3 Pillars of a Legacy Business

You know this better than anyone, building a successful craft business is not easy. It is capital intensive, there are a myriad of operational components, competition is strong... the list goes on. Suffice it to say, most people who start a craft winery did not do so simply to flip it (selling in three years to the highest bidder)—but rather to build something they are proud of and that will last far beyond their years—a legacy business. 

If this is you, read on because there are three business pillars required to build a legacy business: story, people, and process. The sooner you build these pillars into your organization the sooner you will see success.

Story

Both Unifying and Dividing

Story is somewhat of a buzzword these days, but just because it’s popular doesn't mean it isn’t important. Your story provides a unifying direction for the organization and makes it easier to hold employees accountable, while at the same time allowing them, and customers for that matter, to choose whether or not they want to join with you. Without a strong story, you will find yourself trying to be all things to all people which will inevitably dilute your brand and your influence. 

There are three critical elements to address in your story: vision, mission, and values. In its simplest form your vision is who you want to be as an organization; your mission is what you want to do; and your values are the guideposts within which everything happens. 

When you publicly articulate and live out your story it gives potential employees, partners, customers, and everyone else an opportunity to determine if they want to align with you. If your story resonates you will gain promoters. If it does not resonate, you will avoid detractors. Both are wins for the organization. Therefore, it’s important to have an authentic and specific story that articulates the why of your organization. If you merely go through the motions it will be generic and you end up with passive adopters who have no long-term loyalty. 

People

Regenerative vs. Extractive

When I say people are a pillar most business leaders immediately think of their employees. After all, having the right employees is key to being successful. But I want to push that boundary and ask you to think more holistically about which people are key to your success. Think of all the people connected to your organization: your customers, your partners, your shareholders, your community, future generations, dare I even add your competitors! When you take time to consider all the people your organization touches it should awaken a sense of responsibility and make you consider your effect on them now and in the future.

There is some amazing work being done by people like Carol Sanford, Tre Cates, and others that are pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a business. They are highlighting the responsibility to take a regenerative versus the traditional extractive approach and create a business that can create more than it takes. Let’s look at this in regard to your employees. 

The traditional view of employees is that a business pays a wage to gain access to as much value as possible until the employee is no longer wanted (or until the employee has burnt out and is no longer effective) and the business moves on to the next employee. A regenerative approach recognizes that employees are not meant to be strip-mined but rather invested in and nurtured to become better people, not merely more productive employees. A regenerative business invests in people to make sure they leave better than when they joined, rather than depleted and scarred.

When a business operates through a regenerative lens, people notice and join them. Employees, customers, communities... they all join in. They not only contribute to the success of the business, but they create new and even greater value outside of the business in their individual spheres of influence. Many businesses are not concerned with matters that do not directly impact them. However, a regenerative business is, and because of this holistic view they inevitably become a legacy business.

Process

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

The final pillar is often the hardest one for many businesses and what ends up holding them back the most. To be clear, when I say “process” is a pillar, I am referring to the business management process rather than the departmental operational process. Most businesses figure out their operational processes quickly or they go out of business. But it is amazing how long some businesses flail around without any higher-level business management process.

It is the process by which the company as a whole moves forward. It involves intentional reflection and planning, consistent dialogue, and authentic accountability. This process is often neglected in small businesses run by a visionary. A visionary can generally see the destination, but managing the journey may not be their greatest strength. Every visionary needs a story-aligned operator.

There are two essential parts of a successful business management process; a planning rhythm and an accountability rhythm. 

Your planning rhythm involves an annual, quarterly and weekly rhythm. The annual rhythm involves creating a document that outlines your story as well as your one-year operational plan which includes your goals and the strategies to reach them. I am a huge proponent of making this document a single page so that it is easily utilized by the whole organization. There are many formats to choose from, I really like the one provided by EOS. It is simple in form and easy to implement, but choose whatever works best for you. 

The quarterly planning rhythm is important to establish next. It is usually a full-day meeting where your strategic team identifies the most important objectives for the upcoming quarter, making sure the objectives are in line with your one-year plan. 

The weekly accountability rhythm is a set of meetings that support and bring to life the aforementioned one-page business plan. Each week department leaders meet to review metrics, surface issues, and problem solve as a team. Without the weekly meeting, you miss out on the doing part of all of the planning. If you meet weekly to reflect on your goals and remove obstacles, the work actually gets done! Incorporating these rhythms into your operations will not only provide visibility into your organization’s health, but it will also provide voice and buy-in from the team. Again, EOS has a simple weekly format that VineSpring continues to have great success with.

There is much more to unpack with each one of these pillars but understanding their importance as a foundation is critical to building a legacy business, one that creates value far beyond its founders. I encourage you and your organization to begin seeing your business through a different lens and recognizing that building a legacy business is not only an interesting concept, it is a responsibility. A responsibility to your employees, your customers, your community, and beyond.