In this article, we want to talk about Strategic Vision, one of the main qualities of leaders and managers of the modern era.
What is the strategic vision?
The strategic vision is the ability to grasp the fundamental elements that influence the context today and in the future, to understand the trends that will have a decisive impact on the markets and on society, and to choose your role or that of your company within this dynamic environment, knowing how to “motivate” your team and your organization in taking on this role.
The strategic vision, also thanks to great entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, has once again assumed a fundamental role in the skill set of a manager who is truly able to represent the future of his team, his company, or his organization. This competence, somewhat overshadowed in the recent past in favor of “execution” is returning to be a fundamental feature of a manager who wants to aspire to important positions. Believing that the strategic vision was antithetical to the ability to execute it was clearly a mistake. A manager capable of vision will be even more complete if among his skills there are also those of doing things and making things done.
Bill Gates’ incredible visions made Microsoft one of the most important global companies in the world. At first “a pc on every desk” and then “a pc in every family” were pure visions in a period when not even dishwashers were widespread. Today these “visions” seem obvious, but 30 years ago no one would have bet on them.
Jobs’ visions let him take a technology without any application – the “touch” – and make it the key factor in making Apple one of the first companies in the world.
When you do not possess a strategic vision, you are destined to fail. Think at Kodak which has given away one of the most important inventions of the last 15 years – digital photography – to competitors.
Strategic vision requires wit, observation skills, listening skills, humility, courage, and leadership. It also requires the ability to invest today to achieve a long-term result, without getting discouraged and maintaining determination even when the results seem a long way off.
A strategic vision is built with an open mind, the desire to learn, the passion for the new, the ability to understand what will emerge over time, and the will to study relentlessly. There is no doubt that to improve its strategic vision, an organization must place it as one of the most critical skills that its managers must possess, and since strategic vision is one of those skills that are learned from an early age, this competence is certainly one of those to be included in programs for the development of young talents.
Today’s example of companies that must focus on strategic vision is represented by large energy and transport companies that must question the paradigms of the past and project a vision of their role that is totally different from the current one if they want to remain protagonists in the next 20 or 30 years or even survive.