All great leaders have the skill to articulate a bold vision and take others with them on the journey. Aiming for the top of the mountain is exciting and it galvanises others. Even if the path to achieving the goal can seem a bit nerve-wracking, having a clear destination sets an organising principle.
Some leaders make the mistake of not setting their goals high enough. Settling for smaller, more achievable goals may be easier to plan and carry less risk of failure but they won’t motivate your team to get out of bed in the morning.
Once you’ve achieved a big dream, you have to come up with a new one
I’d advise others to dream big. The dream needs to be achievable but it also needs to make people feel butterflies in their stomachs and stimulate a lot of creativity.
Establishing a big dream
Take AB InBev’s origin story. The company was formed by the merger between regional brewers in Belgium and Brazil with the goal of becoming the world’s biggest beer company. We had the ambition to become as big as a Coca-Cola. This ambition drove the acquisition of beer companies globally, resulting in AB InBev becoming the largest beer company worldwide by market share.
But you can’t rest on your laurels. When you reach the top of the mountain, you must seek a higher peak.
A big dream for us now is to become the Amazon for small retailers. In 2019, I was privileged to be on the co-founding team of Bees, a digital transaction tool that allows customers to order directly from AB InBev.
We had critics who said we should focus on selling beer and warned us not to venture into technology. This experience taught me, if you want to prove there is a path to the dream, you have to go and actually prove it rather than talk about it conceptually.
How to make a big dream a reality
When you set big dreams, there are some common principles. The first is to be bold but keep the idea simple – everyone can grasp the idea of becoming an Amazon for small retail. You then have to communicate it consistently, with a clear strategy.
Next, you have to quantify it. It’s important to set a performance metric because, without one, you won’t know if you’ve achieved your original aim.
For example, aiming to be the best company in the world is too vague, you’ll never get there. But striving to be the largest alcohol company in the world is quantifiable. Like reaching the top of the mountain, you will know when you get there.
No one ever wanted to get out of bed to become number two
It’s important to remember that while ambition is necessary to dream big, it’s crucial to avoid hubris and arrogance. You must balance ambition with humility and recognise you don’t have know everything.
Leaders need to be open to being proven wrong. You’re going to make mistakes on your way to the summit, you’re going to take wrong turns and you’re going to trip but you need to acknowledge that openly. Encouraging debate and fostering a psychologically safe environment are essential. I invite disagreement in our meetings and encourage others to challenge my point of view.
Prioritising facts and data over narrative spin is vital. It’s one thing to sell a good story but you need to be anchored in reality.
It isn’t easy but dreaming big is always the right thing to do. Ambitious companies tend to attract the best people. That is a critical ingredient for success.
