If your name is at the top of the organization chart, like or not, you are responsible for just about everything that happens below.

CEOs, directors, and senior executives are expected to provide leadership in every facet of corporate affairs, recognizing that their employees, shareholders, investors, and customers will be judging their actions.

(c) Adonis E. Hoffman, 2007.