I am asked a lot about the vision of iFrog and how folks can establish a vision in their companies. The iFrog vision is to become a global marketing technology company that builds proprietary technology in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage for our clients. The key thing about a vision is that it must be something that folks can see clearly both internally and externally.  It needs to make sense and then all of our actions must track toward that stated vision.  In many companies, they get slowed by endless distractions and the scatter shot approach to managing the business.  An important part of leadership is having the courage to say “no” and throughout my career I have seen leaders who hate saying no and instead will pursue projects and priorities even if it drives their companies off course or is at a great detriment to other priorities. 

Once the vision is established, it must be believed in passionately.  At iFrog, our vision is the driving force of everything that we do and has become a huge piece of our DNA.  If the team does not passionately believe in the vision, I would argue you either have the wrong vision or the wrong team.  I am certain we all can recall being in companies where there is a lot of eye rolling whenever the vision was mentioned.   At iFrog, our vision is both believed in and lived by each member of our team. 

It is important that a vision is not only established and believed in by staff, but must also be aggressively pursued in all of the actions of the staff.  Priorities must be aligned with our vision.  The iFrog team works hard to attain a vision that we all believe in, which we as managers routinely see as a passion.  If we have folks working hard toward a stated vision that they do not believe in, it is called stress.

The best run companies use their vision as a sort of compass that ensures folks are on the right path.  A vision can pull the team together working toward a common goal.  That helps all of us make better and consistent decisions because we have a framework in building out the business.  Everyone feels they are making an impact or at least understands the path to an impact if the vision is spelled out and vigorously pursued.

The fact is that human beings rally around a common cause.  Employees like being associated with something larger than themselves.  The question I always ask myself is, how do I help the iFrog staff get to their personal best?  One important thing is to create an environment so that employees come in each day and understand what is expected and what we are trying to accomplish.

The other thing about a vision is that when your company has one, the focus is on something bigger than profits, sales, margins, etc.  Instead, iFrog is obsessed with something much bigger than the competition.  All we think about is how we can improve our “why” each and every day.  

In some ways as CEO, I think my job is easy – set the vision and then ultimately weave that same vision into every aspect of life at iFrog.  At iFrog, we are not trying to be the best marketing technology company this year or even next, but we are thinking about the next 50 years.  We are not reactive to the short term; we embrace the long term.  We are in the infinite game of truly making the industry better for all our clients.

As always, please don’t hesitate to hit me up 24/7 at kt@ifrog.com. 

Be a pirate, have a great day and continue the pursuit of finding your guiding compass!   #ifrogmarketing, #ifrogtechnology, #pirates, #PiratesForChange