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.
