Many in the Vistage community are familiar with the story told in Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott, a former Vistage Chair, about 2 people describing a beach ball from opposite sides. One person is adamant that the ball is red, and the other says it is green, or blue or white. It appears to them as a different color because the ball is multicolored. These days, it feels like companies are balancing, or trying to maintain their balance on an uneven surface that keeps changing – tariffs, supply chains, executive orders, disappearing workforce. It is really difficult. One day you are balancing on blue, and the next day it is green. (only picture I could find was all grey).
Balancing on a any ball requires core strength, and focus on the horizon.
Core strength in a business is clarity on your top 3 strategic goals and concentration on specific plans to achieve them. The endless daily distractions are like flies that bite. Swat them away.
Examples of strategic goals may include: expanding a product line or service. Moving into an agency market. Figuring out how to use AI to reduce costs and grow the bottom line. Creating a defendable moat around your business.
If you don’t have strategic goals clearly delineated it may be time to do some strategic planning with your team.
Carefully check out what your competitors are doing. Some early mover advantage you’ve had may be eaten away by their advances. Maybe you see a weakness you can exploit to your advantage. Your vendors and customers can tell you all about it if you ask them.
Survival may be harder with all the uncertainty, but opportunity is greater, too. Build that core strength and stay focused. You may be the only one in your market doing so.
If you don’t think Vistage peer groups get value at every meeting-from the speakers, the conversations and the input from your peers, don’t click here.