#TheStrategicProcess (II) #Vision

I'll start with a quote I discovered in the "Execution Premium", book written by Kaplan and Norton. It says: 

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest way to victory. Tactics without strategy is the previous noise before defeat". 

The Strategy and the Operations (Tactics) are different things and must be managed differently. Both are essential and so, for a success in the #StrategicProcess development we have to integrate both. We commented in another occasion that the Strategy is the path between where we are and the point we want to reach. To analyse where we are, there are a number of tools that will be introduced in my blog. 

More difficult for many senior managers are to define the point we want to reach. It is not easy to talk about the future, but we must do it to set and choose the most suitable way to reach the defined end point. Therefore top management must have a Vision, a long-term goal which is ambitious but feasible to do in the defined time. 

Yes, this is important because a strategy is defined for a given time, which means, the strategies are born, developed and ends up being replaced with one that will try to be better than the last one. In the world of enterprises, companies and businesses it is not worth to say "I have a dream" accept we have to complete it with "I have a dream. In five years we will be ......” 

The long-term goal (Vision) must be ambitious as we have already noted. This is to improve our starting point. I like to represent the #StrategicProcess as a ladder where the starting point is at the beginning of it from where we have a limited view of our environment. The point of arrival, long-term goal (Vision) is located at the top of the stairs where you can access to wonderful views of our environment. 

Each of the steps up will be a part of the #StrategicProcess to be developed. The higher up we can be the more ambitious our Vision will be, but it is clear that we must measure the great effort we have to do for not stopping in the middle of our journey which would cause an unstable situation. Conclusion: an ambitious Vision yes, but achievable to reach and perform at the set time.