What happens when you don't have a vision : Michael Bay and the Transformers debacle
I wrote this blog a fair while ago - and never published . The timing just didn't seem right.
Transformers : The Last Knight is terrible.
There I said it. As a die-hard fan (since childhood) the movie was painful to watch, excruciating to dissect afterwards, and in a last cathartic attempt to get some value out of the dollars spent on a 3D IMAX ticket ... I am throwing down some thoughts and lessons for business owners and entrepreneurs.
I've written a full review which I may never publish, it is so vicious and unrelenting in it's criticism. Yes, that's how much, I , a lifelong fan of the franchise disliked this movie.
The Main Bullet points are this :
- The editing is shockingly bad
- The story-line is disjointed, lacking a single coherent narrative
- The script is so bad, I'd be tempted to say they filmed on Improv Night right after legalising good ole M-J
- The "Strong Women" ( a la We're so Over the sexist 90's ) are ham-fisted and clumsy.
- The only female 'baddie' is a sexy-as Great Deceiver. Very telling boys, very telling.
The real question is what this has to do with business owners ?
The business of running a business
The latest transformers is a chilling, and blunt example of what happens when there is no vision at the top ( i.e. from the founders) .
We have a couple of possible scenarios
- Michael Bay and the Producers had different visions for this movie
- Michael Bay and the Producers had a vision but didn't communicate it properly
- Michael Bay didn't have a vision for this movie
In the context of this movie, The Vision would a single compelling story-line.
Whichever of the above are true doesn't really matter much - because the outcome is the same. A big messy movie, with gaping plot holes, terrible editing, horrendously disjointed scenes that don't propel any kind of coherent narrative.
In the world of business - you pretty much have the same deal to get around. Your vision is your internal narrative, from which springs the narrative that feeds and informs your pitch, your marketing, your business stories (you always have multiple stories, especially in sales) - and - the language and tone of your communications, in real human terms, with your clients.
You need to know it. You need to own it. You need to live it. You need to breathe it.
You also need to coherently, succinctly, repeatedly, and with a great amount of grace and sincerity - communicate that single vision and story to your team members, your clients, your partners, your vendors, and anyone else that comes into your sphere of business.
Yes - you can run a business without giving this vision stuff much thought.
Yes, you can make widgets and sell them cheaply, and cut costs and get operational efficiencies --
You can never, however, achieve the dizzying heights of Facebook, Amazon, Google etc without having, communicating, and inhabiting your vision. Your vision should infest and inhabit every single aspect of your business operations.
So how do you go about this whole process of infesting your business operations with your vision?
2 things really, and they sound so simple. But don't be fooled, they are as difficult to do as they are easy to write.
First up - you need to Be the vision.
This is not the same as telling it. It's not instructing staff on what to parrot back to clients when they ask about service. It's not sticking up signs around the the office saying "Our vision and mission .... ". Although that last one is pretty helpful as an affirmation and lends itself to beautiful social media fodder.
You also cannot hire a consultant to define the vision for you. You can hire a consultant to help you identify it, but they can't do it for you. It's also why your vision absolutely cannot be "Make Money". If your internal narrative is all about money. Well, we know what the world thinks of those types of people.
Making money is a given. Working towards profitability is a given. Unless you're a charity, in which case making money is a necessity, to sustain the ongoing ability to Do Good.
Every other business needs to make money in order to continue existing. There is nothing unique in that.
You are the vision of your company; in every word you speak, and every piece of work that leaves your hands. If that is consistent then it will infect and spread through every single bit your business. You can tell people WHY you do things, but if you show them with your actions that it is true; that is so much more powerful and credible.
The second thing is you need to write down HOW you want things done.
In corporate speak - you need to have processes and procedures.
Sounds like an onerous task. Well, it can be if you do it the corporate way. It doesn't have to be.
Once you have settled on a process for something, then write down 3-5 steps of WHAT to do. No more than 5, no less than 3. If you need more steps, it's either too complicated, or more likely, you're jamming in more than one process into a single document.
Take each WHAT step and expand out sub-points of "how to do this step". Include things like how you want clients to feel, and the tone of voice to use in communications. If you want people to do things the way you would, you need to give them an instruction manual. Otherwise they will do it the best way that they see how, and that may not match the vision of your company.
So there it is.
Be the vision of your company, and show the world your "Why", by your everyday actions. And make sure that vision is trickling down every single damn day so that you are not the next Transformers disaster.
