Yes, the key points to your success are vision, mission, and goals- as long as you implement. Too many people nowadays expect that thinking will make it so. Unfortunately, there’s a fair amount of work required to make our dreams a reality. And, it’s not just following a plan- we need to insure that our plans are still valid and reflect the world as it is- not how we wish it would be. Maybe this is a good time to remind you that a business plan need not be a 200 page document with graphs, tables, and appendices. Don’t confuse your planning with these formal documents one sees for enterprises hoping to get venture or government funding. Your document has to be clear in its goals and its definition of your environment (customers/clients, competition, and your company- the 3 C’s). If we have been lucky (and, occasionally, prescient) to have our plan scenarios be totally in concert with reality- then, we are golden. But, that rarely occurs. With our weekly dashboard meetings (monitoring four key areas, with “traffic signal” measurements- on target, not on target, and 
warning- green/red/yellow), we can determine if and where we need to change our efforts and plans to insure our (continued) success. At a minimum, your plan must contain the following:
Continue reading How will I know when I get there?
But, not all companies (or governments or non-profits, to be sure) understand this. One of my first employments involved a “discussion” of the assignment of patents to my employer. I refused to agree to provide a blanket patent assignment to the company. The CEO felt I was being unreasonable. When I asked him how many products (patents) he expected from his good technologists, his reply was 1 to 2 every few years. (Trust me, that number was probably higher than his expectation, but I did not argue with the number.) My position was if I were to develop one new product a year- that should be the company’s. But, any developments beyond that should involve special compensation to me. And, the company would get to choose which one it wanted each year. He eventually agreed (only after there were multiple products in the pipeline and no patent assignation on file from me)- and we parted company soon, thereafter.
