EP447 Two Mandatory Visions

Did you know that every company needs two completely different visions? Here, Ken Courtright breaks down the growth vision and margin vision, detailing how even though they are different, they are both equally necessary for your business. There is a caveat though—you, as a leader, can’t have both. Find out more about it in this short yet impactful episode.

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Two Mandatory Visions

This one’s called Two Visions. Did you know that every company needs two completely different visions? One is a growth vision and one is an expense reduction or a much better term, margin division. I have spent 25 years trying to somewhat keep my wife, Kerri, at arm’s length and I found out that my wife has a gift. She has the gift of the vision of margin. Kerri understands even though I had incredible case study evidence when she spent six years in politics and did incredible work in financing, trimming the fat of these larger cities. When it came to me letting Kerri in to over and over express her opinion that we needed to shave expenses in certain areas, I would try to keep her away because I knew if she reduced those expenses, it would reduce labor force. I was using some of that labor force for growth. I was the growth vision, Kerri was the margin vision.

Here’s what I now know and I’m very apologetic to Kerri and she’s heard me apologize over and over for me trying to stifle her gift. Here’s the bottom line. No matter what size, as a matter of fact, the bigger, the more important, every company of all sizes cannot live without a growth vision and a margin vision. Here’s the painful part. You can’t have both. If you’re the leader of your company, you can’t be both growth-minded and margin-minded. You might think you can but reticular activation proves you can’t. Reticular activation says the vehicle you’re in is what you see. Meaning, if you drive a BMW 5 series, you see BMW 5 series all over the place.

If you go back to the previous car you used to have, maybe used to have a Ford Mustang. When you drove that Ford Mustang, when you were in it, you saw them everywhere. You saw them a mile away. When you drove by somebody that had the same car, you probably waved to them. When you had the car before that, maybe you had a Toyota Supra. You saw Toyota Supras everywhere. Here’s the funny thing. If you’re driving a BMW 5 series now, you don’t even notice the Toyota Supras on the road. You’re driving right by him. You don’t see them because you’re not in it. People are either in the mindset of growth or you’re in the mindset of cost reduction. You can’t and never will be both.

First question, what are you? Are you a growth-minded person? Are you an expense reduction minded? You can’t say, “I’m a little of both.” You find out which one you are and you go aggressively find a counterpart. Larger companies, the biggest companies in the world, have expense reduction divisions. Medium-sized companies might hire what’s called a comptroller. They get paid a salary plus a bonus of how much they save year-over-year. My father-in-law was one of those for a university. Every major company has an expense reduction division and a growth in R&D division. They’re not the same. They’re similar. You have R&D of what new areas should we go into. You have overall growth in marketing of the existing product line. You have to have both. This is episode 447, do you have both or are you confused?

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