The Three Key Resources for Enterprise Growth

enterprise (n) 1. An undertaking, especially one of some scope, complication, and risk. 2. Industrious, systematic activity, especially when directed toward profit. (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: 4^th Ed.)

A business is what you do to make money. An enterprise is how you finance, organize, market and operate in order to take care of that business. Enterprise includes all the tangible and intangible resources that help the enterprise exist, grow and flourish. The key question that a company’s leaders should be asking on a regular basis is whether the company’s resources help to strengthen or weaken its ability to compete.

If it chooses to spend the time articulating them, a company will have three key resources at its disposal that will be instrumental to its success: vision, strategy and brand. Chief among a leader’s responsibilities are articulating, championing, connecting and aligning these three resources.

While some leaders do a fair job of articulating and championing these resources independently, most come up short when it comes to connecting and aligning them. As a consequence, few companies come close to achieving the kind of success they are capable of achieving. This failure to connect and align is the result of a variety of shortcomings on the part of leadership, which may include:

• Articulating a vision that is aspirational but (perceived to be) impossible
• Speaking and acting in ways that are in conflict with the stated vision
• Delegating ownership of a single resource or key element to a functional group
• Failure to hold people accountable for following the procedures designed to align the company’s vision, strategy and brand

While spending time developing any one of the resources is beneficial, the greatest value will be found in the intersections of the three resources. Consider the relationships between them:

• Vision is the source of content for what will become the brand
• Vision is the primary source for differentiating elements of a strategy
• Brand is concerned with bridging gaps between the intended meaning of the enterprise (the vision) with what it really means to people
• Strategy is the process of making choices that move the company toward the ideal state of its vision in a manner that builds the intended brand

A startup is typically based on its founder’s “grand idea” or vision for how to do something better, cheaper or that has never been done before. But getting the startup off the ground depends on the leader’s ability to get others on board. If a vision fails to inspire others, it won’t be achieved.

However, it would be a mistake to think of charisma as the key competency required to get that buy-in. Typically, clarity and detail orientation are much more important traits. A vision that does not clearly articulate what’s in it for the people delivering the vision will far short in effective execution. And not paying adequate attention to the details of an intended experience can result in key elements of differentiation being left out of the experience. Thus, branding (clarity) and strategy (detail) are iterative and co-dependent activities.

At every step of growing an enterprise, intentions must be articulated, expressed, communicated and understood by those responsible for making them real.  It starts with an inspiring and achievable vision.  It continues with the countless and never-ending decisions that marginally close the gaps between vision and reality.  Finally, the brand you end up with (e.g., what the people you care most about think about you) is the brand you want them to have of you.  Leading an enterprise through growth is the process of believing what you see in your wildest dreams, and taking the unending steps to move your reality closer to your dream.