IDEA VISION: What will we be? 

What is the goal part of an idea.

What we will be is probably the easiest of the three questions' to answer. This question asks what product or service are we passionate enough about to offer to our customers. What is the business we are in?

Frankly, the same "business" may yield a totally different answer of what it will be.

IBM, Compaq and Hewlett Packard viewed their entry into the computer business as a technology play. Dell Computer did not view the business as a technology business. Dell saw a logistics business. Faster, quicker to Dell meant physical delivery of a technology product to a customer. Faster and quicker to IBM, Compaq and H-P meant faster quicker technology.

At ValCom/InaCom our "what we will be" was to be the best provider of personal computer products and services not just to our original target market of agriculture but to all customers we would encounter. We viewed ourselves in the business for the long term. We were operators of a business not traders or sellers of the business.

We were passionate about our view of what we would be. We saw ourselves five or ten years out being recognized by our stakeholders as the best provider of personal computer products and services in the world. Not necessarily the biggest, but the best. We saw ourselves as the company customers, vendors and people would want to be associated with. We saw ourselves winning awards from vendors, customers, employees and shareholders for our performance.

ValCom/InaCom was focused on operational and delivery issues. We did not see ourselves in the technology business, we saw ourselves in the delivery of solutions business. We did not see ourselves selling, initially, in the major metropolitan areas of the country; we saw our base as being in the secondary and tertiary markets where our irrigation dealers were. We focused on being the best deliverer of product and services to our customers. We focused on having systems, processes and procedures in place to manage the business.

We created a visual image of what we thought we would be. We prepared a draft annual report for the company five years into the future. We wrote the story about what we thought we could be in five years. We talked about what our employees, customers and stakeholders would be saying about us. We talked about our growth and our profitability. Stories define a company.

This annual report became a powerful visual portrayal of where we were going. We could show it to our employees, investors and other stakeholders. They got a clear picture of what we were about. They knew where we saw ourselves going. Because they knew and understood our vision, as we delivered we gained credibility with each of them.

IDEA STRATEGY: How will we get there? 

How is the strategy part of the idea.

Just like planning a trip, the first goal is to decide where you are going or what you will be. The second step is to map out the specific things that you will have to do well to achieve your goal and identify those things that will derail your efforts to reach your goal.

Identify the things you must do right to succeed. These are the big things that really matter, not everything that has to be done. Your list cannot be longer than ten things. You will dilute your effectiveness if you have too many areas of focus. It is far better to be really good at five or ten things than it is to be able to do a lot of things at 60%. Anything that you do at 60% will become the thing that your competition will use to attack you. While there may be a hundred things you need to get done, the key is to focus on those few things that are really critical to your success.

At ValCom/InaCom, we focused on developing systems, process and procedures that would support our growth. We did not worry about sales and marketing issues. IBM, Compaq and HP would sell the concept of the personal computer. We had to be in a position to meet the demand they created better than anyone else in the industry. We focused on blocking and tackling issues required to put the right products and services in the right place at the right time.

We viewed our vendor, dealer and customer relationships as critical to our success. We focused on building our relationships. We visited vendor locations. We visited our branch locations. We visited our customer locations. We wanted to know what was right and especially what was wrong with what we were doing. We focused on what customers wanted fixed, not what we thought needed to be fixed. Always give customers what they want, not what you think they need.

We also knew we had to be good at working capital management. We were in a high volume low margin distribution business. We knew we would require large amounts of capital for inventory and accounts receivable. We focused on turning inventory so our investment was in accounts receivable. Sales and resulting accounts receivable grow a business, not carrying inventory.

IDEA CULTURE: What will we be? 

This is the most important part of your vision and it is the one that most companies pay the least attention to. The question is about the culture and core values of the company, the things that the company will not compromise on. These are the rules that employees can count on to guide them in every decision they make. At InaCom our people knew if they followed the culture and core values they would never make a wrong decision irrespective of the outcome. If they ignored the culture and core values they would never make a right decision irrespective of the outcome.

What the company will be is not about the words you write in your mission statement or your values statement. The stories that customers, employees, vendors and other stakeholders tell are what your culture and core values really are. Stories define a company.

The CEO and the management team set the scene for every story. They must be conscious of how they act, what they say and what they do. What management does, not what they say, will determine the culture and core values of the company. Management will determine if the culture and core values will lead to and sustain profitable growth.

It's far easier to get employee buy into your plans if they hear positive stories about the company. It's easier if employees hear how other employees were recognized for their achievement or how the company did the right thing.

It is harder to control costs if everyone hears about the CEO staying in expensive hotels, throwing extravagant parties, spending company money in his name at charity events or jetting around the world at company expense to fulfill family obligations.

It's easy to maintain relationships if you have a history of doing the right thing for vendor's, customers and others all the time. If you consistently mislead or stonewall stakeholders about your performance or your prospects, it is pretty difficult to get your employees, vendors and other stakeholders to be honest about what is going on.

Clearly, the employees of Enron told stories about what they did to make a quarterly earnings number. The predominant story, it seems, was making the quarter at any cost. The company's ethics statement spoke of honesty and integrity. The company's actions spoke of deceit and a climate of the end justifying the means.

When Lou Gerstner took over at IBM, legend has it; he called a meeting of his team to discuss the business. When the polished presentations began to rollout, he said "shut the presentations off and let's just talk about what's going on in the business". The polish of the presentation disappeared from IBM as the way to success in the company and focusing on business issues became the driving force.

Think about the stories you want people to tell about you over the next five years and make sure your words and actions send that message loud and clear every day. Management must always reward adherence to culture and core values. Management must never tolerate departures from culture and core values.