We’ve launched Gestalt Business Solutions to support owners and their teams as they build best-in-class businesses, because being best-in-class is good business strategy and smart, long-term-planning strategy. Gestalt focuses on strategic planning, fractional Integration and execution, value creation, and transitions/transactions while My CFO continues to focus on fractional CFO and Finance and Accounting Advisory services and transaction support. Together, through My CFO and Gestalt, we work to support you in efforts to identify, protect, and maximize the value of your business. In completing the Business Value Assessment and understanding how key areas of the business impact the multiple and value of the business you’ve identified what you have in your business. Does it align with what you need want and need both personally and from your business?
As an owner, you are in a unique place. You feel like few, if any, people in your organization understand the interconnectedness between you and your business. Its personal. We understand that to really experience success your financial, business, and personal (what’s important) needs should be balanced. We start the conversations around the personal and financial as part of the work on your business, and we have the network of professionals to support you further as needed. If you don’t already have them in your network, we recommend starting with a strong wealth or financial planner and an estate attorney. The counsel they provide
In many business books, thought leaders consistently start with vision as a key, foundational component to building a great organization: Vision. Vision humanizes your business, rallies your team, and sets the foundation for the future. In BE 2.0 and Beyond Entrepreneurship, Jim Collins outlines four benefits for having a clear vision. In his words:
1. Vision forms the basis of extraordinary human effort.
2. Vision provides a context for strategic and tactical decisions.
3. Shared vision creates cohesion, teamwork, and community.
4. Vision lays the groundwork for the company to evolve past dependence on a few key individuals.
It will be difficult to lead your team to being a best-in-class business without a vision of who you are and where you are going. We view vision as a few components. These are defining characteristics linking you to your business. Different authors and systems define the components of a vison with some variation. From our standpoint vision combines three components:
1. Core Values
2. Purpose (the overlap of passion/why, what you can be the best in the world at, and what drives your economic engine)
3. Positioning Strategy (Target customer, customer experience, and competencies)
Ideally, Vision should be steadfast. While it may evolve over time, from day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year it should be consistent, predictable, and foundational. It is who you are. Like a lighthouse for your team, it cuts through the fog and noise as a consistent guide.
Clear roles and responsibilities, and functional accountability are important from an organizational perspective. It is important to be organized across all the functions, but this starts at the top. In their book Rocket Fuel Gino Wickman and Mark Winters breakdown the Visionary/Integrator dynamic, writing, “There are two distinct types of leaders in all small businesses: the Visionary and the Integrator. One sees the future and the other makes it happen.” From the back of the book, “Visionaries have ground-breaking ideas. Integrators make those ideas a reality. This explosive combination is the key to getting everything you want out of or your business.” This whiteboard video from EOS is a great, quick explanation of the concept.
The entrepreneur who tries to be both the Visionary and Integrator is rarely effective at both and it is felt throughout the organization as the organization bounces from one initiative to the next, before the previous idea as fully implemented. As explained in Rocket Fuel, many entrepreneur-owners fit the Visionary mold and are suited to focus on what’s next, company culture, creative problem solving, and big relationships. Visionary leaders need a compliment to focus their energy and execute ideas, the Integrator. The Integrator comes alongside the Visionary to support the execution of the business – and free the Visionary up to be themselves and focus on the things that create the most value in the business. When paired affectively, “There’s no denying that there is a real chemistry when it’s right. Just like Rocket Fuel, there’s a chemical mixture that happens – and the result is a powerful expansion of force.”
From here, the exhausted leader becomes energized. You can leverage a clear vision and leadership as a foundation to launch the business forward. If you are an owner, exhausted from juggling more than you can handle, let’s talk. This concept is most important to your day-to-day business and personal wellness. Having clear Visionary and Integrator roles can contribute to a bottom-line impact and the factors outside of sales and profit that drive sustainable, strategic value in your business. This makes it good strategy and key to being a best-in-class business.