This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 23, 2019 - December 29, 2019

Exemplary leaders, be they founders of companies or the premiers of nations, have visions for the entities they lead. They have the personal belief, conviction and confidence in their abilities to make extraordinary things happen. Often, it starts with their vision that has the potency to invent the future and leave a legacy that imprints their names as the creators of the vision, but also one that gives long-lasting benefits.

With the vision comes the challenge of the process of realising it. Grand visions do not become reality through the lone actions of the founder, leader or originator of a new concept, product or service. The leader must have the ability to ignite a fire and inspire everyone on his or her team to work towards achieving the vision. More than that, the leader must make the team believe in the vision and what it stands for, and be purpose-driven and fully engaged to make it work.

Talking about a vision, I am reminded of Vision 2020 — the landmark concept that has been discussed by Malaysians since its inception 28 years ago. Vision 2020 is the brainchild of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, introduced in 1991 during his first premiership. Everyone — from heads of government departments and corporate CEOs to the man in the street talked about Vision 2020, and many were consumed with the idea of Malaysia becoming a developed nation. Vision 2020 became the basis for a united nation, driving the people with a sense of a shared destiny.

Now that 2020 is a mere days away, it is time to not only take stock of the past years but also to set our sights towards the future.

We know that we have not achieved Vision 2020. Targets and expectations have not been met and we all must live with the results now.

Did the country have the exemplary teams needed to see Vision 2020 through? Despite changes in prime minister and, eventually, a change in government, was everyone really committed to make the concept work? Did all of us really believe that it would work?

Often we find that only the founders or leaders are clear about their own visions and the steps that must be taken to fulfil the agenda. In some cases, we do come across hired professionals who can deliver more successfully than the founders could. But this is more the exception than the rule. One thing is for certain though, the founders who set the targets to achieve cannot leave things to chance. They must see things through and not merely delegate to hired hands. It must be a concerted vision that is executed together. Visions and targets must be discussed and jointly agreed to with the professionals.

I believe, if we want to create great concepts, products or services, we must surround ourselves with great people who have great talent. The first step is to build an “award-winning” team who can not only perform exceptionally well, they can also inspire everyone to do better. Only then will we have outstanding results. Anything less than a great team will produce mediocrity.

How does one motivate a team to do great things? If we have a satisfied employee, we can only achieve 70% productivity. If we want to improve on this, we must engage more with the employee. Create a sense of belonging and ownership of what he or she is doing. Provide training and an environment to develop experience and this engaged employee will give double the productivity than that of a merely satisfied employee. It does not stop there. We can triple the productivity level of a satisfied employee when we engage employees who are purpose-led. Make them understand, believe, share in and be inspired by the purpose and vision of the organisation. Such employees do not merely perform a task or work to get a salary, they are inspired by its purpose and how they can collectively contribute and are accountable to achieve it.

Take a sports team, for example. FC Barcelona is regarded by many as being one of the greatest football clubs in the world. They are at the top of the game because the whole team — from the players and the coaches to the water boys — understand what FC Barcelona stands for. The team represents the aspirations of the whole city. They are serious about winning and their tactics for success are as clinical as a top surgeon at work. People can see the purpose they have set for the entire team in their eyes. You can even feel this passion resonating among all Catalans, the people of Barcelona.

If we translate this into a company or the Cabinet of a country, where everybody is purpose-led and in sync in all efforts to achieve set targets, we will have the topmost productive team. But first, the leader must be crystal clear himself on his vision. There must be clarity of purpose, which then cascades to the entire team.

Allow me to mention the shared vision of my company, Sedania. Our purpose is to help improve lives. Innovation and technology are a means to achieve that purpose. I want to leave, upon my passing, products and services that can survive me and benefit humanity. This inspires me and others in my company to get it done. One of our projects involves investing in micro-hydro technology to harness river water to generate electricity in very remote areas with no electricity supply. Having electricity in their rural homes and schools helps the people there live a better life.

In the larger picture, hydro as an alternative power resource helps to reduce dependence on fossil fuel-based energy, which is a limited resource and fast depleting. Harnessing alternative and renewable energy as a means to meet the power needs of people the world over contributes to the sustainability of living in this world. This goes beyond making money, though monetary gain does ensure sustainability. The team at Sedania are driven by the higher purpose of serving humanity and improving lives. I hope the clarity of this purpose will continue to inspire long after I am gone.

Now, back to Vision 2020. With the dawning of 2020, Malaysians must ask: what next? By now I am sure many of us are aware of Mahathir’s new initiative called the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (SPV 2030), which spells out the aspiration for Malaysia to become a sustainably developed country with fair economic distribution and equitable growth at all levels of income, regions and supply chains by 2030. Is it a rehash of Vision 2020? Is shared prosperity achievable?

In drawing the road map to realise SPV 2030, I applaud the prime minister for not giving up on making Malaysia a developed nation. He is “pivoting” efforts to go on and reach that destiny.

Not many countries, or even companies, can create fool-proof plans from the beginning to the end. Many companies devise 5- to 10-year business plans and projections, which were more common in the past. These might have worked then because changes in consumer behaviour that affected markets were not as rapid as they are today.

Now, companies can only draw a skeletal map and understand that it is a living document that is sensitive to consumption behaviour that keeps changing even as we speak. Many things have changed and become irrelevant. Hence, the necessity to pivot plans and strategies to deal with rapid changes. We must be agile and flexible. Nothing can be cast in stone.

It is tougher for larger organisations like the huge, ill-fated Titanic that sank because it was unable to pivot and change direction fast enough. Now imagine that the scale is as large as a country. A country’s grandiose vision will fail if the entire population, from those at the helm to those on the implementation line, do not live, breathe and believe in the higher purpose of the vision and make it work no matter what.

Rather than abandoning the dream and pointing fingers as to why things did not work, let us pivot and be agile enough to go through a series of course corrections before finally emerging as a success. We can make a change in strategy without a change in vision. What is more important is to accomplish the ultimate goal.

Datuk Azrin Mohd Noor is the founder of Sedania Group, an innovator, author and IP expert

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.