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Focus on your vision to turn the dream into reality

Focus on your vision to turn the dream into reality

Scotland On Sunday
Published Date: 14 December 2008

IT'S THAT Eureka moment: having a cracking moneymaking idea. There's nothing like it. Well, almost nothing, but that's not business-related and therefore not suitable for a reputable column such as this.

Reputable? Who am I kidding? Let me explain. What I really mean is that, for an entrepreneur, having a great idea is second only to sex: the initial buzz of excitement, the thrill of the chase (that would be securing funding, for those who haven't done the entrepreneur thing before), the adrenaline rush (putting the business together and watching it grow), the climax of the idea coming to fruition (no explanation required).
The passion of an entrepreneur with an idea is phenomenal. Bottle that feeling and you could make a fortune.

In the absence of such a stellar elixir, vision is what you need. Just look at Edinburgh publisher Jamie Byng. When Barack Obama made his presidential acceptance speech last month, Byng must have been more excited than most. Setting aside any political thoughts or allegiances he may or may not have, the Canongate boss was anticipating a business climax that began several years ago when he had a vision.

Byng bought the UK and Commonwealth rights to Obama's two books – Dreams From My Father and The Audacity Of Hope – early in 2007 when the now President-elect was only an outsider fighting for the top job in world politics. He saw potential in Obama's writing rather than in his political aspirations, and that vision was soundly rewarded. Combined sales had reached 300,000 before Obama and running mate Joe Biden secured their place in the White House. Now combined sales of the two have reached one million, and Byng also has rights to Obama's third book, published last Thursday.

So what has Byng got? And how can the rest of us get some? The secret of idea creation and vision has, for aeons, been hushed up and wrapped in mystery. In fact there's nothing magical about having a good idea or a vision, other than the feeling of course. Anyone can have one.

If you query Google with "What is a visionary?" the first definition that pops up explains a visionary as a person given to fanciful speculations and enthusiasms with little regard for what is actually possible. We can all do that, clearly. Governments govern on that very basis.

Query "visionary business leaders" and you get a better idea: Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs. Microsoft, Dell and Apple are without doubt vision-built multi-billion-dollar corporates, boasting phenomenal growth year on year. They all started the same way as our own businesses did: the founders had a great wee idea. The difference is that those founders could see beyond what was actually possible, and they had big visions for the future.

Inventors, creators, designers and entrepreneurs must have 20-20 vision. Without it they will never create revolutionary, life-changing products. Nor will they ever make any money. But the trick is to consider vision in the context of your own organisation.

To put it simply, size does matter. The key is to apply vision relative to your business, whether it's two or 200-strong. Microsoft, Apple et al all began small, with a germ of a good idea.

I know we're not all Bransons or Berners-Lees with the ability to invent and create groundbreaking products, but don't let that put you off. It's not necessarily all about being the first, coming up with the breakthrough or invention; the theory of relativity, the invention of penicillin, the worldwide web, Google or Facebook. Sometimes it's enough just to have a clear vision about your own ability to develop and improve an existing product or service.

We all know the story of entrepreneur and multi-millionaire Gio Benedetti, who made his first fortune in dry cleaning (the story of the dirty glove dropped in the car park at the Linwood car plant and the bolshie young Italian entrepreneur who spotted his first opportunity in a muddy puddle is legendary). Nobody could say that Benedetti isn't visionary. But he doesn't waste time and effort thinking up his own ideas. He doesn't focus on new technology, hi-technology or nano technology. Oh no. His vision is to better other people's inventions. He spots a product or service that he believes could be improved and then does it. First-aid kits and food wrap dispensers are his best-known "improventions".

Which takes me back to where I started. Business owners are all visionary, whether they are the innovators behind a massive multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, or the brains behind a small million-pound manufacturing or service business.

If you simply peer behind the smoke and mirrors, you'll appreciate that you don't need to invent the light bulb (apart from the fact that Edison beat you to it), you just need to be able to visualise the enormous potential in your own organisation, to envisage the difference you could make to your own product or service, to the growth potential of your own business, to the number of people you employ, to your ability to make a difference and to ultimately change the world, or at least your own little part of it.