What’s the difference between Business Vision, Strategy and Tactics?

Grant Leboff: In the book you talk about Vision, Strategy and Tactics. Can you detail the differences for people of what those are?

Guy Rigby: OK. Vision is where you want to get to. So you might want to change the world in some respect. So that’s your big vision, that’s what you’re actually aiming to do.

Guy Rigby: The Strategy is the sort of broad picture of how you’re going to get there, the big picture things around; how are you going to get there? Which audiences are you going to try and get at? Which territories are you going to go for? What products might you be selling or what services would you be delivering? And Tactics is actually like the business plan. The day to day stuff that gets you from A to B to C, in a very logical way.

Grant Leboff: And how important for you is the vision? Because I often meet entrepreneurs who are very good at what they do and they’ve left a particular business to, kind of, do it for themselves and, therefore, sometimes the visions not there. They kind of, know what they want to do and who they want to deliver it for. How important for you in a business being successful is that vision?

Guy Rigby: I think the really successful businesses have very visionary leaders, because I think they’re very passionate. I think they’re following their dreams, at the end of the day. So I think it’s an enormously important facet of the business. If you haven’t got a vision, you can kind of be in drift mode, and you can think; well this isn’t really working so I’ll pivot and do something else. So for me, vision – having that end goal of where you want to be and what you want to change is really really important.

Grant Leboff: And in some ways that’s what differentiates a business as well, isn’t it? When they’ve got a very clear place that they want to get to. Even though they might be doing similar products or services to others. Do you find that that’s key in defining themselves?

Guy Rigby: I think if you’ve got a visionary leader, you have a different type of business, because actually they’re pursuing their dream and it might be the same to someone else’s dream. I mean you can’t always be completely unique, but at the end of the day, they have a real passion and belief in it. That’s what they’re striving for. That’s why people will follow them in terms of their staff and employees, because they actually believe in their leader’s vision.

Grant Leboff: And how important you think it is in attracting the customers as well, for a business to have to have a vision?

Guy Rigby: Hugely important, again – because a visionary leader like Richard Branson – he’s a very popular guy. People admire him from afar. So when he’s involved in something, I think wow! this must be really interesting and we like what he does, we like the way he likes to disrupt big businesses or whatever it may be. And they follow him, so I think it’s really, really, helpful.

Grant Leboff: And if someone’s wants to start a business, they know what they want to do. They know what they’re good at and they don’t, perhaps, have the big vision at the moment, do you have any ideas or tips… have you seen in the past how businesses, perhaps, get to a vision when they don’t start [with one]…. because you talk about visionary leaders who often start businesses with the vision, but what about those businesses that, perhaps, don’t have one. Is there a way to getting one?

Guy Rigby: I think there are quite a lot of, what I call me too, type businesses. Where the idea is not new but actually people realise they can do it better, and they do love it still, obviously. So often, you’ll find that entrepreneurs. either start very early in life, like at school or probably, a bit later when they made a bit of money and got a bit of money in the bank. And if they’ve had that experience… a bit later, then that can give them a big advantage. They can see how their previous employers didn’t do it very well, and they can say; well I can do this far, far better, so I’m going to go off and I’ve got my own vision as to how I’m going to do this better. It doesn’t matter really what it is, as long as they can be passionate about it. If they can’t be passionate about it I don’t think they have a real opportunity.

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