Big Picture Thinking

You have held numerous roles at VSP. You got your start in the sales department, then you became the chief marketing officer later on, and now you have risen to become the first female president of VSP Vision Care. I would imagine that you’ve progressed, one of the reasons is because you’re great at thinking about the big picture. So, what would you say is the most important element of strategic thinking?

A few different things come to mind. The first one is to figure out what really is critical. And that goes back to even thinking about innovation and what is essential to focus on from a business standpoint. And I like to think of it as doing less and obsessing, that you have to be clear on what’s most essential from a strategy standpoint. Otherwise, you are going to spread everything so thin, you’re not going to make an impact.
Second, would be integrated thinking – that strategy really needs to be the combination of your competitive strategy, your business or financial strategy, your operational strategy, your people strategy. And all of that has to be aligned with your why or your purpose. So, it’s not one thing that lives over here. I think that integrated thinking and holistic thinking is critical to strategy development and strategy execution.
Also, I have found that the most effective strategies are executed by leaders and team members who enjoy the journey as much as the destination, that you cannot just in your strategy be trying to get to the end and only be thinking about that. You have to also enjoy the journey and make certain that you’re continuing to pivot and make adjustments on the way to that dot you have out there.
And that’s actually where I see the most creativity and resourcefulness and resilience in my team, is that journey to get to the destination we have out there in our strategy. And the destination always moves a bit, right? It’s not a straight line. And I think the team members who enjoy that journey and enjoy success as a team, achieve more together overall.