How does a business vision turn into a reality? How can leaders ensure their companies stay innovative and adaptable in a changing market?
From creating cascading strategies to understanding when to pivot, the successful implementation of your vision demands both careful planning and flexibility. Michael Hyatt’s approach breaks down this complex process into manageable steps while preparing leaders for inevitable market changes.
Keep reading for Michael Hyatt’s advice on how to execute your vision from his book The Vision Driven Leader.
Execute Your Vision
Once you’ve crafted your vision and convinced your organization to invest in it, the next step is to develop a strategy to execute it. Hyatt provides details on how to execute your vision effectively.
You can use a cascading strategic plan to ensure you’re making regular progress toward achieving your vision. Hyatt recommends defining your strategy at different intervals to track this progress. He breaks down the process of setting this strategy.
Start with the high-level, long-term vision that you want to achieve. Then, define goals for incrementally smaller time frames: seven to 10 annual goals, two to three of which become quarterly goals, followed by three weekly goals based on your quarterly progress, and then three daily tasks that get you closer to the weekly goals.
If you don’t follow this trail all the way down, with everything connecting back to the vision, you can become distracted by the day-to-day business operations. Keeping the lights on is important but doesn’t help you reach your goals. Hyatt explains that you have to push past it to keep making progress. If you do follow the trail all the way down, though, you’ll not only work steadily toward your goals, but you’ll also be continually, concretely showing your employees how important your vision is, reinforcing its clarity.
| How a Cascading Strategy Aligns Goals Hyatt’s strategy of using a cascading goal list plays off several important theories. The concept of proximal goal-setting, in which you break larger goals into smaller, achievable steps, underpins Hyatt’s cascading approach. This principle suggests that achieving small goals builds confidence and motivation for tackling larger ones, explaining why Hyatt advises building goals that feed into each other at each level. Furthermore, the implementation intentions theory, proposed by Peter Gollwitzer, suggests that planning when, where, and how to act increases the likelihood that you’ll achieve your goals because it prompts you to associate specific cues with the behaviors that will bring you toward your goals. This aligns with Hyatt’s detailed breakdown of tasks at various time intervals—the intervals act as cues for certain actions. |
Be Ready to Pivot
Even after you’ve crafted your vision, convinced others to invest in it, and begun implementing it, you must be ready to pivot in response to changes. Hyatt explains that, normally, all companies follow a similar progression of phases:
- The growth phase, when the company is young, still finding its footing in the market, and experiencing rapid growth. This phase is usually marked by a high level of innovation.
- The steady-state phase, when the company has secured its place in the market and is at the height of its profitability and success. This phase is usually marked by a decrease in innovation and increase in comfort (which can turn into a lack of progress).
- The decline phase, when the company is losing profits and is either at risk of closing or is actually doing so. This phase is marked by new, innovative companies taking over the industry and making the declining ones obsolete.
Hyatt says you don’t have to resign yourself to following this pattern. Leaders can save their companies from decline by pivoting (what Hyatt refers to as a “zag”). Pivoting involves recognizing that their current vision isn’t driving the company to greatness—and either adjusting it or creating a new vision entirely.
Any company can do this at any point, regardless of their phase.
Responding to Change in the Growth Phase
Typically, leaders of companies in the growth phase pivot after realizing their business plans aren’t working in practice. They have to redirect their energy according to the market data they’ve gathered, usually by developing a new business plan or by narrowing it so the company’s resources aren’t spread thin over many projects.
For example, a company may enter the market planning to produce school and work supplies, including computers, tablets, grading software, pencils, and paper. Their vision is to become a leader in the supplies market. After some initial market research, however, they discover that their broad business plan can’t compete with existing companies. Instead, they narrow down their plan to focus exclusively on grading software, where the vision of becoming a leading supplier is achievable.
| Ways to Pivot During the Growth Phase In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries expands on how a company can pivot during their growth phase. While his focus is on start-ups, his advice can be applied to vision pivoting as well. Specifically, he outlines three ways that a company can pivot in this phase: • Pivoting to focus more closely on one specific need your company is meeting for your customers. • Pivoting to a different business model, such as targeting businesses instead of customers. • Pivoting the way you’re pursuing your vision by adopting a new technology that’s cheaper or performs better. These principles can help companies in the growth phase better navigate market uncertainties, make data-driven decisions, and increase their chances of long-term success. |
Responding to Change in the Steady-State and Decline Phases
Leaders of companies in the steady-state and decline phases typically need to rediscover their innovative energy. Instead of being content with their current success, they need to look to the future and seek new opportunities to change the market. For companies that have already shut down, this may look like the leader picking one aspect of the company that did work well and building a new company based on that aspect.
For example, a leader of a social media company may notice that competitors are overtaking their market share and that their business plan is no longer sustainable. Rather than give up, they could introduce a new feature to their website that focuses more on multimedia and allows users to engage with content creators in a brand new way.
(Shortform note: Hyatt’s advice that companies in the steady-state and decline phases should rediscover their innovative energy reflects the concept of “corporate entrepreneurship.” This principle emphasizes the need for established companies to foster innovation and entrepreneurial thinking within their existing structures. To do so, seek out innovative and proactive employees, treat failures as learning opportunities, and provide clear incentives for innovation. This will not only help your company respond to change in the later phases, but can also make your business more profitable and resilient.)
| The Sigmoid Curve and Creative Destruction Hyatt’s explanation of company progression through growth, steady-state, and decline phases closely aligns with the concept of the “S-curve,” or sigmoid curve. This mathematical model is widely used in business theory to illustrate the lifecycle of products, companies, and industries. The S-curve visually represents the pattern Hyatt describes: initial slow growth followed by rapid acceleration (growth phase), then a leveling off (steady-state phase), and finally a decline. This model is particularly useful for understanding why companies need to be ready to pivot, as Hyatt suggests. The S-curve concept emphasizes that all businesses eventually reach a point of diminishing returns on their current strategy, necessitating innovation or transformation to initiate a new growth curve. |
