Risk & Business Magazine CEO/CFO Business Today Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 23

BUILDING A GREAT BUSINESS
I
most definitely could not have listed
all 12 of these tips anywhere near
as clearly back when we opened in
’82 as I did when I wrote this piece
25 years later. But the truth is that
these “natural laws” really are all things
that we did to get going back in the early
’80s. I think they’re as true now as they
were then and will still be true 20, or 220,
years hence. They are very much the same
sort of behind-the-scenes attitudes and
approaches that have guided us over the
years. And, although I haven’t run any other
businesses, I’m pretty confident that every
successful organization would likely have
followed many of these same approaches.
Each organization will, of course, have its
own applications, but the laws themselves
will, naturally, remain the same. I hope
they help you as much as they have us.
1. AN INSPIRING, STRATEGICALLY
SOUND VISION LEADS THE WAY 
TO
GREATNESS (ESPECIALLY IF YOU WRITE
IT DOWN!)
What’s a vision? As we define it here, it’s
a picture of what success looks like at a
particular point in the future. If you’re
starting a business, I’d suggest that you
pick