Manufacturing
Breaking it down
How to translate a long-term vision into short-term goals
By Brooke Bates
Smart Business Akron/Canton | January 2009
Page 1 of 2
Jeff Evans chairman, president and CEO, The Will-Burt Co.
Jeff Evans isn’t easily overwhelmed. The chairman, president and CEO of The Will-Burt Co. has watched his company more than double its 2002
revenue of $26 million in the
past five years, meanwhile
expanding across three languages and four continents. But
for him, growth comes one
small step at a time.
“That’s a lot of additional
complexity that leaders have to
deal with,” Evans says. “And it’s up to me to help people keep
growing so that they’re able to
withstand those challenges.”
He’s avoiding growing pains
at the company — which manufactures telescoping mast systems and components for other
heavy machinery — by breaking down the big picture into
smaller pieces. That way, all
313 employees have a part to
play in the goal-setting process
as Evans keeps each step
aligned with his vision.
Smart Business spoke with
Evans about how to set your
vision and break it down into
achievable goals.
Break your vision down. You have
to first develop the long-range
vision; that has to be set by
the leader: What do we want
this company to look like in
10 years? Then we look at
where are we today. It takes a
good analysis of where you
are today and where you
want to get to.
Although the CEO sets the
vision, it’s up to the whole
management team to develop the plan for how you get
there. What are the steps
that have to happen in the
next 10 years to be where we
want to be?
We establish some long-term goals such as 20 percent sales growth in one of
our markets, big-picture
things. If that’s what you
want to do big picture, what
do we need to do in the next
two to four years to make
that happen? Maybe that is
hire a salesperson in Europe.
So now what do you have to
do to make that happen?
You keep working it around
to where you come up with a
list of defined goals we have
to do this year if we want to
achieve our 10-year goals. By
doing this map, it gets you to
the point where you know
the things you’re doing this
year are linked to your
longer-term goals.
