Need for a Vision

In the legal set up, the owners of rights and contracting parties quite often do not exhibit a wide vision of their products and services. This results in them making deals which manifest that lack of vision and they forget to ask for rights, that could in the long run be very valuable if not in the immediate future. Hence, the need for vision.

In today’s computer age, today’s version of a product can quickly become the next media superstar a la Facebook. The people who own the rights to today’s version or are dealing for it position themselves very favourably to tap the new found niche if they also own the rights to later versions of the product. Now this product can be a book, a website, an album, software or the like. Anyone who owns the rights will be able to make money off of it.

The lack of vision typically comes out of not understanding the nature of the rights of the party involved. Copyright rights which attend to the original creation enable the rights holder to exploit the product and make money of it in related and ancillary areas. The rights to these can be withheld or licensed out to others in exchange for a share in any future revenue they gain off of it.

A lack of vision usually rationalized as a lack of monetary input leads to the expenditure of capital in order to reap instant gratification or short term results to recover all costs. For example, book publishers spend thousands on cover design but refrain from doling out a few hundreds for drafting a contract to give the publisher sole rights for the cover art. This sends the thousands spend on cover design down a proverbial drain.

In today’s economy, opportunities to convert assets from one area to another are plenty and people who do not recognize such an opportunity to put themselves in line to lose potential thousands or even millions.

The major conclusion to be drawn from the above is that any company which has a sound vision for itself positions itself better to implement ideas and transform their business operations to cater to the ever changing, growing needs of the market.

When a company lacks vision, it is forced to employ a reactive policy. This results in the company taking a few initiatives at the start and following this they are in no position to implement what they want to as they are forced to react constantly to external and internal stimuli, thereby stunting growth. The stimuli could be trends like increasing costs or a new product by the competition. These sorts of companies have a largely internal focus and have their eye on costs and business process modification or redesign. Externally they exhibit the characteristics of a follower and rarely ever do you see them in the role of a trend setter.

When a company employs an active policy they deliberately influence their environment. This can only happen when it has a vision for the future. These companies have their own vision for any future developments. They prefer to hold the reigns and set trends.

A developmental vision of their business operations and its use is the key in this matter. When a company focuses on identifying the ideal configuration of its resources with respect to its business operations, the company with an active policy will find itself in the enviable position of power. From this position, it can bridge the gap between collaborative and conventional systems. Clear business goals simplify the choices to be made to take the company forward. This also gives the company time to gradually implement the processes and go through the adequate learning curve in order to avoid pit falls. Therefore the company will be ahead of competition in the sense that it can potentially be the frontrunner in the introduction of new products and services.

All companies have to overcome several challenges including changes in its niche and social changes; these undoubtedly frustrate the developmental vision of a company as they throw it off the established track. Constant turbulence in the industry force companies into making transformations and making working changes on the go and this makes it very hard to meet targets and implement a long-term policy. It’s the same as building an airplane while it’s in the air! The comforting thing to note is that all your competitors are going through the exact same thing.

So what’s the solution? A new widely supported plan which can pinpoint the direction in which a society will grow economically and culturally. This kind of a developmental plan forms the foundation of a company’s vision and all future growth.