I don’t know anyone that starts out their life with a personal vision statement like this one.
My plans are to be mediocre in all that I do. Perhaps my performance in my family, at school or at work will be good (perhaps not). No matter, it is okay if one day someone notices and remembers me.
If we heard someone say such things, we would feel pity for the limited hope that they feel and the small impacts that they aspire to make on those around them. We might suggest that if they started with something different, their life might result in far more significance. They might be inspired to achieve or be more than they are today. For isn’t our future often affected by what we hope to accomplish?
Well, the importance of a vision for a person is also true for competitive intelligence.
Remember where we are in forming a new competitive intelligence function in a business. We started by identifying an unfulfilled need in the organization (“Find the Pain”). Then, we took the initiative to address that need (“Get the Job”). The third step was to hint at the vision for competitive intelligence (“Tease the Vision”) without laying out the complete vision statement. Next, we put in place some fundamentals for the effort (“Frame the Foundation”, “Setting Some Standards”, “Introduce the Brand”). The last installment of the series described the practical step of identifying the needed tools (“Accumulate the Tools”).
Now we are back to the vision for our competitive intelligence function.
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