Big-vision small enterprise is like master craftsmanship. To create a big-vision enterprise (or foster a big-vision group), there are four key areas that you must be conscious of. Why the emphasis on small enterprises or groups? Because you can apply the four keys more easily and more deeply in a small enterprise, though they can be adapted to some degree by individuals or small groups within larger enterprises.

A summary of the 4 Keys

For anyone interested in created a big-vision small enterprise (or adapt the tenets for other types of big-vision groups), the four keys to success are:

1. There’s more than one way to define growth. The common approach to business is to grow big, and do it as quickly as possible. The focus is on expansion, revenue-generation, employee count and other quantitative indicators. That’s what’s recognized and celebrated by the Fortune 500 and the Inc. 500. The companies don’t have to be sustainable or viable in the long term, and they certainly don’t have to be ethical (as the recent Fortune list showed in including Enron at the #5 spot). Big Vision, Small Business offers the perspective that business growth – and certainly sustainability or longer term viability – is not just about the numbers, about how many offices you have, how many employees, what your quantitative growth percentage was, or how much your revenues are. Growth can be qualitative, a matter of depth rather than breadth. Big-vision small enterprises know it and make the most of qualitative growth edges. They’re proactive about leveraging the strengths identified with small groups, and honing these potential advantages to a master craftsman level.

2. To live large, you have to vision big. When the numbers fail you, when the economy tanks, when you don’t have a profitable year – or when it’s so profitable you feel like you’re riding a runaway train – your big vision is what inspires you to persevere. It’s your guiding light. The lack of guiding vision – and the lack of communication within the organization about that vision – is one of the reasons that so many "new economy" startups experienced record-level employee turnover, and why so many sputtered and failed at the first sign of challenge. The guiding vision or purpose of your enterprise or livelihood is something you feel in your very core is important enough to persevere through the challenging times. It’s what makes it worthwhile, and it’s what helps to distinguish you from the mediocrity of the pack – providing, of course, that you connect vision with action. And that’s what the remaining two keys are about.

3. Right relationship is a big-vision craft. Now we’re talking about a whole different level of master craftsmanship here than is reflected in jargon about "delighting your customers," "retaining human capital" or "winning the war for talent" (ick!). Right relationship stems from wisdom or mastery practices, and becomes a pathway for qualitative growth, competitive distinction, employee morale and customer loyalty. You actively look to make sure that there isn’t a gap between marketing rhetoric and the actual reality in the organization. In setting high standards for right-relationship within the organization, you build on a potential strength of smaller enterprises, improve relationships with key constituencies, and create a sense of greater meaning and development that helps retain and motivate employees.

4. If you want to live from the source, you can’t let the well run dry. Inspiration is fuel; burnout is the depletion of fuel. Countless surveys show that many American employees are dissatisfied with their work, distrustful of organizational rhetoric, and increasingly looking for a greater sense of purposefulness or meaning in their work. They want the time they spend at work to mean something, to contribute something. Surveys also show that meaning is not something that can be bestowed upon you – you have to create it; sustainable motivation comes from within. Big-vision small-enterprise leaders make their business or group a vehicle for personal mastery or spiritual practice, and at the same time rely upon a menu of wisdom and mastery practices to replenish, revitalize and ignite them through flush and tough times alike. Through their leadership, they help their employees connect personal and organizational values, and help people to understand that the way they do their work – as well as the actual work they do – can be done masterfully, and thus with a greater sense of meaning. This is a discipline, it requires solid intention and focus – both from the big-vision leader and from the individual who is a part of the group.

These keys can be pathways for qualitative growth for the enterprise that chooses to remain small in size. The keys are areas where small enterprises can leverage small-group strengths and gain competitive or reputation distinctiveness, while also connecting with the personal value inherent in approaching work this way.

The four keys are discussed at length in the book Big Vision, Small Business by Jamie S. Walters, founder and chief vision & strategy officer at Ivy Sea, Inc., and publisher and editor-in-chief for Ivy Sea Online, recognized by Inc.com, Harvard Business School, CEO Refresher and other business portals as one of the best sites on the internet for entrepreneurs, small-business owners and organizational leaders. The hardcover edition of Big Vision was published in October 2001 by Ivy Sea. The paperback edition will be published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers in Fall 2002. For more info or to order your copy of Big Vision, Small Business, check out the Big Vision page.

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