Using Long-Term Vision To Prevent The Downfall Of Complacency

Jim Mizouni is Chief Development Officer at Sage Dental.

Long-term vision helps business development leaders ensure that their teams never lose sight of the consumer need that the company is there to solve. If the focus of your business and mission does waver, your competitive advantage and the company’s differentiation in the marketplace will be compromised. As a result, the business will often stagnate, and your competitors will steal your share.

To drive success, maintain focus over time, and position a business to scale, leaders must have a sustainable long-term vision and buy-in from their teams, as well as accountability to carry it out. By defining a structured plan with achievable milestones to mark progress and a course of action for where the company is going and how it will get there, businesses can set themselves up for long-term prosperity.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs In The KPI Basket

Among the metrics that typically go hand-in-hand with a long-term vision are key performance indicators (KPIs). While it’s no secret that business leaders can’t—and shouldn’t—ignore KPIs, it’s also important to recognize that, ironically, KPIs can potentially undermine long-term vision. If a business falls into a habit of continually measuring, over and over, what has worked in the past without trying anything new, its leadership could unintentionally rely on a series of KPIs that prevent forward progress.

The same can be said for how performance appraisals are typically structured within an organization. When employees are tasked to meet certain job performance metrics, some companies could have up to thousands of employees working toward goals that, in many cases, reflect how “we’ve always done things.” In such cases, no one is focused on potentially innovative ideas or actions because they’re not being evaluated for doing so.

Given this, it will benefit your teams to recognize that KPIs usually don’t encompass directional factors that lead to creative thinking, new ideas and risk-taking. Long-term vision that includes a dynamic approach to continually assess the needs of your clients or customers and identify your competitive differentiation should never be sidetracked by relying on what has worked well in the past.

Let’s consider another way to look at this: Startups and newer entrepreneurial companies that are lean and mean are willing to think out of the box because they’re not entrenched in the mindset of “what’s worked for us in the past.” To put this into context, when powerhouses like Apple, Amazon and Tesla began their journeys, they had no history to look back on before they went on to revolutionize their respective industries.

Staying The Course In Times Of Turbulence

Factors that can throw a wrench into any company’s long-term vision strategy include economic downturns or a previously unforeseen crisis such as a pandemic. In turbulent times, businesses that will fare better than others to sustain the goals of their long-term vision are those that have soundly invested in core competencies, infrastructure and organizational support.

These factors give companies the stability, resources and skilled teams to be able to respond effectively when unforeseen things happen. Businesses that have, over time, cobbled their growth and geographic expansion together without a strategic approach to core competencies and infrastructure are more susceptible to negative macroeconomic shifts and/or unexpected crises.

Never Fall Back On “How Great We Are”

In his bestselling book Good to Great, author and former Stanford business professor Jim Collins described what it takes for a business to evolve from being a good company to being a great one. The book, which garnered critical acclaim and sold over 4 million copies, details how and why many companies never make the transition to greatness. However, when some of the companies showcased in the book as being great later failed—including Circuit City, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008—Collins published How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In. In this book, Collins chronicled how any business, no matter how successful at its peak, is susceptible to decline—and potentially failure.

In many cases, the companies he profiled failed to have the early detection, the vision to see the decline that was coming their way and take the steps necessary to avoid it. This relates closely to something I’ve seen throughout my career—organizations that are experiencing success need to relentlessly guard against complacency.

Executives in the C-suite—CEOs in particular—have few peers and, in some cases, up to thousands of people looking up to them from subordinate positions. As such, not unexpectedly, company leaders receive abundant affirmation, which may not always be earned. This dynamic, fueled by unequal organizational divisions of power, can cause some leaders to believe their own press and declare, “Look at how great we are.”

Before that happens, it’s critical for leaders to step back and consider the ways that they and their organizations can challenge themselves to continually improve, learn and grow. As a leader and an organization, don’t become resistant to new ideas, strategies or disruptive tactics just because they don’t serve your sense of accomplishment related to what you’ve done in the past.

In short, don’t become a victim of your own success. Because if complacency creeps in, your business has probably already stopped looking to see what lies ahead, but your competition likely has not. If leaders sense that the business is resting on its laurels, refocusing on the long-term vision can sharpen your competitive edge and keep your team hungry, innovative and poised for continued success.

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