Building my company’s Vision

 

I would spend the space and my time today discussing the highlights of the article ‘Building Your Company’s Vision’ and applying it to not just to my venture but also my own approach to starting this venture.

My first thoughts as I read the article were quite simply, “Wow”. The article opened up several avenues of thought which I had simply not cognized in my earlier research. The article broadly talks about setting a company’s vision. A vision, the article says, is comprised of the following components:

Core Ideology

“It is more important to know who you are than to know where you are going as the world around you changes”.

A profound statement. This statement helped me set the bedrock of ideology of my venture. It is important that this core ideology does not change despite the company’s journey into the future. What is the one ideology that I will not compromise under any circumstance? This was a very hard question. This was when I realized that for my company, Light My Home it would be “To bring a light to every single dark home”. Simple, short and direct. Yes. This felt right.

Core Values

“ The key is not what values an organization has but that it has core values at all”

“To identify core values push with relentlessly honesty to define what values are truly central”

“These should be so fundamental that you would hold them regardless of whether or not they are rewarded”

The above lines from the article stood out from the rest and helped me on my way to determine my company’s values. I tried to come up with my company’s values from these inspirational lines:

• Profit only from actions that are beneficial to the society.
• Making an emphatic point that India can be energized despite all odds!
• Business without excuses. Social impacts without excuses.

Big Hairy Ambitious Goals (BHAG)

BHAG are essentially short term goals as opposed to the never attainable Company’s ideology.

• Become the most widely available low cost solar lamp distribution company in India.
• Make high tech solar lamps as widely available as a tooth brush.(It must be in every hand).

Personal Reflections

This article not only has major implications is setting the moral backbone of the company, helps me hire people who match this goal but also has major implications in my capacity as a leader. This article has got me asking questions (The 5 Why technique) like “Why do I really want to start this company”. No this is not a philosophical question. It is, I believe, very important to articulate my motivation is starting this company.

The article also sparks off thoughts is asking myself what my core values are as a leader of this venture. What personal values do I set for myself? Are they/ Should they be in line with the company’s goals? I think that these questions are very pertinent and may just decide the motivation and energy that we put towards all our social ventures.

Also, what if the core ideology and the core values jeopardize the very existence of the company itself. What does one do then? Does one abandon ship and bail? Or does one go down with the ship on principles? These are larger questions each one of us must answer in the early stages of our ventures. However uncomfortable they might be, they must be answered by keeping our ego’s and biases aside for a few minutes. Hard, but helpful!