Recapture Your Vision

In business you often hear companies refer to their Vision and Mission statements. While a mission statement tends to define the actions needed to accomplish the company’s objectives, a vision statement should point the direction to achieving them. The vision gives the company something to strive for by creating an identity they wish to achieve for themselves. It should be able to define the expectations that have been set by the company’s leaders. The vision needs to be the driving force that provides a company its present and future motivation for being in business. While having a vision is important to starting a business, following and maintaining a vision is crucial to the success of that endeavor.

Many times the reality of business life will cause a company to loose sight of their original vision as they battle the day to day fires that constantly arise. As you get caught up in working in your business you will tend to forget to work on your business and its future path. Sometimes just getting through another day is the main focus. Unfortunately these days turn to weeks, then months, then finally years. While by many standards you may see yourself as successful, this is often based on the fact that you have survived long enough to still be around. The reality of your present situation is most likely radically different from your original concept of what your business would be like.

Another potential scenario is having an outdated vision. While you have been successful in achieving what you set out to accomplish, your original vision may no longer be relevant to your future goals and objectives. In a good way you have outgrown your expectations and now need to set new goals and objectives. In setting the bar higher you need to develop a whole new vision. To maintain success a company must always have something to aim and strive for. A company can never stand still, as it will actually begin to slip backwards. Truly successful businesses are never satisfied with the status quo. New visions provide new innovations that continually drive the company’s growth. If you sit back to admire all you have achieved, get ready to watch your competition go speeding by.

At any given point in time of the business life cycle you must be able to know and understand where you are and where are you going. In order to do this you must be able to maintain or update your company’s objectives. In other words you need to recapture your vision. If you take an honest approach to this task it will lay the groundwork to continued success.