The importance of knowing where you’re going

Whilst most business owners are trained to focus on underlying performance, this focus only really becomes game-changing if looked at through the lens of a business that truly knows where it’s going.

Does your business really know where it’s going?

Destination criteria are critical to business focus and purpose. They can define discussion and concentrate decision-making. They can also help avoid confusion, stagnation and intransigence; resulting in an organisation with the equivalent of an in-built sat-nav device.

And, just like the Vision and Purpose, when the destination has been bought into by the management team this collective focus is gold dust!

Historical trends and information can help to inform any business journey in the same way as warnings of delays ahead inform any road trip; but they will rarely cause you to change destination; they simply inform the route you take.

Conversely, there’s no route planner in the world that can help you to find an unknown destination.

How often do you start a journey without knowing where you are going?

As the business owner, you probably have a vision or desire to see your business achieve a level of turnover, a level of profit or a certain enterprise value; and that’s useful as a starting point.

It puts down some firm financial qualities that are aspirational and offers an opportunity to elaborate on what that means for what the business will eventually become.

You’ve also probably got a firm grasp on what those financial expectations mean for you; whether that’s a lifestyle business run for profit or a capital event facilitating your retirement.

Don’t worry if none of this rings a bell now, it soon will once we get involved. After all, necessity is the mother ofall invention.

The destination is often where we start with clients.

We work with you to combine one- dimensional financial definitions with broader non-financial metrics to create a succinct description of your destination that’s been fully researched and communicated to all passengers and that can be easily recognised by any route planner.

And that journey analogy is also important when you consider that what we embark on with our clients is indeed a kind of journey. It starts – as with all efficient journeys – with clarifying the destination but goes on to consider every aspect of the route itself – compiling a detailed A to Z of how to get there (for those that remember the A-Z!)

There is nothing more satisfying than a well-defined plan, made great by its execution.

But if you take nothing else away from this, remember that every plan needs a destination and the more thorough it is at the outset, the greater the prospect of reaching it and the greater the satisfaction in getting there.

Whatever stage your business is at and whatever the challenges you’re facing we can help. Get in touch with us today to discuss your specific business challenges. You’ll soon discover that as your business is uncommon, so are we.